Creating XML feeds with nested elements

Hi @erku,

Thank you for reaching out with your questions!

In our plugin, feed attributes are specific to each template. This means we create templates tailored to meet the exact requirements of the marketplaces we support. If there are particular marketplaces that require nested XML structures, please let us know. If we already support those marketplaces, we’ll ensure that the required nested attributes are included and formatted as needed.

Regarding your second question, currently, our plugin does not offer hooks for creating custom feed templates. This means that only the existing templates can be used. Custom coding will be overwritten with each plugin update, as new versions replace all core files.

If you have more questions feel free to reach out.

Best Regards,

Hi @monircoderex, and thanks for your response!

The two marketplaces in question don’t seem to be supported by your plugin at the moment, which is no wonder since they are both regional players only.

One of them is varle.lt, here’s their example annotated XML file (they also have one in Lithuanian, since it’s where they operate).

The other one is pigu.lt/220.lv/kaup24.ee/hobbyhall.fi. They support four different XML file structures: two for products and two for stocks and prices. The products ones not only have nested elements, but are also multilingual by design, and one of the two stocks and prices XMLs allows specifying this data per-country for the four countries they operate in. They provide the following PDF specifications for the XML formats they accept:

• XML product
• XML product with sizes
• Stock and prices
• Stock and prices (if different per country)

The second marketplace also provides a separate plugin for WooCommerce which generates the XML files. I would gladly remove that plugin from our installation though in favor of Product Feed Manager.

So, followup questions:

1. Feature request: please make it possible to specify nested paths for custom attributes. For example, a custom attribute with name foo.bar.baz or foo/bar/baz could mean that I need the field in an XML element baz wrapped by bar wrapped by foo. This would empower easily configuring many more custom integrations.
2. Would RexTheme consider adding means to implement custom marketplace templates in a more straightforward way?
3. Any thoughts regarding out-of-the-box support for the two marketplaces mentioned? I could help test the implementation, or even contribute it myself with a little guidance regarding which classes I would need to create and which ones are best to start from (I’d love to get a lifetime subscription in such case though).

• This reply was modified 4 months, 3 weeks ago by Rimas.

Ugh, my reply with links to XML examples has been held for moderation for over an hour and a half now.

• This reply was modified 4 months, 3 weeks ago by Rimas.
• This reply was modified 4 months, 3 weeks ago by Rimas.
• This reply was modified 4 months, 3 weeks ago by Rimas.
• This reply was modified 4 months, 3 weeks ago by Rimas.

Umm, ping?

Hi,

Thank you for providing such comprehensive details! We greatly appreciate your suggestions and the feature request to add nested path support for custom attributes. This is indeed an interesting idea that could expand the capabilities of the Product Feed Manager and make custom integrations much easier. We’ll look into the feasibility of implementing this in future updates.

Regarding out-of-the-box support for varle.lt and pigu.lt/220.lv/kaup24.ee/hobbyhall.fi, we’ll conduct research to assess how these marketplace requirements align with our current and potential capabilities. Your willingness to test or contribute is invaluable, and we’ll keep that in mind as we move forward. Collaboration for such implementations could certainly be beneficial.

Thank you again for your input. We’ll keep you updated on our progress, and please feel free reach out to our official support channel [support@rexthem.com] for further communication.

Best Regards,

Hi @monircoderex!

I’m sure I sent a reply yesterday with a link to my clone of your repo, but with varle.lt already implemented, but somehow it’s gone now. I wonder why.

Just in case, here’s the link. I implemented Varle.lt in a single commit, so you can just generate a patch from that commit and apply it to your own repo.

Cheers!

• This reply was modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago by Rimas.

Hi,

Thank you so much for sharing the link again and for putting in the effort to implement Varle.lt in your clone. We truly appreciate the time and dedication you put into this, especially consolidating it into a single commit for easier application. Your contribution is valuable, and we will surely take the time to review it thoroughly.

If we move forward with integrating this into our main repo, we’ll be sure to let you know. Your support and collaboration mean a lot to us!

Cheers!

Another example of where a feed with nested elements is needed: the most popular Lithuanian price aggregator website kainos.lt expects categories to be listed as products > product > categories > category (also extra images and attributes need nested structure, but these can be omitted). I don’t think this can be achieved by using the Custom merchant, so I’ll either have to find another existing merchant which uses a similar feed structure (and I had trouble with that due to a PHP8 support bug I reported yesterday), or implement it in a new merchant like I did with varle.lt.

By the way, looking for a potentially matching feed structure is currently a long and tiring excercise, because each try costs around half a minute. It would be nice to be able to see example feeds of each provided type without actually generating them all. Maybe documentation could be expanded to include such examples with one sample product for each feed?

I’ve implemented a feed for kainos.lt in a separate commit as well, which can also be used (with some customization) for another aggregator kaina24.lt and its Estonian sister hind.ee.

Dear @monircoderex, have you considered reviewing and accepting my patches?

Well, I’m not holding my breath, but just in case you decide to take a look in the future, the new URL is here: https://codeberg.org/rimas/wp-woocommerce-feed-manager.