Installation

Overview · Configuration · Usage · Developer notes · FAQ

Requirements

CS-Cart and Multi-Vendor 4.17.2 – 4.21.x (tested on CS-Cart 4.17.2, Multi-Vendor 4.17.2 and Multi-Vendor 4.21.2 with PHP 8.3).
PHP 7.4 – 8.3, as supported by your CS-Cart version, with mbstring (standard in CS-Cart).
Write access to var/files/ (generated feeds are stored in var/files/kv_google_merchant_feed_pro/).
For scheduled feeds: a cron job, or a service that can call a URL on a schedule.

Install

In the admin panel, open Add-ons > Manage add-ons.
Click the gear icon and choose Manual installation. Upload kv_google_merchant_feed_pro-1.0.0.zip.
Find Product Feed Pro for Google Merchant Center in the list and click Install.
The add-on is active right after the installation. A new menu item appears: Marketing > Google Merchant feeds.
On the License tab of the settings, enter your license key and save. If you bought the add-on on the CS-Cart Marketplace and entered the license number in Add-ons → Manage add-ons, you can skip this step. Until a key is verified, the add-on works for 14 days (see License).

The installation creates five tables (cscart_kv_gmf_feeds, cscart_kv_gmf_category_map, cscart_kv_gmf_product_data, cscart_kv_gmf_rules, cscart_kv_gmf_issues), a protected directory for feed files, and a random cron key. Installing again over an existing installation is safe: the tables are created only when they are missing.

First feed in five minutes

Go to Marketing > Google Merchant feeds and click + > Add product feed.
Enter a name, pick the target country, language and currency, and click Create.
Open Category mapping and map your top-level categories to Google categories.
Back on the feed list, choose Generate now in the feed’s gear menu, then open Validation report.
Copy the feed URL and add it to Merchant Center (see Usage).

Cron (scheduled feeds)

Feeds in the Scheduled (cron) mode are rebuilt only by cron. The exact command for your server is in the add-on settings (General > Scheduled generation):

php /path/to/cart/admin.php --dispatch=kv_google_merchant_feed_pro.cron

Run it every few hours. Merchant Center fetches feeds once a day, so a run 1-2 hours before the fetch time is enough. If your hosting has no command-line cron, call the cron URL from the settings page instead. It contains a secret key.

Options:

--feed_id=N rebuilds one feed only.
--force=Y also rebuilds on-request feeds.

Upgrade

In Add-ons → Manage add-ons, upload the new package with Manual installation.
CS-Cart sees that the add-on is already installed and offers two ways:
- Use the dangerous way (tick I know the risks… first) replaces the add-on files and keeps all add-on data. Choose this one. Despite its name, it is the normal way to upgrade this add-on.
- Use the safe way uninstalls the add-on first. That deletes the feeds, category mappings, rules, product overrides and generated feed files, then installs the new version from scratch.
Open any page of the admin panel. On that first page view the add-on completes the upgrade by itself. It adds any new database tables and columns, new settings (with their default values), new language variables and e-mail templates. It also updates the version shown in Add-ons → Manage add-ons. Existing data and setting values are kept.

When files are uploaded over an installed add-on, CS-Cart resets the add-on’s language variables to the texts in the package. If you edited them in Administration → Languages → Translations, apply your edits again.

If you bought the add-on on the CS-Cart Marketplace, you can also upgrade it in Administration → Upgrade center. Steps 2 and 3 then happen automatically. The Upgrade center closes the storefront while it works. Reopen the storefront afterwards; the e-mail the Upgrade center sends links to the right page.

Upgrading to 1.1.0: this version adds the license check. After the upgrade the add-on keeps working for 14 days; enter your license key on the License tab of the settings within that time.

See the CHANGELOG for what changed in each version.

Uninstall

Add-ons > Manage add-ons > Product Feed Pro > Uninstall removes the tables, settings, language variables and generated feed files. The feed URLs stop working at once, so remove the data sources in Merchant Center first.