Google Commerce Search Deployment Guide User Manual
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XML is transmitted as the payload. For example operations, see the Content API docs or the
.
Unlike feed files, you must explicitly issue delete commands for a given item to remove it from
the inventory. With feed files, if an item is not present in subsequent feed files, it is considered
void and is deleted from GCS tables. With the ContentAPI, an item remains in the GCS tables
for a default 30 days unless it is explicitly deleted.
You may want to start off testing the Content API by using th
or the sample
RAW protocol examples on the
. Take note that you must be logged in as
the owner of the Merchant Center account to use the Interactive Demo and the username/
password provided to the sample Java application must also be the owner.
The normal processing time for new items inserted by way of the ContentAPI is slightly faster
than feed files but may take upto 12 hours. Updating existing items may also take just as long.
However, there is an “Express indexing pipeline” which allows for rapid price or quantity updates
in 15 minutes. If you have an existing item that is serving, you may run an insert or update for
the entire item definition with just the price or quantity as the difference. GCS will then process
this item under the express pipeline and index/serve with the new price within 15 mins. Take
note that to use the express pipeline (or any update/insert operation for that matter), you must
transmit an entire, complete item definition.
To manage large inventories, Google recommends that you use the batch protocol for multiple
operations. You can combine inserts/updates/deletes in one file and the response from the
ContentAPI will describe the success/failure for each operation. The maximum file size for the
batch protocol is 1MB.
Miscellaneous notes about the API and its usage
●
There is no need to acquire clientlogin tokens for each operation; one may be reused for
up to 28 days
●
Setting and using the expiration_date attribute for an item will not delist an item at
exactly at that time. It may take upto a day or two to delist.
●
The ContentAPI currently only supports product management; the category feeds is
currently not supported.
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