Isotope Feeds

Updated implementation for creating Product Feeds in Isotope eCommerce for Contao Open Source CMS

By default, this extension ships with two Feed Types:

1. RSS 2.0
2. Google Merchant (formerly known as Google Base or also Google Shopping)

Note: In order to create a properly formatted Google Merchant feed, you will need to fill out the additional information on your products in the product management section.

Dependencies

Built for

• https://github.com/isotope/core

Installation

Install the bundle via Composer:

composer require rhymedigital/isotope-feeds

or via the Contao Manager by searching for Isotope Feeds

Be sure to run the Database Installer.

Configuration

In order to get your product feed working, you will need to do some setup to tell the system which feed types you are using, and then which products you would like to use in the feed.

This configuration assumes that you have installed and set up your Isotope storefront using their configuration guide first.

Store Configuration

1. Login to your Contao backend, and go to Isotope eCommerce > Store Configuration, and edit your store config.
2. You will see a new section called "Feeds" with a checkbox to "Add Product Feeds." Check the box.
3. Select your Feed Type here. For Google Merchant feeds, select "Google Base"
4. You should enter a prefix for the feed file, which will determine its name (i.e. products will output a file called products.xml). You can also optionally add a base link (it will use the environment base by default) and set a title and description. You should also set the default Reader page for your products, which will be used to generate the product URL in the feed.

Product Type Configuration

The next step is to enable the fields that are part of the Google Merchant feed in your Product Types. Without setting the "Use in Feed" setting on a product, it will not beused in the feed, so we need to add the Feed fields to your product palettes.

1. Go to Store Configuration > Product Types, and edit each of your Product Types.
2. By default, the Use in Feed, Condition, Availability, Brand, GTIN, and MPN fields will be checked by default and when you save the Product Type they will be enabled on your products. There are also several other available fields for you to add into the Feed Legend, but which are not required.
3. Saving your Product Types will add these Feed fields to each product of that type.

Product Configuration

In order to be eligible for use in the Feeds, you need to have the Use in Feed? option checked on each product you would like to include. This also applies for variant products as well!

1. In Product Management, edit your products and/or variant products and make sure that the Use in Feed checkbox is checked.
2. If you are setting up Google Merchant feeds, you need to make sure that you have filled out the minimum required information which is 2 out of the 3 fields for Brand, GTIN, or MPN.

When you enable each product, a cache file is created in the root isotope/cache folder for each product/variant. These cached XMl files are then assembled into the single Feed XML file which will be placed in the public/share directory (or web/share on older Contao 4 installations).

The feed file will be generated daily on the generateFeeds Hook, or you can manually create it by clicking the Regenerate Feed operations button in Product Management.

You can also do a mass-regeneration of all the cached individual product/variant files by clicking the Refresh feed cache button as well. Keep in mind that you will then also need to click the Regenerate Feed button after it is completed.

Customization

You may find yourself with a need to create an entirely different feed type than the two provided. All of the feeds provided are extended from the base Contao\Feed class as a starting point, and each individual product/variant XML is extended from the base Contao\FeedItem class.

You are free to create both your own Feed and customized FeedItem classes, and to use them with Isotope Feeds, you just need to register them in your config.php file for Contao by inserting them into the $GLOBALS['ISO_FEEDS'] array. See below for the initial configuration of the two included feeds for an example.

$GLOBALS['ISO_FEEDS'] = array (
  'googlebase' => array (
     'feed'	=> array('Rhyme\IsotopeFeedsBundle\Feed\GoogleMerchant', 'generate'),
     'item'	=> 'Rhyme\IsotopeFeedsBundle\FeedItem\GoogleMerchant',
     'format'=> 'rss',
  ),
  'rss20'		 => array (
     'feed'	=> array('Rhyme\IsotopeFeedsBundle\Feed\Rss20', 'generate'),
     'item'	=> 'Rhyme\IsotopeFeedsBundle\FeedItem\Rss20',
     'format'=> 'rss',
  ),
);