Google Merchant Center connector

You can configure Google Merchant Center (GMC) connector with the Product Master application.

GMC helps you get your product information into Google and make it available to all the shoppers across Google. When customers search on a Google property, all your product information is available to them. Product Master provides an out-of-the-box integration with the GMC. With GMC-Product Master connector, you can directly manage your Google Shopping product listings from the Product Master. You can export complete product catalog information on the Google Shopping including product categories and product variations.

Working with the Google Merchant Center connector

Google Merchant Center connector provides a simple Publish To Google Marketplace publication workflow.

Publish To Google Marketplace: After the items fulfill the readiness criteria for publication, check-out the items to the Publish To Google Marketplace collaboration area. While processing the items for publishing, the item information is written in a temporary CSV request. Each batch has its own consolidated CSV request containing items information. The CSV files are available at the location that is defined in the ftp.tempfilelocation property. These temporary files are then consolidated and stored at the location defined in ftp.sourcelocation property. The file is picked up, copied to .done folder and sent to Google Marketplace for processing. On successful publication, items get checked-in to the catalog with the value of the Publication Details set as Success.
Publish to endpoint: Publish to endpoint is a manual step that holds all the new items that are ready for the publication in the Google Marketplace.
Fix Failed Items: If there are any errors in processing, errors are set as comments and failed items move to Fix Failed Items step. The errors can be seen in the History tab on single-edit page. Publication Status is set as Failed, the Publication Date is set with the current date, and the Error attribute is set with the error message for such items.
Rework Step: If the items are not ready for publishing, then click Rework, to move the items Rework Step where they can be worked upon and sent back to the catalog. Such items can be checked-out again for publishing.

Installing the connector

Proceed as follows to install the connector:

Browse to the $TOP_CONNECTOR/connectors folder.
Locate and extract the ipm_connectors_12.0.0.X_YYYYDDMMZZZ.tar.gz base file.
Set the TOP_CONNECTOR environment variable to point to the extracted folder:
export TOP_CONNECTOR=/opt/connectors/mdmce-connectors
Enable the connector in the $TOP_CONNECTOR/conf/connector_settings.ini file.
Run the installer script.
```
cd $TOP_CONNECTOR
cd bin
./install.sh
```
Update the application.properties file located in the following folder:
$TOP_CONNECTOR/connectors/mdmce_google/conf
For more information, see Updating properties file.
Start the connector from the $TOP_CONNECTOR/connectors/bin folder:
```
./start_connectors.sh google
```
```
./start_connectors.sh -all
```
Stop the connector through the following command:
```
./stop_connectors.sh -all or ./stop_connectors.sh google
```

Check status of the connector through the following command:

./status_connectors.sh -all or ./status_connectors.sh google

Updating properties file

You need to update the following parameters in the application.properties file.

Application port configuration

server.port=<port>

MDM administrator configuration

mdm.company.user=Admin
mdm.company.password=<password>
mdm.company.company=<company>

MDM Server configuration

mdm.server.topDir=/opt/MDM116
mdm.server.etcDir=/opt/MDM116/etc
mdm.server.classPath=/opt/MDM116/jars/ccd_svr.jar

Catalog and spec map name

export.base.specmap.name= VariantToGMCmap
export.source.catalog.name= Variants

Database-related parameters

app.datasource.url=jdbc:db2://<hostname>:<port>/PIMDB
app.datasource.username=<username>
app.datasource.password=<password>

Hazelcast client and WebSphere MQ configuration

hazelcast_group_name=mdmce-hazelcast-instance
hazelcast_password=mdmce-hazelcast
hazelcast_network_ip_address=localhost:5702

mq.groupName=mdmce-hazelcast-instance
mq.password=mdmce-hazelcast
mq.networkIpAddress=localhost:5702

Hierarchy Name, Lookup Table Name, and Lookup Attribute Path

google.hierarchy.name=GMC Categories
category.to.map.lookup.table.name=GMC Category To Spec Map
lookup.attribute.path=GMC Category Mapping/Value

FTP details

ftp.host=<hostname>
ftp.user=<username>

FTP directory path or folder name

ftp.sourcelocation=/opt/connectors/mdmce-connectors/connectors/mdmce-google-connector/gmctemp/consolidated 
ftp.imagelocation=/opt/connectors/mdmce-connectors/connectors/mdmce-google-connector/gmctemp/consolidatedimages
ftp.tempfilelocation=/opt/connectors/mdmce-connectors/connectors/mdmce-google-connector/gmctemp

Google Merchant Center configuration

google.auth.accesstoken=<access-token>
google.auth.refreshtoken=<referesh-token>
google.auth.clientid=<client-id>
google.auth.clientsecret=<client-secret>
google.auth.redirecturi=<redirect-uri>
google.auth.oauthtokenurl=<auth-token-url>
google.request.url=https4://content.googleapis.com/content/v2
google.request.merchantid=<merchant-id>
google.feed.filename=cetogmcexport.csv
google.request.feedname=<sample-feed-name>
google.request.feedid=<feed-id>

Importing data models

Proceed as follows to import base data model and data model:

Log in to the Admin UI.
Import the connectors_basemodel.zip file located in the following folder:
mdmce_connectors/datamodel
Import the connectors_google_datamodel.zip file located in the following folder:
mdmce_connectors/connectors/mdmce_google/datamodel

Installing and configuring Hazelcast

For more information, see Installing Hazelcast.

Configuring IBM Product Master extension

Add $TOP_CONNECTORS/libs/connectors-ext.jar to the Product Master class path by following steps:

Use the following command to add an entry in the $TOP/bin/classpath/jars-custom.txt.
```
cd $TOP/bin
./updateRtClasspath.sh
```

You can either use image or image URL attributes for assets or enable Digital Asset Management feature for the Persona-based UI.

Troubleshooting

The logs for the connector are created in the $TOP_CONNECTOR/logs folder.

Refresh token failure

If the refresh token is not generated, the user uses the Postman client and Post API.

Data specifics

Google Merchant Center connector needs data in the specific supported format or else returns errors in responses.

Example

Attribute Type	Description
Price Attribute	Price should always be mentioned with currency details, for example, 500 USD.
Link Attribute	Live URL, which is hosted and verified by Google.
Image link	Live image link, which hosted in the verified domain.

For more information, see Data specifics.