I created a few shop widgets in my account, copied the code and inserted them into my pages.
I read that you can change the category number in the code, so I did that.
I also read you can insert keywords so that specific products will be pulled in to the widget.
So I put in keywords for products I found actually using the shopping.com search
But alas, those products don't show up in the widgets. In fact, all I ever see is the blue shopping.com banner. I don't see ANY products!
Please take a look at my code. I'm fairly certain I did it right though.
Anyway, here are some urls where the widgets are:
http://guitar2ner.com/alternate-tunings/alternate-tuningsmain.html
http://guitar2ner.com/guitar-strings/index.html - This one seems to be working, but it's not following my keywords.
http://guitar2ner.com/changing-acoustic-strings/index.html
http://guitar2ner.com/changing-electric-strings/index.html
http://guitar2ner.com/strings-for-beginners/index.html
Thanks. I was surprised when I became a partner, I was all excited. Then I got into the partner section and discovered there isn't much here. I was hoping for video tutorials or recorded webinars on the widgets and the API :(
For a company now owned by Ebay and integrated with epinions, I was really surprised.
1. If you plan on using a category only (without a keyword), you must make sure it is a sub category. If you look at the 'Category Taxonomy List' (https://partners.shopping.com/DevelopersCenter_EditWidget_PopupCategoryList.html), a sub category is any category with a value other than 'All' in the subcategory column. In combination with a keyword (or when using the 'Top Products' widget) any category is allowed.
2. SDC Widgets do not support the concept of multiple search phrases separated by commas. The search engine will search for all words in the list you provide, and the more words, the less likely the search engine is to find results matching all of those words. When the search engine cannot find listings matching all words, it will simply return the most popular listings from the category (if one was provided.) I would suggest using shorter phrases such as 'guitar strings' or 'electric guitar strings', but not both.
3. One additional hint which may sometimes yield more relevant results: The SDC search engine will search for any space separated phrase using 'out of order' search (meaning any listing that has all words in any order will match.) Looking at some of your queries, I've noticed I often get better results forcing an 'in order search', which is done by putting some special character other than a space between the words, such as 'electric-guitar-strings'.
Hope this helps. Sorry we don't have more documentation available - we hope to update the widget program in the future, and will make sure to provide more documentation when we do.
Hey Thanks Ryan! I did what you said and it worked! But yes, it would be great if you could put a simplified version of what you said to do in your widget instructions.
Are you planning on creating more tutorial type resources for the API? I am more of a designer with html and css knowledge. Not much of a programmer here, so I'm pretty lost. I found some 'solutions' out there like a php script that runs your shopping.com API for $49, but I'm not sure what to do. I'd be great if you had a 'canned' API for those of us that aren't great at programming.
We don't really have any resources currently for developing tutorials on the site, but hope the forums should be a good place for developers to get help from other partners who may already have experience in those areas. We do have an JAVA SDK available which makes integration w/ site using JAVA simpler, but you would still need some coding knowledge. We plan on making SDKs in other languages available in the future.
Also, as I mentioned, we hope to update the widget platform in the future to have a lot more options/designs.
I just realized that we had a bit of an oversight on our end when providing the list of categories in the Partner Account Center. Some categories like digital cameras contain 'products', or entities under which individual store offers are grouped. Other categories, like clothing don't have products, and instead each store offer is listed individually. The top product widget can only be used in categories with products, but Motorcycle Parts and Accessories (96478) does not contain products, which is why you get no results.
Unfortunately, this is not more clear in the widget creation and category list pages. However, you can check the 'productization' status of a category using our API. Just substitute the category in question in the following query, and look at the 'contentType' element. If it says 'products' or 'hybrid', you can use the top products widget with that category.
I am having a issue where I cannot get the products to be displayed and just get the banner. here is a example. Please can you let me know where I am going wrong
http://dev.greenasap.co.uk/garden_and_wildlife/furniture/
I have tried it with categoryid of 0 and with nothing in it but I only get the banner..
It appears the widget is providing results now. There is a period of time (up to 8 hours) between when you create a widget, and when the widget code starts showing results. I'm guessing you were still within this window when you were getting the banner?
I created a few shop widgets in my account, copied the code and inserted them into my pages.
I read that you can change the category number in the code, so I did that.
I also read you can insert keywords so that specific products will be pulled in to the widget.
So I put in keywords for products I found actually using the shopping.com search
But alas, those products don't show up in the widgets. In fact, all I ever see is the blue shopping.com banner. I don't see ANY products!
Please take a look at my code. I'm fairly certain I did it right though.
Anyway, here are some urls where the widgets are:
http://guitar2ner.com/alternate-tunings/alternate-tuningsmain.html
http://guitar2ner.com/guitar-strings/index.html - This one seems to be working, but it's not following my keywords.
http://guitar2ner.com/changing-acoustic-strings/index.html
http://guitar2ner.com/changing-electric-strings/index.html
http://guitar2ner.com/strings-for-beginners/index.html
Thanks. I was surprised when I became a partner, I was all excited. Then I got into the partner section and discovered there isn't much here. I was hoping for video tutorials or recorded webinars on the widgets and the API :(
For a company now owned by Ebay and integrated with epinions, I was really surprised.
Ryan – 11/18/08 3:35 pm
Hi Jason -
A few tips on using the widgets:
1. If you plan on using a category only (without a keyword), you must make sure it is a sub category. If you look at the 'Category Taxonomy List' (https://partners.shopping.com/DevelopersCenter_EditWidget_PopupCategoryList.html), a sub category is any category with a value other than 'All' in the subcategory column. In combination with a keyword (or when using the 'Top Products' widget) any category is allowed.
2. SDC Widgets do not support the concept of multiple search phrases separated by commas. The search engine will search for all words in the list you provide, and the more words, the less likely the search engine is to find results matching all of those words. When the search engine cannot find listings matching all words, it will simply return the most popular listings from the category (if one was provided.) I would suggest using shorter phrases such as 'guitar strings' or 'electric guitar strings', but not both.
3. One additional hint which may sometimes yield more relevant results: The SDC search engine will search for any space separated phrase using 'out of order' search (meaning any listing that has all words in any order will match.) Looking at some of your queries, I've noticed I often get better results forcing an 'in order search', which is done by putting some special character other than a space between the words, such as 'electric-guitar-strings'.
Hope this helps. Sorry we don't have more documentation available - we hope to update the widget program in the future, and will make sure to provide more documentation when we do.
--ryan
Jason Bailey – 11/19/08 8:21 pm
Hey Thanks Ryan! I did what you said and it worked! But yes, it would be great if you could put a simplified version of what you said to do in your widget instructions.
Are you planning on creating more tutorial type resources for the API? I am more of a designer with html and css knowledge. Not much of a programmer here, so I'm pretty lost. I found some 'solutions' out there like a php script that runs your shopping.com API for $49, but I'm not sure what to do. I'd be great if you had a 'canned' API for those of us that aren't great at programming.
Thanks again for your help.
Ryan – 12/2/08 4:32 pm
Hi Jason -
We don't really have any resources currently for developing tutorials on the site, but hope the forums should be a good place for developers to get help from other partners who may already have experience in those areas. We do have an JAVA SDK available which makes integration w/ site using JAVA simpler, but you would still need some coding knowledge. We plan on making SDKs in other languages available in the future.
Also, as I mentioned, we hope to update the widget platform in the future to have a lot more options/designs.
--ryan
Rex Brown – 2/19/09 5:59 am
Your tips helped me get one of my widgets working. But the top products one refuses to display anything.
Here's a link...
http://www.places2ride.com/oklahoma/offroad.asp
The category I'm using is 96478.
Any suggestions?
Ryan – 2/25/09 11:40 am
Hi Rex -
I just realized that we had a bit of an oversight on our end when providing the list of categories in the Partner Account Center. Some categories like digital cameras contain 'products', or entities under which individual store offers are grouped. Other categories, like clothing don't have products, and instead each store offer is listed individually. The top product widget can only be used in categories with products, but Motorcycle Parts and Accessories (96478) does not contain products, which is why you get no results.
Unfortunately, this is not more clear in the widget creation and category list pages. However, you can check the 'productization' status of a category using our API. Just substitute the category in question in the following query, and look at the 'contentType' element. If it says 'products' or 'hybrid', you can use the top products widget with that category.
http://sandbox.api.shopping.com/publisher/3.0/rest/CategoryTree?apiKey=authorized-key&trackingId=7000610&categoryId=96451
--ryan
greenasap – 6/22/09 5:49 am
Hi there.
I am having a issue where I cannot get the products to be displayed and just get the banner. here is a example. Please can you let me know where I am going wrong
http://dev.greenasap.co.uk/garden_and_wildlife/furniture/
I have tried it with categoryid of 0 and with nothing in it but I only get the banner..
Ryan – 6/23/09 4:50 pm
Hi greenasap -
It appears the widget is providing results now. There is a period of time (up to 8 hours) between when you create a widget, and when the widget code starts showing results. I'm guessing you were still within this window when you were getting the banner?
--ryan