I'm going to have to disagreed with this : "Rule of thumb: Bulk, Large Amount of Data, Less Frequent = Data Feed (Delimited, not XML) / Immediate, Smaller Amount of Data, Frequent = Web Services API "
Most users including some larger merchants use data feeds and for small data sets data feeds are also incredibly well suited. You can update and upload a data feed every 24 hours for updating. I do this for data feeds with 100 to 500,000+ items. The API is there for more complicated and exact requirements, for example of you need more instant control over your items or your approach isn't well suited to exporting and updating your items in bulk. We could recommend an approach if you let us know more information on your setup and requirements. Tom Wilson Freelance Google Base Developer and Consultant www.tomthedeveloper.com Google Base Tools - http://dev.tomthedeveloper.com/googlebase On Dec 28, 6:44 am, "Cumbrowski.com" <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Betty, > > Your decision should depend on the amount of products that change > within a given time frame. > > If you are using the shopping feed (ex-Froogle) by Google then you > should have an unique key or identifier for each product within YOUR > feed. > This could be the SKU, Manufacturer Part Number or Bar Code (EAN13, > ISBN13, UPC-A etc.). > > If the product catalog is pretty static and changes very little > throughout the year, you probably want to use a feed only for the > initial upload and for an occasional full-refresh. > Changes in inventory and price could then be done via the API during > the rest of the year, between the refreshers. > For price or inventory updates is it not necessary to send all the > other product data, such as description etc. > > 1. Don't know the answer to this one. Google needs to answer it. > 2. If you configured the feed and ping Google to update it, it should > do a full refresh = items not in the feed that you sent will be > removed > Put that is only my assumption, but that would be the only way it > makes sense. > Otherwise retailers would be in trouble, because they would have > to remove invalid items that are not part of their product catalog > anymore manually. > 3. I would think so > 4. dunno > 5. because their are also other uses of Google Base, where it is good > to have a real-time web services API to update content > 6. APIs and Data Feeds have each their own advantage and problems and > are suited best for various scenarios that do not conflict each other > or overlap. > There are instances where it makes sense to use a feed and others > where it does not, but the use of an API does. > There are also scenarios where using feeds and APIs in conjunction > makes the most sense. > Rule of thumb: Bulk, Large Amount of Data, Less Frequent = Data > Feed (Delimited, not XML) / Immediate, Smaller Amount of Data, > Frequent = Web Services API > > I wrote a short article several years back about this subject, > seehttp://www.cumbrowski.com/CarstenC/articles/20060909_XML_Datafeeds_an... > > Cheers! > Carsten > > On Dec 22, 2:29 pm, Betty <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi, > > > I am having difficulties in making the following choice: > > > use bulk data feed or gbase api to maintain clients store inventory in > > gbase > > > background: > > I am an experienced programmer, I have over a couple of years > > experience with adwords api and other search engines apis > > > questions: > > > 1. is there any functionality that the api offers and can't be > > acquired by using datafeeds? > > 2. if I initially add 1000 items using a data feed, then after 1 day > > submit a feed with 10 items, what happens? are the 990 items paused/ > > deleted? > > 3. if i submit another feed with the same 1000 items, but some of them > > have some attributes changed - will the existing items be changed? > > 4. are statistics shown correctly if I use a data feed? > > 5. why should someone use gbase api if just building a good feed is > > enough? > > 6. why would google offer an API (which includes different platform > > support, examples, etc), if all can be done by scheduling a data-feed? > > I mean, besides queering the snippets feeds, the rest of the API seems > > like a luxury from programmers for programmers. correct me if i am > > wrong > > > thanks in advance, > > Albert --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Google Base Data API" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Base-data-API?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
