I'm looking for some advice on how to work with XML data feeds !!! for starters i'm working on automating okanchor.com with a XML Data feed that is provided by my dropship distributor. seeking some general info on what it would take to do that? as far as i know, the automation process is supposed to keep the information on my site current. eg, stock quantiy,description, price. but how do you get the website to pick it up. to me it looks like it's all done manually. is there maybe a module you have to install and setup. i did some reading around but not with any luck yet. any advice on this topic is appreciated.

i'm also wanting to act as a server to XML Data feed to host is for used motor vehicles values to dealers the country. any idea on how one would create some kind of window link within the dealers site to host the values on his site but yet have a live feed coming from me.

Thank you for any efforts in reply.

Hi,
In order to update your site with external database you need to do or pay somebody to do the two following steps:
i. After studying the elements of the extrenal XML feed and your database structure a php file should be written which would parse the suitable elements and inject them to your database.
ii. A cronjob should be set at your cpanel which would make the above described php file executed periodically. The time can be every 5 minutes or what you prefer.

This way the database import from xml file is solved.
For further information you may want to read these resources:
http://www.kirupa.com/web/xml_php_parse_beginner.htm
http://ch2.php.net/simplexml

Regards
Zoli

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php shopping cart software

An easier way to do this would be to convert the XML file into a CSV file. you'll find plenty of apps to do this on Google, then use Easy Populate to populate your OSC store.

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Lawrence

There is no straight forward way about it. Each vendor has its own format for the feeds. So no matter which path you choose you will need a custom script or to customize existing code. EP is good to play with, but that's about it. You need to customize it at the end of the day. Filter out currencies, setup attributes, format product descriptions assign products to categories and so on, based on the feed format.

If the vendor has a structured xml feed, I would set up an some xml mapping script and populate the database. See the XML parsing functions in php.net
http://www.php.net/manual/en/book.xml.php. In some cases the available feed is so bad, that is faster to write a script for a bot and crawl the products from the site directly.

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Thank you for the useful pointers, I do appreciatre that. I did check with my supplier and they do provide the data feed in CSV as well as other types. So i may use that Easy Populate for the automation process. sometimes i feel like i don't know enough about the programming or e-commerce part of things.

what kind of "can of worms" am i opening up with building an e-commerce.

i got good boating industry traffic and am sure that i could earn a few bucks with it. Mostly Canadian market, would like to do North America but what about all the taxes and customs.

Isn't there almost you could hire a service that they'll provide you with a working ecommerce or help you to set one up and going.

Here's a good question. how do the good webmasters host and maintain thousands of websites?