Froogle Merchant Centre is now Google Base - I get 403 Forbidden

[dataSpheric]

why have your uploads been funny for the past 2 days? why has hedwig been acting like....a regular hedwig? and where has your store been? and the traffic stats! those beautiful traffic stats!

well i don't know why.

what i do know is everything Froogle just changed. the Froogle interface is now Base (at least for me) but i can't log in, i can't get to bulk uploads, 403s everywhere...sure hope they get this worked out soon.

is this happening for you (people)?

and we just got our automated feeds all nice and dialed in....they keyboards are still warm....

[T0PS3O]

Had an e-mail from Google's Froogle Team:

Please note that Google Base has replaced the Froogle Merchant Centre. From now on, when you click "Information for Sellers" on the Froogle home page, you will be brought to a new sign-in page. You can learn more information about this change here.

But if I go to base.google.co.uk and then click the feed upload link I get:

Forbidden
Error 403

Is it working for you guys/girls?

[dataSpheric]

consult previous post

[T0PS3O]

Originally Posted by dataSpheric

consult previous post

Very helpful Try not being lazy and just type!

[dataSpheric]

yup, it took some hours, but TOPS30 just confirmed the trouble i was having. Froogle is swapping it's merchant interace into Base but it looks like it's taking a while to get it cut over.

so far, my store has dissappeared from Froogle (although i did a successful upload of 2800-odd items on the 30th) and i get 403 when i try to log into Base or click on the bulk upload link.

but when they get it sorted, all of us who nailed down automated feeds will have to rename our fieldnames (at the least).

oh, the lamentation that will arise from the OSCommerce community. i can hear it already.

[dataSpheric]

terribly sorry, i've got a thread started on the subject titled "Froogle dance: don't look now but everything just changed".

[T0PS3O]

So this is what you were talking about... I'm using osC too btw. Have my feeds pumping up to Froogle bi-weekly via CRON. I asked them whether I need to change the FTP domain etc. for my script.

PS I've merged our threads...

[dataSpheric]

"I'm using osC too btw. Have my feeds pumping up to Froogle bi-weekly via CRON."

a hacked EasyPopulate here.

"I asked them whether I need to change the FTP domain etc. for my script."

i figure it's become clear when...this all becomes clear :s

"PS I've merged our threads..."

perfect. i've been up much of the night just waiting to see who else would notice! wasn't sure if i'd offended the Google Gods or what but oh man, the weeping and wailing we're about to hear.

[T0PS3O]

Looks like they cocked it up pretty well, like they often do introducing something new. Did you e-mail them? It might take a few complaints to get their ass into gear maybe.

I hacked up a different contrib for this but left nothing standing.

Oh and welcome to the forums by the way

[dataSpheric]

"Looks like they cocked it up pretty well, like they often do introducing something new."

have you ever considered the implications of doing a major rollout across a few thousand servers with god knows how many national/language implementations and gazillions of records? all i can say is for once, i'm glad i don't work at Google.

"Did you e-mail them? It might take a few complaints to get their ass into gear maybe."

i sent them a friendly 'just though you should know' email almost immediately. i expect they have a few hundred more now and will have a few million in a few hours. if i was them, i'd use Google Trends as a help desk tracker for that (hehe).

"I hacked up a different contrib for this but left nothing standing."

it looks like there are some new options for interface to say the least. i think what they are getting at with Base is like a Craig's thing and Froogle will do a good job of filtering commercial stuff from informational stuff. so it's a good thing (starts sobbing). all these lost sales (sobs uncontrollably).

"Oh and welcome to the forums by the way"

(recovers, blows nose) thanks (holds out kerchief) need this back?

[T0PS3O]

I thought it was only Froogle UK today, considering Google Base wasn't here yet. Where are you based and which Froogle are you targeting?

[dataSpheric]

you aren't UK? wow. one of your URLs gave me that impression? i'm USA targetting USA. this happened right before my eyes yesterday. i checked for Froogle presence, found none(!), went snooping, checked the feed in Merchant, bang. all the sudden, i'm looking at Base.

i was just snooping around the Base Google groups and many posters are crying about bulk upload 403s. yeah, Google is getting some emails. Base posters seemed unaware of Froogle or it's issues. and to tell you the truth, I just learned about Base 3 days ago, so this is all quite a surprise.

[T0PS3O]

Originally Posted by dataSpheric

you aren't UK?

I am and I am targeting Froogle UK. I thought this change only affected UK but apparently not. Yesterday at about exactly 24 hours ago I upoaded my eBay store feed to Google base. No 403s then.

My feed wasn't accepted by the way, do you know the crack when it comes to eBay XML to Froogle/Google Base conversion and uploading?

[dataSpheric]

ok, i know nothing about Base as said, it sounds to me like you guys were the Beta audience for that one so i can't help you there. now Ebay i can be much more clear about: i don't know squat about Ebay.

i sell ink and toner. like on Froogle that is. or used to. the rest of the time i sell web stuff. what's your thing?

[b-directory]

Base seems to be working now, and our sites listings are up in froogle front end and showing in new back end. It's a little confusing as I dont think any one has had any notice of these changes - and the new 'base' format seems to be something that open for all, not just shops etc. You can post anything you like. Don't know where it will all appear though, maybe on froogle?

[dataSpheric]

yes, i can log into Base now and i get this cool Dashboard thing. our Froogle stuff seems to be back up on Froogle. i've been assigned the same upload filename as with Froogle and a new upload server (by hedwig). the only thing missing is my Froogle stuff isn't in Base, but the new upload format is something we have to deal with anyway.

well, it's been interesting.