Ensure you set up the free product feed from The Find. It is worth doing, here’s how:

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UPDATE:

I no longer use Magneto’s built in feeder. With different errors occurring and the number of products that are accepted changing on a seemingly random daily basis I have concluded that it is not worth the time invested.

As Google shopping  has now changed the way they accept products I now create my own base text file and tell The Find to use that one. I used the gbase.php method as illustrated here.

The text below has been left for reference – it might come in useful again one day:

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Setting Up Attributes:

Magento Menu: Catalog > The Find Feed > Manage Attributes

These are the minimum you will need to add.

• Title
• Description
• Price
• Page_Url
• Image_Link

For the initial upload I recommend having only the very basic fields.

Later, when the feed is working you could add additional fields one at a time to ensure they are not the cause of any errors.

If you have more then add them manually. Select add new. The first drop down selector is The Find’s field, the second is from Magento. For example if you use manufacturer information then select Brand in the first option and manufacturer in the second. Mine is shown below:

The Find Feed Attributes

When you have finished choosing your attributes, select all to tick the boxes then on the top right of the screen select import and click submit.

Setting Up Items:

Magento Menu: Catalog > The Find Feed > Manage Items.

Simply select all, choose publish and click submit. All your items are now included.

The Find Merchant Settings:

Log into The Find and select the menu Product Feed Upload from the left bar.

Use feed format: The Find and file type text. This is mine :

Notice the FTP settings button at the bottom of the pic? That is where TheFind gives your user name and password for the feed.

Click on it, get your username and select a password.

When you have that its time to set up Magento.

Set up Magento FTP:

Magento Menu: System > Configuration >The Find Feed.

FTP Server : ftp.thefind.com

FTP Path: /

FTP User: ftp-yourusername

TheFind Feed Filename: feed

FTP Password: whatever you just selected at the find merchant centre.

Update TheFind Item when Product is Updated: i chose yes

Cron Frequency: Daily

Cron Hour: pick a time.

Change to File Storage:

Dashboard > System > Configuration > System > Storage Configuration for Media

• Set to Database
• default_setup
• synchronize then save config

This will create temporary directories in your database core_file_storage and core_directory_storage. As far as i can tell this is used to compile the photos for the feed.

Run Cron Job

Now you need to schedule cron jobs (if you don’t already have them running) by periodically running cron.php. I use cron jobs from my host but there are various ways to do this. Additionally I use a Magento extension, Noovias Cronjob Manager, which displays all current and historical cron jobs in admin and is free from Magento Connect.

You can check if it items are scheduled to run by using the above extension or browsing the field cron_schedule in your database. The default settings in Magento clears the history log every 10 minutes so it is likely you will not get to see it. If you are unsure which cron settings to use I followed the guidelines from this post about setting up Magento cron jobs.

My cron job in Cpanel is this:

0,30 *  *   *   *  /bin/sh /home/USRNAME/public_html/cron.sh

or you could use something like /usr/bin/php -q /home/USRNAME/public_html/cron.php

FTP Functions:

Ensure the functions ftp_connect and ftp_login are available on your host. The default PHP setup may disable them. Configure php.ini or if you are on shared hosting ask support to make these two functions available.

It took me ages to figure all the above out and get it working but once running automatically it is worth it.

Good luck!

NB: It can take ages for your Magento feed to appear in The Find results.

I get emails daily from The Find about the number of products accepted and errors in the feed. Which products are accepted and what the errors are, unhelpfully, is not displayed. i started this article on 27th May and although the feed is accepted daily no new products are yet showing. Apparently 2-4 weeks is not an uncommon time to wait.