It has been a while since I last looked at Datafeed Studio and whilst it had some very nice touches, it didn’t become my tool of choice.
A few minor versions later and I thought that it was time to look at it again.
Datafeed Studio has always had a great import engine with the ability to apply filters to the import fields and e.g. replace text strings on the way in to change the field content for uniqueness or to completely rewite content against a product through an admin interface.
Now to be honest, I did have a complicated install or incompatibility problem with the stable 2.7.1 release, but that was not necessarilly Datafeed Studio’s fault; I was trying to use one of Datafeed Studios Extras – a wordpress plugin as my primary test on Nintendo DS Game Adapters calling the products from a remote host site. I identified that the problem was due to two different functions being named and declared with the same name .. one from Datafeed Studio and separately within phpBB3 (the redirect function).
The problem was actually made trickier because phpBB3 would not normally be anywhere near a WordPress installation, but I had opted to build R4/R4i/TT/TTi/Acekard2i DS Game Adapters on the WP-United combined WordPress and phpBB3 platform.
I contacted Martin Wood, the author of Datafeed Studio and he kindly agreed to let me have a copy of his next alpha release. The alpha release is the basis for this updated review and it is anticipated that this will move to stable in the next month or two.
The install is a perfectly painless affair with screens guiding you through the necessary permissions and database configurations. You need to then set up your datafeeds for import. Most of the major Networks feed formats are already supported (Affiliate Window, Webgains, Buy.at, Commission Junction, Paid on Results, TradeDoubler and Affiliate Future), but there is a simple parser engine by which you can configure other networks or independents datafeeds (provided they are in delimited format e.g. CSV).
I quickly set up feeds that would deliver 2 million products and set about some stress testing of the front end and host database at Who has Stock? The script automatically sets up categories based upon the merchant feed, but you are able to change or rationalise these through the admin interface. I did find some sluggishness when clicking through the category links. Looking at the database configuration, I identified that an extra index should improve things and manually added that which worked beautifully. So that was 2 million products performing well … what about 3 million? or 4 million?
I have ended up at over 5 million products and the database and host site continues to run sweetly. I believe that MySQL will be the constraining factor and not Datafeed Studio itself.
I am not going to spend a great deal of time talking about the Datafeed Studio host installation, because the part that I am most excited about is the WP Plugin and in particular the alpha version that I am trying out just now. Unlike the current public release (which also contains a Datafeed Studio plugin), the alpha version contains a plugin and supporting Datafeed Studio API to allow the plugin to operate on a seperate server or host from the main Datafeed Studio installation.
If, like me, you have several hosts in order for some inter-linking to take place and receive some search engine credit, then the ability to host the widget away from your main Datafeed Studio host site is an absolute must.
What is so good about this? Well … it means that you can source your product price comparison data from one single central location that is easily updated if the merchant changes network.
But doesn’t Easy Content Units do that already? Sure it does (if you are in the UK), but at an ongoing cost … either by giving up 25% of sales commissions or by taking out a premium subscription at £19.99 per month. Presently Datafeed Studio is available for £79.99 one-time for unlimited usage.
I will say that the shortcode layouts are limited right now, but Martin has indicated that he will be spending more time in developing these options in future versions and I believe that this will be an ECU beater at that time. Today, even with the limited WordPress layouts, I still think that this tool represents excellent value … and has international appeal.
By the way, at the time of writing this, there is no affiliate programme nor one envisaged – I already asked. Therefore you can be extra confident that this is an unbiased opinion and not influenced by any script sale commissions.That said, if ever there IS an affiliate programme, I will sign up and change links over – after all, isn’t that why we are all here?)
One weakness … it supports currency displayed in one currency symbol only; but I believe that Martin will make changes to improve that.
So … you have seen the client side of the Datafeed Studio installation at Who has Stock? What about the WordPress display? Well here you are :
Who has stock for iRobot Roomba 520?
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