We’re proud to say that we’ve recently rolled out a massive list of improvements to one of our flagship affiliate tools: the Web Service Datafeed Client.  Before getting into the exact details it should be noted that all existing deployments of this tool will work perfectly with the new improvements (some of which will be immediately noticeable) – however, to gain the full benefit of all of the changes you should download a new copy of the files that get installed on your local server (more on this later).

Following are the main highlights of the changes that have been made:

• Improved the built-in searching functionality.  The search feature now uses the same library as our ProductSearch API module, resulting in more accurately targeted results.  In certain situations, we also make available a feature to expand search results to include more generic results.  Several bug fixes and performance optimizations were included in these changes as well.
• Better construction of page keywords (normally used in meta tags) to more uniquely identify pages throughout the site.  As a basic example, pagination results (“Page X of Y”) are included in the keywords to properly differentiate large category listings or product search results.
• Improved/simplified the use of local template files (“template.html” or “template.php”).  Originally, whenever you modified a local template file to change the formatting of your datafeed client, you had to manually clear the page cache using a specialized URL that we provide through our affiliate interface.  In new installations however, changes to the template file are detected and the page cache is cleared automatically.  In short, sprucing up the appearance of your datafeed pages should be a lot easier now.
• Completely revamped the communication between your local server and the AvantLink.com web service.  Original deployments use the SOAP protocol to transfer data back & forth; new installations use a REST-style methodology that is simpler, more light-weight, and better performing.  This means less of a CPU and bandwidth drain on your local server, and faster page load times for your visitors.
• Added support for XML-based sitemap functionality in accordance with published specifications of the sitemap protocol.  This feature is available once you upgrade your local installation of the datafeed client files.  At that point, if your datafeed client was located at, for instance,
  • http://www.your-site.com/xyz/shop/shop.html

  then you could browse to the following to see your sitemap index:

  • http://www.your-site.com/xyz/shop/sitemap-index.xml

  This same URL could be submitted to search engines like Google to improve the spidering/crawling of your site.  Within the sitemap-index you’ll see reference to several individual sitemap-*.xml files that list the details for specific pages within your datafeed client.

As mentioned above, to gain the full benefit of all of the above changes you should download a new copy of the files that get installed on your local server.  Before proceeding, make a backup copy of your “template.html” or “template.php” file – these do NOT need to be modified in any way, and you should take care not to overwrite them with our default versions of these files. When you do download the new install, you may notice that there are far fewer files to upload to your server than originally; this is intentional.  There is no longer any need for an “avant_includes/” directory on your local server, and instead only the following files/folders are used:

• cache/ – This folder stores local cached snapshots of pages to improve performance
• .htaccess – This file instructs your web server (Apache) how to handle your datafeed URLs
• shop.php – This file handles communication with the AvantLink.com web service
• Cache_Lite.php – This is a library file that we use to cache pages for performance improvement
• template.html or template.php – This is the file that handles the formatting of your datafeed pages

Hopefully this shortened list of file dependencies will simplify the upgrade process and any new installations in the future.

All in all, we feel that the Web Service Datafeed Client makes a big leap with these changes, but of course it’s your opinion and experience that ultimately matters.  So please let us know your thoughts as you work with some of these new features!

-David & AvantLink