Update product programatically (setDescription) Error Object of class stdClass could not be converted to string

Question

Hello I would like to set the Description for magento products using data collected from Amazon api. I am calling the API and would like to get the xml response into magento description. I have some code prepared which works:

<?php
 require('../AmazonApi.php');
 require_once ('../app/Mage.php');
 Mage::app();
 //Create API access object
 $public_key = '*************';
 $secret_key = '*************';
 $associate_tag = '**********-21';
 $amazon_api = new AmazonAPI($public_key, $secret_key, $associate_tag);
$products = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')
->getCollection()
->addAttributeToSelect('asin')
->addAttributeToSelect('description');
//Array of request parameters
foreach($products as $product)
{
$asin = $product->getAsin();
$product->setDescription($response);
$product->getResource()->saveAttribute($product, 'description');
$params_array = array(
'Operation' => 'ItemLookup',
'IdType' => 'ASIN',
'ItemId' => $asin ,
'ResponseGroup' => 'Tracks');
// returns a list of items for the search query 'Slow Magic'
$response = $amazon_api->sendRequest($params_array);
foreach ($response as $restponse)
{
sleep(1);
}
echo '<pre>';
print_r($response);
echo '</pre>';
}
foreach($parsed_xml->OperationRequest->Errors->Error as $error){
 echo "Error code: " . $error->Code . "\r\n";
 echo $error->Message . "\r\n";
 echo "\r\n";
 }

The code is correct the only problem with is the response, the error I am getting in the logs is:

Object of class stdClass could not be converted to string Object of class stdClass could not be converted to string.

Any how to convert to a string?

• Raphael at Digital Pianism: You have a typo in your code ->addAttributeToSeleXct('asin') where it should be ->addAttributeToSelect('asin')
• Bako Gdaniec: Thank you , I've must of typed it in as I was copying the code over
• Amit Bera: Just change Mage::app(); to Mage::app('admin'); and check what happen!
• Bako Gdaniec: Everything stays the same after I've placed 'admin' . Still no change in product
• Amit Bera: Can u please tell why u use ->load($productId);

Answer 1

Try to use instead

$product->setDescription($response);
$product->save();

to this code

 $product->setDescription($response);
 $product->getResource()->saveAttribute($product, 'description')

• Amit Bera: Zmage,Good answer
• Bako Gdaniec: Unfortunately , there is no difference in the product description . However the code looks more correct.
• Bako Gdaniec: This is the error that I am getting in the logs : Recoverable Error: Object of class stdClass could not be converted to string in /var/www/html/lib/Varien/Db/Adapter/Pdo/Mysql.php on line 3074

Answer 2

The real problem here is that you're trying to load a collection like if it was a single product:

$products = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')
->getCollection()
->addAttributeToSelect('asin')
->addAttributeToSelect('description')
->load($productId);

You do not need to do so, simply do:

$products = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')
->getCollection()
->addAttributeToSelect('asin')
->addAttributeToSelect('description');

• Bako Gdaniec: Thank you however this doesn't solve the problem as the products are not being updated.
• Raphael at Digital Pianism: Could try adding Mage::log($product->getData()); at the start and the end inside your foreach loop and compare both results please (paste them in your questio if necessary)