Who this is for
Merchant or distributor whose store, or a shopping feed, shows empty or broken product images after a supplier import.
Products go live with blank image boxes, or a shopping platform rejects images, after an import, and the supplier's image links worked last month.
The result
A named feed sample passes through an image-check step that records, for each product, whether its image address returns an image, how many redirects it took, the type and size found and what happened if not. Addresses that point at non-public network destinations are refused and reported without being requested. Products with a failing image follow the agreed rule and the import finishes inside an agreed time even when a host is slow.
What is included
- One existing import path and one named supplier feed layout
- Add a check step that requests each public image address with a time limit and a redirect limit, records the final address, status, declared and detected type and size, and reuses one result per address within a run
- Refuse destinations that are not on the public internet: before every request and before following every redirect, resolve the address and refuse it, reporting it as refused, if it is a loopback, private-network or link-local address (including the cloud metadata address 169.254.169.254), and connect only to the address that was checked. A test-only setting, off by default, lets the local fixture server be reached
- Apply one agreed rule to a failing image: hold the product for review, or import it without an image and flag it
- Write a one-line-per-product report, and keep the request rate low enough for the supplier's host
- Add tests against a local fixture of eight image cases and four refused-destination cases
You receive
- A change to the import path with its tests
- The per-product image report for the agreed sample
- A note on the time limit, redirect limit, minimum size, failure rule and refused destinations agreed
- Steps to revert the change
What is not included
- Asking the supplier to fix its images or hosting
- Copying, re-hosting, resizing or editing supplier images
- Judging image content such as watermarks, overlays or whether the right product is shown
- Shopping-platform image policy decisions; for a Merchant Center data source, the Merchant Center jobs sort image faults by cause
- Checking image addresses in an outgoing shopping feed that has no supplier import path
- Checking hosts whose terms forbid automated requests
What we need from you first
- Five to ten invented or redacted feed rows with image addresses of the kinds that fail, as text
- Roughly how many products and images a run holds, and how long the import takes today
- What you want to happen to a product with a bad image. No credentials, customer data or code in the first enquiry
Never send passwords, keys, customer records or confidential code in the first enquiry. Secure handover is agreed after scoping.
How we check it is done
- Against the local fixture, each of eight image cases is classified as expected: a working image, a missing file, a permanent redirect to an image, a redirect loop, an error page returned with a success status, a file whose type does not match its extension, an image below the agreed minimum size, and a host that does not answer within the time limit.
- Against the same fixture, with the test-only setting off, four refused-destination cases are each refused and reported as refused, and no request reaches the target: an address on the loopback network, an address in a private network range, a link-local address, and a public address whose redirect leads to one of those three.
- The agreed 20-row sample finishes within the agreed time limit although one host never answers, and every product is imported, held or flagged exactly as the agreed rule states.
- The per-product report lists the original address, the final address after redirects, the status, the declared and detected type, the byte size and the action taken, one line per product.
- The import's existing tests still pass with the change applied.
You inspect the fixture results and the sample report and sign off in writing. Payment follows sign-off; applying the change live stays with your maintainer.
When we would stop or decline
- The image addresses need a login or token that would have to be handed to us
- The supplier's terms or robots file forbid automated requests for its images
- The import runs inside a hosted platform where no check step can be added
Questions
Will you copy my supplier's images to my own server?
No. This job checks addresses and reports. Copying images raises rights questions that belong with you and the supplier.
What happens to a product whose image fails?
Whatever rule we agree: held for review, or imported without an image and flagged. Nothing is dropped silently.
Does a working image address mean Google will accept the image?
No. A shopping platform judges size, content and policy. This job only shows that the address returns an image.
Price and terms
£345 · untested offer price. £345 after the agreed fixture and sample produce the agreed report and results and you sign off. No payment before sign-off.
This is a new service with no published client results. The price is a starting point we have not yet tested with buyers. Nothing is ordered or charged by the enquiry. The full specification is on the Synthetic Industry catalogue.