title: google shopping api documentation
body: <p>I would like to test our new code without incurring the wrath of google, but the documentation from google leaves much to be desired...</p>
  
  <p>A former employee used to use the GShoppingContent.php library, however it doesn't support the version 2 api.
  so now I need to learn the api...</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/188494" rel="nofollow">https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/188494</a>
  seems to indicate that our use of the <code>mpn</code> field is fine as it is a considered a unique identifier.
  However it also says that the <code>id</code> is required, which as far as the code suggests, has never been set... as <code>GShoppingContent</code> has NO <code>setProductId</code> or <code>setId</code> function for the products, we have only ever used <code>mpn</code>, so I'll assume that this is a new requirement...
  Also <a href="https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/v2/reference/v2/inventory/custombatch" rel="nofollow">https://developers.google.com/shopping-content/v2/reference/v2/inventory/custombatch</a> makes no reference to the possibility of using <code>mpn</code> or any other unique id that they offer...</p>
  
  <p>Where might I find a list of REQUIRED changes? (including for example the use of the <code>id</code> attribute...)
  If product id is not required for inventory updates, then where is the accurate and complete documentation for the batch inventory method?</p>
  
  <p>As an alternative is there a way to test our new code with out getting banned by google for incorrect product data... (when we have done changes in the past it has resulted in being almost banned, even for the smallest of issues...)</p>