Update All Child Product Descriptions from Parent Product with Shell Script

Question

Currently our store's configurable products have the short & long descriptions contained within the parent product. The child product description fields are blank. We're setting up a Google Shopping campaign, and need those descriptions copied from the parent product to the child.

I'm attempting this by using a PHP shell script. I've adapted the script I found here. My version is:

<?php
require_once '../app/Mage.php';

Mage::app();
$products = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->getCollection()
    ->addAttributeToFilter('type_id', Mage_Catalog_Model_Product_Type::TYPE_SIMPLE)
    ->addAttributeToFilter('short_description','')
$products->load();

foreach($products as $product) { 
    $parentIds = Mage::getModel('catalog/product_type_configurable')->getParentIdsByChild($product->getId());
    foreach($parentIds as $parentId) {
        $parent = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->load($parentId);
        $product->setShortDescription($parent->getShortDescription());
        $product->save();
        continue;
    }
}

When I run this, I get a php parse error on line 8 $products->load();

1. Am I on the right track here?
2. Why am I getting that parse error?

edit: I don't necessarily have to use a shell script either. If there's a better way I'm missing, please share.

Answer 1

So the solution is much easier than I thought. I'm using the Wyomind Simple Google Shopping extension to automatically generate my Google Shopping product feed. There's a simple syntax for including data from a child product's parent.

Simply change:

{G:DESCRIPTION}

to:

{G:DESCRIPTION parent}

Done!