Easy Populate Advanced

[thornhillguy]

I purchased & installed the easy populate advanced module in order to be able to import products from an older access database.

The instructions seem to be sketchy and I am so unsure of what to do and am in desperate need to move these items into zen cart. The zencart is a new installation and I thought it would be a breeze to export/import into it.

Cannot get any support from the author of the advanced module.

Help please.

[schoolboy]

The data in your Access Database needs to be exported to a MS excel file, which in turn needs to be saved as a TAB DELIMITED txt file before it can be used by Easy Populate.

Before any more detailed help can be offered, it is necessary to know just WHAT the nature is (content and fields) of your Access database.

The data you wish to import into your zc store has to be compliant with the table and field structures inherent in your zc database, and also compliant with the structure of EP.

[thornhillguy]

I have exported the access db to a tab deliminated excel file
In Zencart created the identical category names and in the same order as they appear.

Attached is a copy of the text file with column headings included.

I really have no clue how to get this done.

Thanks a bunch.

[schoolboy]

Your spreadsheet's column headings are:

"idProduct"
"idSupplier"
"description"
"details"
"price"
"listPrice"
"bToBPrice"
"imageUrl"
"smallImageUrl"
"sku"
"listHidden"
"weight"
"deliveringTime"
"active"
"hotDeal"
"cost"
"visits"
"sales"
"emailText"
"stockLevelAlert"
"formQuantity"
"showInHome"
"dateAdded"
"hasPersonalization"
"freeShipping"
"isBundleMain"
"isDonation"
"bonusPoints"
"searchKeywords"
"length"
"width"
"height"
"rental"
"idStore"
"idStock"
"user1"
"user2"
"user3"
"imageUrl2"
"imageUrl3"
"imageUrl4"

A handful of these are similar to the fields that EP can populate, so in these cases you just need to change the column headers, Then it's a case of choosing what other data to include and what to exclude... and where you cannot include it as a separate field, consider CONCATENATING some of the data fields/cells so you could strip it into the product description text.

As it stands, this spreadsheet cannot be used by easy populate.

My WIKI describes what you need to do.
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Easy_Populate

[thornhillguy]

Actually I only need to export a few of the fields,

"idProduct"
"description"
"price"
"imageUrl"

The rest are not important, I do not know where I would be changing the column headers or where I would get the right column header names.

Thanks

[thornhillguy]

I read the wiki modified the text file but still get this error message

File Import Failed! Primary index column v_products_model or c_categories_index_path missing from uploads file. Please consult the readme.html file for more information

[Louis]

In order to use EP your products MUST have unique product codes.

v_products_model

This field is used by EP to determine if a product should be added or updated.

You should also indicate the category where you want the product to be added.

[darkmarauder]

Hello There,

I was using the free version of Easy Populate and decided due to the ability to import meta tags to buy the Advanced version.
I've installed it without any problems, but can't import my old file.
It doesn't allow me to (with a blank shop) to import the file and for it to create the categories (v_categories_name_1, v_categories_name_2 etc).
I can't get any response from Zenbuilder, user on here is langer. So if anyone has any documentation that'd be great.

[notageek]

DarkMarauder:

As a belated response, in Easy Populate Advanced the categories are created with the categories file, with top categories being created before subcategories in the order of appearance in the spreadsheet.

Although the Advanced version is not supported here, it is a shame because there is no support now for the Advanced version by the author, Langer, and it is a valuable addition to the Easy Populate capability resource archive.

Notageek

[notageek]

Hi. I researched the following message which came up after I created a test file and tried to import it into my Zen Cart; since I have seen about five messages here and the same number on the Easy Populate Advanced support site, I am posting this message in both places:

File Import Failed! Primary index column v_products_model or c_categories_index_path missing from uploads file. Please consult the readme.html file for more information

Taking advice from a poster on the free support forum, I had checked my spreadsheet for extra spaces where there was text, but then I went back and checked all of the columns without text and did find 1 extra space in an empty column.

When I re-imported into EasyPopulate, I was not allowed to delete the old file from the uploads directory because it was "in use," probably because I had left the screen up to have access to that error message.

So, instead of going through the uploads directly, I imported it directly from the revised file. This was successful.

Notageek