EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread
EasyPopulate 4.0 (EP4) Beta Support Thread. For Zencart 1.38/1.39/1.5
Download from at Github:
https://github.com/chaddro/EasyPopulate-4.0
https://github.com/mc12345678/EasyPopulate-4.0
Look for the "ZIP" button to download. To install, upload all files to your admin directory maintaining directory structure.
Also upload the additional files for your version of Zencart - be sure to put thes in their correct folder.
Next login to your Admin, and go to Tools -> EasyPopulate 4.
At the top of the screen will be a couple warnings for your upload folder, and configuration keys missing... click the "Please install your configuration by clicking here" to install the configuration keys.
Now navigate to Configuration -> EasyPopulate 4
Be sure to set your "Uploads Directory" to a folder that exists. I recommend changing from from the default "temp/" to something obscure to frustrate hackers.
You may also need to check folder permissions. Default for most servers is 755, but you may need to set permissions to 777.
I recommend that you first enter a couple Categories and Products through the normal Zencart Admin. This will help you understand the exported file formats.
Things of Import:
1) EP4 works only with CSV data files, and for best cross platform compatibility please use OpenOffice to Export your CSV file.
You should select the Comma as your field delimiter, and the Double Quote as your text delimiter. You may not get proper results using Excel.
2) You MUST use products_models to distinguish your products for import.
3) Categories are handled differently from other versions of EP. You can now import mult-lingual categories (Like Products Names, etc.).
To achieve this, each v_categories_names_1, v_categories_names_2 correspond to a language installed in your system, and individual category names are separated by the Carat "^" symbol. For Example: Bar Supplies^Glass Washers^Brushes
Bar Supplies will be your Top level Category, with Glass Washers as a sub-directory, and Brushes as a sub-directory of Glass Washers.
Be careful when creating your category names. "Bar Supplies" is not equal to "BAR Supplies" ... this will result in two category entries.
As of 4.0.17, your lowest defined language (by language id) is needed to when creating categories. In the future I'll change this to the defined default language, but that
will take some additional work.
4) Work flow is somewhat different than other version of EP. With EP4 you first either upload your file, then click on Import. Optionally you can also Split an import file if it is too large. You can set the number of records to split on in the configuration settings. Default is 2000. If you have a powerful server, you can up this significantly. Testing on a VPS with an import file of 900,000 records, I broke into 50,000 segments. Import of each 50,000 records took about 250 seconds.
Also NO streaming upload or download. Sorry if you liked this feature. A lot of effort has been put into improving the code's performance and streaming the data was a real memory hog. To download your exported file, you will need to "right-click, save-as". You may be able to set your browser to automatically download CSV files. I'll come up with a better solution in due time.
5) File names act as a switch inside the script for Importing. Namely: PriceBreaks-EP, CategoryMeta-EP, and Attrib-EP ... thes import files must have names that start with these names.
6) Basic Attribute Import. Please read the notes in the Readme.txt file carefully for how to use this. I am still working on completing this feature. Currently, you can at Import create your products_options_name (your attribute name, ie. color) , products_options_type (checkbox, downdown, etc) and , products_options_values_name (red, green, blue).
Be sure to backup you data before importing your files. Remember, this is still "beta". I have made every attempt to make this a solid bug free product, but it does require more testing. I have added a lot of error trapping, but I'm sure I've missed things.
Finally, EasyPopulate 4 is an amalgamation of code and ideas from earlier versions of EP. All due recognition is given to these earlier works and those author's efforts.
Langer for bringing us 1.2.5.4 from OsCommerce, Phazie for his efforts to move to CSV, jbcholdings for his ideas in Attributr, and all the forum participation over the years from users ... Scrat, Elkbow, Schooboy... too many to mention!
I also want to thank all my Beta testers to date for given my version a try!
-chadderuski
Re: EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread
@chadderuski, would you please package this up into a zip file (with a GPL License and instructions) and submit it to the Free Software Add Ons at the top left of this page? We try to encourage people to go to one single place to get mods, rather than have them scattered around.
Re: EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread
Quote:
Originally Posted by
swguy
@chadderuski, would you please package this up into a zip file (with a GPL License and instructions) and submit it to the Free Software Add Ons at the top left of this page? We try to encourage people to go to one single place to get mods, rather than have them scattered around.
I had asked Dr. Byte if it was okay to keep on github while in "beta" and was told yes. I will add the GPL License (forgot about that, this is my first contrib). Once I finish rounding out the attributes and finish the docs, I'll make it an official submission.
Re: EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread
Thank you! Developing, collaborating and testing off-site is great, but once it's really ready, this is the best place for it.
Re: EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread
Right. Please package and upload new zips here (addons section) when you want people to use them or become aware of new features or milestones.
Re: EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread
chadderuski,
Thanks for keeping this mod stable and viable, I think you've made a much needed and professional contribution to ZenCart!
I do need some help though. :)
I've got the mod installed and I've exported all of my product data to see what kind of formatting I need to use for the import process. My client currently has 5,000 products which were manually entered but has access to far more than that. They have been provided a massive amount of product data and I can manipulate that data in whichever way is needed for importing, but apparently I am missing something.
I tried a simple test by entering some mock data into what I [think] is a properly formatted CSV file but the product was not inserted into the database as expected.
I uploaded what I thought to be a properly formatted CSV file and then imported it. My results were as follows:
"Import Results
Filename: Test----NOW.csv"
What did I do wrong? Thanks!
Re: EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread
Hi Keezee,
Did you use OpenOffice to export the CSV file?
Also, maintain the file naming convention: "Full-EP"+some text+.csv
You could also attached a sample of your data. Top dozen lines with headers.
-chadd
1 Attachment(s)
Re: EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread
Hey chadd,
Wow, fast reply! Thanks.
I did try exporting with Open Office, but my file name was way off. I used a file name of ''Test----NOW.csv'
I changed that to "Full-EP2012TEST.csv"
Sadly, that did not work either. Can I use EP4 to simply add one product or will my upload always need to include all of my products?
My test file had only one line aside from headers as a quick test. Here is the top 12 lines of my original export:
Sample CSV file is attached, thanks again! Attachment 10012
Re: EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread
I'll take a look at your file now.
No, I regularly use EP4 to export single sub-categories, modify and upload corrections/changes. Yes, you can just use 1 line of data. If fact, that is the very best first thing to do when you want to ensure your data is importing correctly.
Also, be sure you are doing a backup of your data first before running an import. There is an update MySQL database backup tool that work fine on most databases.
BRB
1 Attachment(s)
Re: EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread
When using OpenOffice:
1) Select File -> Save As
2) Ensure File type: is Text CSV (.csv)
3) check the Edit Filter settings box
4) click save
In the Export of text Files box,
Select your Character set. Probably UTF-8 is you are on zen 1.5 now.
Field delimiter: Comma ,
Text delimiter: Double quote "
you can leave the save cell contents as show box checked.
Even so, your sample data imported to my server just fine.... so I do not know what you could be missing. It looks correct to me.
What version of zencart are you using?