Big problems with Easy populate in my live store???

[BenhamCollectibles]

All of the sudden, when I try to upload a new sheet to my store database, all of my products are showing as linked to something else and my quantities will not updating. I have no idea why this is starting to do this now, but I have people waiting for me to get these new products uploaded, and I am completely in the dark. I read the WIKI and still feel like I don't know what is wrong with this store. I deleted every trace of these cards in my store admin, database and temp file, and somehow, the old quantities are coming up everytime. I have no idea what to do.

Kris

[BenhamCollectibles]

I guess I should tell you that the problem area is the 2010 Topps Base Cards. By getting into the product area, you can see that card #1 is Prince Fielder. The quantity says 0, but I just changed it to 1 in the new spreadsheet and it is not showing.

[BenhamCollectibles]

Nothing? A link to something? Anybody?

[Elle Fresco]

I have actually done this with easy populate on character wrong in the category name will produce linked products.

The other problem may possibly be, which I have also run into, you can not use the same name of the file each time unless you delete it from your temp files first.

I have made both these mistakes to no avail. The fastest way of correcting the problem is to delete the offending entries in the database, but only do that if you know your database program well.

[BenhamCollectibles]

Thank you for responding Elle. Because I didn't get any responses for more than 24 hours, I figured no one was going to answer. Because of this, I deleted all of my inventory and started over from scratch. It will take a while to get back to my 6,000+ entries, but I had to fix it so I could get my new stuff in. When doing this, I realized that the parent category holding the offending products is what I had to remove to get rid of the linked products, not just the products. Unfortunately, that was the top category, so it is all gone now and I am starting over. Should take the better part of a month to get back to where I was.

You are saying that I need to delete ONLY the sheets in the temp file and then the sheet name can stay the same, right? If I do this, I don't have to delete anything from the database ever again for future uploads?

That brings another question to mind. How was it intended for me to make changes to inventory prices and quantities without re-uploading all of my products again or creating linked products? I know there is a way to do so, but I don't know exactly what the process is. I think this is what started my problems in the first place. I started trying things that I saw on this forum because I couldn't get any help from the person I asked. That person didn't want to repeat what was already in the WIKI, so I read through that and still couldn't figure out what was supposed to be done to change prices and quantities on a regular basis without creating problems. Now, I have big problems and for 24 hours I had no idea what to do and customers beating down my virtual door.

Changing my sheet names is not possible for me. I have them named by the year and the set that is in the sheets and constantly changing that name will keep me from finding them on my computer.

I really would benefit from some kind of plain english, step-by-step instructions for how to operate Easy Populate regularly. The WIKI has tons of info on UPLOADING the EP, not on operating it once you have it uploaded. If it does have it in there, I don't understand it.

Thank you for shedding some kind of light on the problems that I am having.

[Elle Fresco]

use your same template and when you save it either make sure there is not a copy in the temp folder on your site or save it then save it again adding a 1 at the end and upload the one with the 1 at the end .. I have done it both ways.

I use the same sheet delete all heading I am not updating and call it price changes and the date ie: prices01-02-10.txt

upload that and away you go.

Plain english:

wholesale.txt
1. make changes you need and save it.
2. save it again as wholesaleprices and the date ie: descriptions-01-01-10 (wholesaleprices-01-02-10.txt)
3. upload the file with easy populate.
4. I then delete the wholesaleprices-01-02-10.txt files from my computer and keep my base file for any future changes I need.

For price changes I keep:
v_model, v_product_price, v_product_price_w, and any specials prices I may have on which would be v_specials_price

inventory updates I keep:
v_model, v_quantity, v_status

all you really need when making changes is the model number always .. this is how your changes are identified for updating. and depending on what changes the appropriate information prices, or title/description or stock levels etc.

Hope this helps.

By the way.

Zencart may take a little tweaking to get what you want but it's one of the best carts out there unless you have a fortune to spend, which I sure don't even with an active store.