EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread

[mc12345678]

Okay, I need help with two issues I am experiencing. One is easier to explain and the other I will explain and if you need more clarification to make sense of it please ask questions.

1. The first issue is with upc field. We have some products with upc code starting with zeros. Something like, 000768251143. When I generate an export file. The csv file that is generated drops the leading zeros in the upc column. 000768251143 becomes 768251143. Is there a way to protect this field during file generation to treat it as a text field so the numbers are not messed up? I did not have this issue with previous easy populate that uses text file instead of csv file. I will greatly appreciate any help in solving this issue as this is a show stopper.

2. The second problem is when I export a file, some of the description fields are empty even though they have content. There's nothing unique about the products that are missing descriptions so I am not sure how tell you how to duplicate this problem. However, it seems that the seem products that are dropping description fields on export remains the same (which makes me think there's something common between them even if I can see it).

I will appreciate any help to get to the bottom of these two issues.

Thanks!

1. I'm not sure what program you're using for your source data but assuming something like Excel, try specifying 'custom' field/column formatting in your spreadsheet program e.g., "000000000000#", to force display of leading zeros.
2. Open your CSV file in something like Notepad (or something better like Notepad++ [free]) and check those descriptions closely. You might have field and/or value delimiters that are either missing or being misinterpreted. Quite likely something in those descriptions is being interpreted as a delimiter and omitting everything thereafter... or something like that.

Best of luck.

Cheers
GAM

I am not sure I explained myself well (even with the first part). The file that's generated from Easy Populate excludes the leading zeros in the csv file. In other words, the leading zeros are gone before I even open the file in Open Office. I know I can add the leading zero's back but that defeats the purpose because it will require me to go through 1,000s of record and add the leading zeros back. Some upc have 1 leading zero, others two leading zero and some three leading zeros. It's not even as simple as just formatting the cell to add leading zeros (because they are different). What I am asking is if it's possible to protect the source data when exporting from our site so Easy Populate does not remove the leading zero upon export?

Thanks!

I think you missed the point, though I say that before knowing the following detail. Before you open the csv file in the spreadsheet application of choice, when you open the csv file in a text editor, are the zero's there in the quoted text?

The description of forcing the zero's above is one that indicates that the spreadsheet removes the zero's on "import" and that the command would force zero's to be placed not requiring you to find and type them.

If the zero's are in the csv file, EP4 is not the case of them disappearing later, but instead the spreadsheet/import process to the spreadsheet. (In some spreadsheet apps, it is possible to identify a column to be imported as a text field that would keep the zero's in place.)

[BlessIsaacola]

I think you missed the point, though I say that before knowing the following detail. Before you open the csv file in the spreadsheet application of choice, when you open the csv file in a text editor, are the zero's there in the quoted text?

The description of forcing the zero's above is one that indicates that the spreadsheet removes the zero's on "import" and that the command would force zero's to be placed not requiring you to find and type them.

If the zero's are in the csv file, EP4 is not the case of them disappearing later, but instead the spreadsheet/import process to the spreadsheet. (In some spreadsheet apps, it is possible to identify a column to be imported as a text field that would keep the zero's in place.)

Thank you so much for the clarification. As suggested, I tested the downloaded file in my text editor and everything looks as expected. This is good and it means there's no problem with Easy Populate with regards to the file that's generated. As you rightly suggested, I noticed that Open Office have a function to indicate the column type and once I changed it to text for the upc column everything worked as expected with the leading zeros preserved. This means that issue is resolved with regards to the leading zeros. Thank you so much for your time and troubleshooting with me.

With regards to the description field, I am going to play with it a bit and report back my findings. The strange thing is even though when I open the file in Open Office, some product description are missing in the field, if I close the file and open it in the text editor, the descriptions are there just not showing when I open it Open Office. Strange I know (unless there's a maximum length for a cell in Open Office). I will play around and see what I find out.

Thanks!