Batch conversion in Excel and Gif to jpg

[Larry E]

I am new to Zen Cart. Having taken over an existing website and given little help by the previous owner, I have a question regarding batch conversions.
I have downloaded the vendor's product list of both TXT files for data and GIF files for pictures.

But they need to be batch converted so that:


1) the Tab Delimited txt files need the column headings changed (which I can do is easy). But the cell contents will need some batch editing to alter content.

2) The vendor's pictures are downloaded as "gif" files, but our website contents have them as "jpg".

Any help on this issue?

Larry

[kuroi]

Zen Cart doesn't use tab-delimited files. So you must be referring to an add-on (EasyPopulate maybe) or something custom written by the previous owner. But without knowing what it is, there's not a lot we can offer.

If the images on your site are jpegs, but the ones being supplied now are gifs, then merely changing the extension won't be enough, unless they're identically named otherwise and you're replacing all the old images with the new ones.

Batch updates in this situation can be dangerous. Though EasyPopulate may be of use if this is a straightforward change. This would allow you to export your image names as part of your product data, edit them in a spreadsheet and reimport them.

If it is a simple change of file extensions then running the following SQL against your database would do the job, but very rarely do I see a case that's this clearcut.

UPDATE products SET products_image = REPLACE(products_image, ".jpg", ".gif");

[Larry E]

Yes, we are using Easy Populate which uses Tab Delimited txt files.
I was thinking that something like a "Search & Replace" text feature in Excel, might work, but I can't figure it out.

As to the pictures, I think a batch conversion software from GIF to JPG would be required so as not to corrupt the graphic file. I read that Adobe Elements might have that feature. I have Photoshop CS, but it won't perform that function. I thought someone might have a suggestion?

[kuroi]

Are you asking for help with the Excel Search & Replace feature. There are better places than the Zen Cart forum to ask for that.

Photoshop can do this. but I really wouldn't recommend it. The full Photoshop is better at it than the cut down Elements version. You would need to create an "action" and then run it against the relevant files.

However, converting images from one format to another is time consuming and results in data loss and image quality degradation.

If the source images are gifs, you'd get a better result by updating your site to use them.