EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread

[chadderuski]

Hi Chadd,
Before I download and install this version, how do I uninstall the one I have??
Thanks,
Amber

Hi Amber,

EP4 has been completed forked from other/earlier versions so you can install EP4 along side them. HOWEVER!!!! There are some differences in the import files and they are not directly cross-compatible with other versions!

To uninstall your old EP version you would need to do two things:

1) Run the SQL uninstall code in Tools -> Install SQL Patches
2) Use a FTP program or the file manager from within your website's Cpanel and delete all the old files.

You have to be very careful doing both! You don't want to accidentally delete some key zencart php file!

-chadd

[chadderuski]

I am getting an error when I try to import my file that says "no category provided for this new product", what am I doing wrong?
Thanks

What this means is that you have a new v_products_model, but do not have an entry under v_categories_name_1.
So you get the error because EP4 doesn't know where to put the new product in the category tree.

-chadd

[chadderuski]

Chad,
Just wanted to stop by and say thank you again for all of your hard work! Your labors have made my life a lot easier!
I finally updated EP4 and the Attributes upgrades are amazing, thank you.
I've been using EP4 for all of my import/export needs for over a year.
So, again... thank you Chad!

Hi Keezee!
Thank you for the kind words! It's good to hear that people are successfully using EP4 and especially that the attribute imports are working as designed.

-chadd

[chadderuski]

I have a client who asked me to take over managing products on there ZenCart, and I am trying to get the EasyPopulate 4 to work. I do not see the EasyPopulate 4 option under the Configuration Menu, or Tools Menu after copying all the files to where I think they belong. The root of the site is /web, the admin folder is located at /web/catalog/admin, there is a temp folder at /web/catalog/admin/temp, and at /web/catalog/temp, and /web/temp. The store is located at /web/store, includes are located at /web/catalog/includes, and boxes/extra_boxes is under includes. Can anyone help me figure out why I do not see the EasyPopulate option under Configuration? Thanks. SunOS 5.10, PHP Version 4.4.8, MySQL 4.1.22, ZenCart 1.3.9d.

You need to install EP4 into your admin directory. From your post this looks to be /web/catalog/admin...You can configure your temp directory after install. If you are still stuck, send me a PM and I'll try to help offline.

-chadd

[chadderuski]

Yes, I think you are right! Is the import corrupted if quotes are used? (i.e. "word")?

No, not with normal quotes. HOWEVER, on some UTF-8 systems "Character 0x92" can cause odd problems. You should have under your Configure -> Easy Populate 4 "Convert Character 0x92" set to 1.

I have seen this odd character cause truncating of descriptions. Be sure you are using the correct character set for your store and have support in your database.

Also, if you use Open Office when you export your CSV, you will properly encapsulate your text fields. This will allow you to use double and single quotes in your descriptions, and it will not break the import. Open Office will also let you select your target character encoding on export. Excel won't. Depending on the version of Excel you use, I cannot guarantee what works with what version.

-chadd

[Serious]

After downloading a fullep spreadsheet I noticed some headings that are new, as compared to previous EP spreadsheets.
v_metatags_products_name_status
v_metatags_title_status
v_metatags_model_status
v_metatags_price_status
v_metatags_title_tagline_status
v_metatags_title_1
v_metatags_keywords_1
v_metatags_description_1


all of the _status fields contained a 0
the remainder were blank

So educate me here. What should the status be for new products that I want to add to my site?
Can I use the v_metatags_title_1, v_metatags_keywords_1, v_metatags_description_1 fields to add metatag info instead of doing it manually through the Admin area?

[chadderuski]

After downloading a fullep spreadsheet I noticed some headings that are new, as compared to previous EP spreadsheets.
v_metatags_products_name_status
v_metatags_title_status
v_metatags_model_status
v_metatags_price_status
v_metatags_title_tagline_status
v_metatags_title_1
v_metatags_keywords_1
v_metatags_description_1


all of the _status fields contained a 0
the remainder were blank

So educate me here. What should the status be for new products that I want to add to my site?
Can I use the v_metatags_title_1, v_metatags_keywords_1, v_metatags_description_1 fields to add metatag info instead of doing it manually through the Admin area?

The _status columns are either 0=off or 1=on and the others are text entries. How you use these is up to you. Configure meta tags for a product from within the admin, then export so you have a template of what to set the status's to.

These column are used to populate your metatag information. I think Phazie was the original contributor of this code.

Not that there is an option in Configuration -> Easy Populate 4 to turn off the meta tag field to reduce your export file size for when you aren't working on meta tags.

-chadd

[relish]

Separate the fields with a comma, but do not add spaces, for example: field1,field2,field3
Do not add quotes either.

Your sheet will then export with columns for these fields as: v_field1, v_field2, v_field3

Let me know how that works for you!
-chadd

Hey that worked . Just installed EP4 , hoping to use it to the fullest.

Thanks Chadd !

[Serious]

Another guy having a problem with product descriptions.

I went to Admin/Configuration/All Listings/Display Product Description and changed the value from 150 to 900. No change.

Descriptions still getting cut off.

[akjim62]

Thanks Chadd, I did put the files in the /web/catalog/admin folder, but I don't see any changes to the menus. I also uploaded a FedEx shipping module to /web/store/includes/modules/shipping and don't see that either, and when I did that, it removed all the shipping options from the menu that used to be available. I wish I knew exactly how this was originally set up.