EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread

[mc12345678]

chadderuski - Thanks for staying with this thread. I don't see 4.0 in the zen plugin library. Can you put a link to it in your signature? I'm looking for the latest version to add to a clean install of 1.5.3. Thank you.

It's in the same location it has been all along, go to the first post of this thread, there is a link to the current version of EP4 on github, which has been updated to work with 1.5.3 as well as continuing to work with the previous versions. As noted in the change log(s), ZC 1.5.2 was not considered for incorporation.

As for the download option from ZC, the instructions are under development and the primary hold up on why this has not been submitted as an official ZC plugin.

I am part of that problem as I incorporated some functionality to support a version of Stock by Attributes and need to write applicable instructions for it's use.

[athena]

Appreciate the quick response and explanation. I'm going for it... Thanks again,

[wtashby]

Can you verify your version of PHP and MySQL?

In the admin, click "Version" on the right side of the menu.

Look for:

PHP Version
Database

Zencart Version
Database Patch Level

and then do a search for "mysqli" and ensure that it's active. You'll see something like:

mysqli
MysqlI Support enabled
Client API library version 5.5.37

Zen Cart 1.5.3
Database Patch Level: 1.5.3
v1.5.3 [2014-08-05 18:29:06] (New Installation)
v1.5.3 [2014-08-05 18:29:06] (New Installation)


Server OS: Linux 2.6.18-471.3.1.el5.lve0.8.72 Database: MySQL 5.5.32-cll-lve
HTTP Server: Apache
PHP Version: 5.3.28 (Zend: 2.3.0) PHP Memory Limit: 168M PHP Safe Mode: Off
PHP File Uploads: On Max Size: 32M POST Max Size: 128M
Database Data Size: 1,199 kB Database Index Size: 820 kB

mysqli
MysqlI Support	enabled
Client API library version 	5.5.32
Active Persistent Links 	0
Inactive Persistent Links 	0
Active Links 	0
Client API header version 	5.5.32
MYSQLI_SOCKET 	/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock

Directive	Local Value	Master Value
mysqli.allow_local_infile	On	On
mysqli.allow_persistent	On	On
mysqli.default_host	no value	no value
mysqli.default_port	3306	3306
mysqli.default_pw	no value	no value
mysqli.default_socket	/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock	/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
mysqli.default_user	no value	no value
mysqli.max_links	Unlimited	Unlimited
mysqli.max_persistent	Unlimited	Unlimited
mysqli.reconnect	Off	Off

[mc12345678]

Zen Cart 1.5.3
Database Patch Level: 1.5.3
v1.5.3 [2014-08-05 18:29:06] (New Installation)
v1.5.3 [2014-08-05 18:29:06] (New Installation)


Server OS: Linux 2.6.18-471.3.1.el5.lve0.8.72 Database: MySQL 5.5.32-cll-lve
HTTP Server: Apache
PHP Version: 5.3.28 (Zend: 2.3.0) PHP Memory Limit: 168M PHP Safe Mode: Off
PHP File Uploads: On Max Size: 32M POST Max Size: 128M
Database Data Size: 1,199 kB Database Index Size: 820 kB

mysqli
MysqlI Support	enabled
Client API library version 	5.5.32
Active Persistent Links 	0
Inactive Persistent Links 	0
Active Links 	0
Client API header version 	5.5.32
MYSQLI_SOCKET 	/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock

Directive	Local Value	Master Value
mysqli.allow_local_infile	On	On
mysqli.allow_persistent	On	On
mysqli.default_host	no value	no value
mysqli.default_port	3306	3306
mysqli.default_pw	no value	no value
mysqli.default_socket	/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock	/var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
mysqli.default_user	no value	no value
mysqli.max_links	Unlimited	Unlimited
mysqli.max_persistent	Unlimited	Unlimited
mysqli.reconnect	Off	Off

Thank you for that information I hope it will help identify what has happened. Another question, is your site being loaded by an ip address or by a uri?

[wtashby]

Thank you for that information I hope it will help identify what has happened. Another question, is your site being loaded by an ip address or by a uri?

You can click on my signature for that answer. I only use uri's. I never use ip addresses.

[mc12345678]

Appreciate the quick response and explanation. I'm going for it... Thanks again,

Welcome! Also I've seen some comments in the forum that there are possibly already several variations to this program and a suggestion to merge them.

I. Personally think this is the most robust of the Easy Populate versions and could be the one to bring in the functionality of the other versions.

I've begun looking into what is necessary to produce froogle related files to address one of the strains. Then I'd like to see what is different about this versions csv file creation as compared to the one that is supposedly excel file friendly. Looking at the downloads section, only one appears to have been updated in the last year or so unfortunately. Perhaps those other versions aren't as independent of Zen Cart functionality as this one. It could be made to rely more on the zc code, but then the error log functionality would basically be lost as instead the ZC error logging process would come into play and that probably would require incorporating the display error log plugin.

I've already been able to incorporate another popular ZC plugin into EP4 and plan to complete all currently desired aspects in the next couple of weeks with other work allowing. In the mean time there may be some other minor updates to this in the near future to address some other efficiencies and functionality.

[mc12345678]

You can click on my signature for that answer. I only use uri's. I never use ip addresses.

Hmm, okay wasn't sure, at least that's not the issue.

So, I was doing some looking today based on the error log that is generated. One of the comments associated with that error is that perhaps the query is coming back empty. Wondering if the query were replaced with the hard coded information that was used in myphpadmin to at least eliminate that possibility. The line is just above line 990 in the youradmin/includes/functions/extra_functions/easy_populate_4_functions.php file (may have the file name slightly wrong, sorry working from memory.)

[chadderuski]

Zen Cart 1.5.3
Database Patch Level: 1.5.3
v1.5.3 [2014-08-05 18:29:06] (New Installation)
v1.5.3 [2014-08-05 18:29:06] (New Installation)


Server OS: Linux 2.6.18-471.3.1.el5.lve0.8.72 Database: MySQL 5.5.32-cll-lve
HTTP Server: Apache
PHP Version: 5.3.28 (Zend: 2.3.0) PHP Memory Limit: 168M PHP Safe Mode: Off
PHP File Uploads: On Max Size: 32M POST Max Size: 128M
Database Data Size: 1,199 kB Database Index Size: 820 kB

mysqli
MysqlI Support	enabled
Client API library version 	5.5.32

This looks current.

[chadderuski]

wtashby:

At this point my best suggestion is to create a subdirectory on your site, and do a clean install of zencart there, install EP4 and see if it work normally.

You will have to create a separate database in CPanel. Be sure to also install Dr. Bytes MySQL Backup tool.

I'm sorry I can't offer a better solution. Returning to the core manual install often helps identify if the issue is server related or not.
This has been the case when someone used their CPanel auto installer to install Zencart instead of uploading the files and running the install manually.

-chadd

[chadderuski]

A few comments on MC's comments - just as general discussion

I. Personally think this is the most robust of the Easy Populate versions and could be the one to bring in the functionality of the other versions.

EP4 is VERY robust, but to achieve this some things had to be changed from Langer's version.

1. Separate upload from import/export (no streaming data up or down)
2. Us PHP's built in CSV file reading and writing functions
3. Ability to turn off "verbose" feedback

These changes made it possible for EP4 to do MASSIVE imports very quickly. I was working with an electronics parts store with over 900,000 product sku's. Even on a dedicated server, the old EP code would time out, and run out of memory.

After the above re-writes, I could easily upload the full 900,000 item csv file, use the split utility to break into blocks of 50,000
records, and import the 50,000 records in about 12 seconds.

I've begun looking into what is necessary to produce froogle related files to address one of the strains. Then I'd like to see what is different about this versions csv file creation as compared to the one that is supposedly excel file friendly. Looking at the downloads section, only one appears to have been updated in the last year or so unfortunately. Perhaps those other versions aren't as independent of Zen Cart functionality as this one. It could be made to rely more on the zc code, but then the error log functionality would basically be lost as instead the ZC error logging process would come into play and that probably would require incorporating the display error log plugin.

First:
MS Excel has been very frustrating to work with... to many versions, to many variations of CSV files, and the inability to set
your language type. Don't forget the limit of 256 character in a cell (maybe a recent version of Excel has fixed this?). OpenOffice creates a standard CSV without these limitation, and has the ability to set your language source at import and export.

Also, PHP's built in CSV read/write functions have no problems with Open Offices exported CSV files, but strange things happen
when you use Excel (which I believe puts different info in the header of the file), but this is dependent on the version of excel and the type of CSV you create.

Langer's old code manually processed the text file. It worked, and was perhaps more forgiving, but it was also incredibly slow.
So I replaced all that convoluted mess with a single php function call ....

Second:
I had already begun to work on mappable export/import files. If you look in the code, you'll see it commented out. It was just a start for something more flexible and robust, but it's quite doable.

Having the ability to use custom products fields (done) with mappable import/export would be much better than hard coding support for specific plug-ins. This has been my ultimate goal with EP4, but life intrudes and I've not met my goals.

I've already been able to incorporate another popular ZC plugin into EP4 and plan to complete all currently desired aspects in the next couple of weeks with other work allowing. In the mean time there may be some other minor updates to this in the near future to address some other efficiencies and functionality.

MC's help in supporting and expanding EP4 is really appreciated. He's helped keep EP4 alive for well over a year now!

Buy him some coffee or a nice dinner, he deserves it!

-chadd