EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread

[chadderuski]

Just a quick comment on two things:

Meta Data: Things have really changed over the last couple years in regards to metatags. Much of it has been deprecated to the point that adding keywords does little to no good. Google has specifically stated that they don't look at keywords anymore:

http://googlewebmastercentral.blogsp...?commentPage=2
http://searchenginewatch.com/article...-Secure-Search
http://selfstoragemagnet.com/tech/se...yahoo-or-bing/
http://www.708media.com/search_engin...-meta-tag-seo/

Images: EP4 does not upload images, it just updates the entry for the main image in your products database. You need to use an FTP program to upload your images. Now, without stepping on any toes, I suggest you upload a nice sized main image and then use one of the image processing plug-ins to create your Small and Medium images.

For additional images to work, you start with your main image as the base file name, and append _1, _2, _3, etc. to each additional images:

hb_3270.jpg
hb_3270_1.jpg
hb_3270_2.jpg
etc.

Upload those using ftp and Zencart will automatically show your additional images.

Remember, the image names NEED TO BE THE SAME! I also highly recommend that your images name have NO spaces. Yes, names with spaces will work, but
in the long run you'll be better off not having them. Plenty of programs out there to help you fix things like this.

Hope that helps.
-chadd

[FoodSourceDirect]

Hi Chadd. As always, it does help. I had uploaded the images before uploading the product files with the link. But most of the images are not showing. Apparently there are some image size settings in Cat>Image that I had to set to match the image sizes of the images that I had previously uploaded. In fact I was researching image batch processing software before I stopped to read your post.

Well then, I am going to see what ZC plugin options are available to me that can be used to batch re-size and rename files using the original file name with an appendage of my choice. "_MED, _LRG or _1, _2, _3", etc.

AJ

[FoodSourceDirect]

Oops. I forgot something. Yesterday I did my first product upload. I used the FULL-EP template. At first 287 product records failed to upload due to category names that were too long. I fixed that. As I mentioned in the previous post, most images are not showing. I know that's a size issue and a few images are in fact misnamed and some are missing. But I also noticed that although I have set product descriptions and product names to display, they are in fact missing. How can I re-upload the records to delete the existing records and repopulate the catalog? And what might cause product names and descriptions to not display?

[nick02895]

Is there a way to manually un-install ep4?
I removed the files installed, but is there more to it? MySQL, other configuration files modified during the install?

I get a blank page when I click the ep4 link in the admin panel. I know the file is there, I edited it with an echo just to prove it.
I copied the latest ep4 files into the correct locations.

I tried editing the easypopulate_4.php to run the remove (removed if statement) no difference.

php 5.4.30
MySQL 5.5.37-cll
zen cart 1.5.3
php 5/4/30
easypopulate_4.php, v4.0.23 07-13-2014 mc12345678
stopped working after zen cart automatic upgrade.

Thanks
Nick

[mc12345678]

Is there a way to manually un-install ep4?
I removed the files installed, but is there more to it? MySQL, other configuration files modified during the install?

I get a blank page when I click the ep4 link in the admin panel. I know the file is there, I edited it with an echo just to prove it.
I copied the latest ep4 files into the correct locations.

I tried editing the easypopulate_4.php to run the remove (removed if statement) no difference.

php 5.4.30
MySQL 5.5.37-cll
zen cart 1.5.3
php 5/4/30
easypopulate_4.php, v4.0.23 07-13-2014 mc12345678
stopped working after zen cart automatic upgrade.

Thanks
Nick

Blank page means an error log was more than likely generated. Check your logs folder (ZC 1.5.1 and above) or your cache folder (1.5.0 and below).

The uninstall will still keep the tools/EasyPopulate V4 menu option, so would need to uninstall that through some SqL that would have to look up. From what version did you upgrade and to what version?

[chadderuski]

Is there a way to manually un-install ep4?

php 5.4.30
MySQL 5.5.37-cll
zen cart 1.5.3
php 5/4/30
easypopulate_4.php, v4.0.23 07-13-2014 mc12345678
stopped working after zen cart automatic upgrade.

Hi Nick,

What happened was your were upgraded to a zencart version that wasn't compatible with your version of EP4. mc12345678 has updated the mysql to mysqli functions.

Normally, to uninstall EP4, you would go to Tools->EasyPopulate 4 and click "uninstall" on the right side. This uninstalled the Configuration menu entry and customization settings. You will still have a EasyPopulate 4 entry under Tools. You would then need to delete all EP4 files from the server.

If you still had an entry under Tools after deleting all files, I think you still missed one somewhere. Be sure to check all sub folders (comparing to the original file folder structure of the downloaded version).

If you download and install the latest version of EP4, it should fix things.

[mc12345678]

Oops. I forgot something. Yesterday I did my first product upload. I used the FULL-EP template. At first 287 product records failed to upload due to category names that were too long. I fixed that. As I mentioned in the previous post, most images are not showing. I know that's a size issue and a few images are in fact misnamed and some are missing. But I also noticed that although I have set product descriptions and product names to display, they are in fact missing. How can I re-upload the records to delete the existing records and repopulate the catalog? And what might cause product names and descriptions to not display?

Status of 9 will delete the item with that model #. So that would delete the product.

Sort of an aside, I've seen several people recently extend the length of their category name. I'm just curious about what kind of category needs more than 32 characters. Somewhat rhetorical.
As for images, yeah I would go with IH4 (Image handler4). It will accept a file (suggested to use the largest sized photo) then recreate the image in the sizes desired (provided the desired size is not larger than the current size of the new image) for small, medium, and large. Sure, if you have a specifically desired image for one of the other sizes, then you can upload that image to the desired size designation. There's a lot of features/options associated with it and they are described in the user manual. There are some obscure connections between options, but they're there.

The lack of display, does the same issue occur even when you use the classic template? There is at least one template that I know of that doesn't display certain information without applying a fix first. Otherwise, I have seen that if the database isn't utf-8, that could cause such an issue by certain conditions.

[FoodSourceDirect]

Hi MC. I downloaded IH4 and read its documentation. I like all the features. Just a little timid about the whole core file change thing. The same reason why I haven't as yet installed Numinix.

Re: Missing data for V_Product_Name and V_Description_1. I noticed that column field headers are case sensitive. once I changed to lower case, problem solved. I downloaded picaflor-azul's Newport Eco them. I have to figure out how to fix a couple of layout issues. I feel like I am in school again.

AJ

[nick02895]

Blank page means an error log was more than likely generated. Check your logs folder (ZC 1.5.1 and above) or your cache folder (1.5.0 and below).

The uninstall will still keep the tools/EasyPopulate V4 menu option, so would need to uninstall that through some SqL that would have to look up. From what version did you upgrade and to what version?

Great, thanks.

The error in the log is
[25-Jul-2014 16:43:43 America/New_York] PHP Fatal error: Call to undefined function mb_internal_encoding() in (omitted path)easypopulate_4.php on line 143

The EP upgrade was from
$Id: easypopulate_4.php, v4.0.21 06-01-2012 chadderuski $
to
$Id: easypopulate_4.php, v4.0.23 07-13-2014 mc12345678 $
ep reports 4.0.24 7/15/2014?

Zen from 1.51-1.53, auto installed.

Like Chad mentions later in this thread my zen-cart was automatically upgraded, thus ep stopped working. I upgraded ep after reading the thread and still didn't work. I removed the files and tried uploading again.

FIXED IT!
Looking at backup easypopulate_4.php, I rem'd out both calls to mb_internal_encoding(). If I remember correctly I asked my host to change a setting on their server and they refused so I rem'd this as a work around.

Thanks for your help
Nick

[retched]

I have a question regarding this module and the modules listed on the right hand side in the main page. Is there a list somewhere of where to find these? I do need something for my google feed for "Google Product Category" if possible.