EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread

[mc12345678]

Fyi, the patch identified at http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.p...18#post1236718 is no longer required. Github has been updated with the patch.

This is applicable to the version forked from chadderruski. When he posts the new version he's been working on, the expectation is that features added will get incorporated through our joint effort. (Ie he may incorporate them,, I will or perhaps a third party. Goal is to continue to have a continuously functional product that has the features and capability desired/possible.)

[linniedarling]

I'm working on creating a CSV file to import into my new Zencart shop. I'm importing a little over 1K products so I need to make sure I automate as much as possible to save time on error debugging.

• I cannot find which version of EasyPopulate my web designer installed -- it is not on the Tools->Easy Populate page
  I have also read the wiki, dated 2007 and cannot find my answers there
  
  I'd like to know how important the time stamp is within the v_date_added field. I would like to retain my product by date order. My old ecommerce platform did not use a time stamp, only the date.
  e.g. 1/12/2012
  
  It looks like EasyPopulate wants something more akin to this:
  1/12/2012 15:48
  
  My question is can I leave off the time stamp? Will EasyPopulate be able to handle this? Or do I need to insert a time stamp into each entry.

• Second question is about single and double quotes. I've read that EasyPopulate is not happy with quotes. I currently have quote-less titles but my descriptions do have quotes, both single and double as well as a smattering of other special characters like accented chars and various forms of punctuation like commas, semicolons, etc. Does the quote-less restriction apply to the v_products_description_1 field too? What about commas and other forms of punctuation? If there are issues, is there an escape character (like \ in regex) that will work? Otherwise any advice on this?
  
  I've got, as I've said, over 1K products and most of the descriptions are unique.

Thanks in advance.

[mc12345678]

I'm working on creating a CSV file to import into my new Zencart shop. I'm importing a little over 1K products so I need to make sure I automate as much as possible to save time on error debugging.

• I cannot find which version of EasyPopulate my web designer installed -- it is not on the Tools->Easy Populate page
  I have also read the wiki, dated 2007 and cannot find my answers there
  
  I'd like to know how important the time stamp is within the v_date_added field. I would like to retain my product by date order. My old ecommerce platform did not use a time stamp, only the date.
  e.g. 1/12/2012
  
  It looks like EasyPopulate wants something more akin to this:
  1/12/2012 15:48
  
  My question is can I leave off the time stamp? Will EasyPopulate be able to handle this? Or do I need to insert a time stamp into each entry.

• Second question is about single and double quotes. I've read that EasyPopulate is not happy with quotes. I currently have quote-less titles but my descriptions do have quotes, both single and double as well as a smattering of other special characters like accented chars and various forms of punctuation like commas, semicolons, etc. Does the quote-less restriction apply to the v_products_description_1 field too? What about commas and other forms of punctuation? If there are issues, is there an escape character (like \ in regex) that will work? Otherwise any advice on this?
  
  I've got, as I've said, over 1K products and most of the descriptions are unique.

Thanks in advance.

The absence of the easy populate option from your tools menu option is probably related to your "upgrade" process. Older versions were installed differently than those in ZC 1.5.x. More than likely there is a file named easy_populate or similar in your admin directory, looking at the contents (header area) you should be able to identify the version number.if not, please address in a new thread.

Regarding EP4, if you omit the column for date_added, EP4 will populate the column with the current time at least for new products. If it is included then it will use the provided date/time.

2. EP4 has a few configure settings to address handling characters such as qus, single quotes, etc and will run addslashes (php command) that will modify the "input" to address the concerns some/many of the concerns expressed. (Btw, the escape code is typically a backslash (\) before the character that would cause the problem; however, EP4 doesn't extra backslash, so if you wanted to import: my "name" is short, you wouldn't want to have it listed as my \"name\" is short in your description because the result would maintain the backslashes in the description that the customer would see.

[k1ra]

Does EP4 handle quantity discounts?
Does EP4 handle custom product fields? I have Numinix Product Fields installed and need to be able to update this info via EP4.

[mc12345678]

Does EP4 handle quantity discounts?
Does EP4 handle custom product fields? I have Numinix Product Fields installed and need to be able to update this info via EP4.

Not sure what you mean by questioning if EP4 handles quantity discounts. Discounts are not applied to the product table, but a different table in general. What table or operation applies quantity discounts? Off the top of my head, there is nothing that is in the products table or attributes tables that apply that. So, if the product(s) can be setup (placed in a category or a designated manufacturer or something similar) then the answer would be yes as long as the discount is/can be applied to that designated group. Otherwise, would need more information.

Regarding custom product fields, yes, there is the ability to incorporate custom fields that are a part of the products table. These are entered into the configuration area of EP4 as the name of the field separated by commas for each additional field. Do not prepend a v_, just the field's name as it is provided/added to the product table.

[k1ra]

Not sure what you mean by questioning if EP4 handles quantity discounts. Discounts are not applied to the product table, but a different table in general. What table or operation applies quantity discounts? Off the top of my head, there is nothing that is in the products table or attributes tables that apply that. So, if the product(s) can be setup (placed in a category or a designated manufacturer or something similar) then the answer would be yes as long as the discount is/can be applied to that designated group. Otherwise, would need more information.

Regarding custom product fields, yes, there is the ability to incorporate custom fields that are a part of the products table. These are entered into the configuration area of EP4 as the name of the field separated by commas for each additional field. Do not prepend a v_, just the field's name as it is provided/added to the product table.

I have a client whose products are available in quantities of 100,250,500,1000,2500 each at different prices. Currently these are setup with the Pricing Manager in Admin. I'm not sure that their current setup is the best way, but I kinda got dumped in the middle of what another person was working on.

Thank you for explaining the custom fields. That sounds easy enough to figure out.

[mc12345678]

I have a client whose products are available in quantities of 100,250,500,1000,2500 each at different prices. Currently these are setup with the Pricing Manager in Admin. I'm not sure that their current setup is the best way, but I kinda got dumped in the middle of what another person was working on.

Thank you for explaining the custom fields. That sounds easy enough to figure out.

Well, I just applied a qty discount to an item on a local store, and well, it seems to me that that option is not a bad way to go.
I haven't gone to look at the fields associated with quantity discounts and what is exported using EP4, but if it isn't already, the products_discount_type field could be included in the export/import, which would allow manual revision of the type of discount to be applied; however, the actual product discount "multiplier" is in the products_discount_quantity table. Export/import of that would require additional coding; however, if a product already existed, updates of that product would be applied using the "rules" of the qty discount, so, if the discount is percentage off or money off, etc., then whatever new price is entered will have the same modification then as it did before.

In that regards EP4 does "handle" quantity discounts, at least not have a problem because they are applied, but it doesn't currently apply changes to or modify quantity discount quantities.

[k1ra]

Well I feel dumb. Apparently the 'Model/Price/Breaks' import/export option was exactly what I was after!

[Jim Stone]

It seems that the csv file for easy populate doesn't allow for importing the sort order of products, or am I missing something? Thanks for your imput.

[linuxguy2]

It's been my experience a product sort order was not exported in my template.
In my original spread sheet I ordered my 750 products in ascending order and assigned Model numbers in an ascending order.
Now when I export all products it groups them by Category.