EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread

[Feznizzle]

I just downloaded, added trademark and registration symbols to product titles. TM works but still no dice on ®.

At the top of the screen, I noticed this message: "collation: latin1 "

In Libre/OO, I can choose:
Unicode (utf-8)
Western Europe (ISO-8859-1)
Latin 3 (ISO-8859-3)

Notably missing:
Latin 1 (ISO-8859-1)

Could that be the problem? What if I switched EP4 to Latin 3 (ISO-8859-3)?

Hope that's not horribly dumb, just tossing out thoughts.

[mc12345678]

Same thing occurs in Libre.

Though doesn't/didn't seem like it should have an effect, what special conversions are setup in the configuration of ep4. It could be that maybe that character should be replaced with the html equivalent?

See, in Open Office they said that to add such a symbol would require using a particular font, I don't know if the character is otherwise always there but not visible like if the font is chosen, the character entered, then the font changed, and then possibly changed back, does the character magically "disappear and reappear?". If so, then for peace of mind would use "that" font while editing but understand that the font won't exist when saving though the characters should still be present and then upon upload they should still be there as well...

As far as encoding changes? Otherwise it's testing time to see what can be done to get what is desired...

[Feznizzle]

I'll try replacing with html equivilent again.

In the mean time, I went to the DB using Sequel Pro and clicked Table Info (was looking at products-description). Found this info:

CREATE TABLE `products_description` (
  `products_id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `language_id` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '1',
  `products_name` varchar(150) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `products_description` text COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci,
  `products_url` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci DEFAULT NULL,
  `products_viewed` int(5) DEFAULT '0',
  PRIMARY KEY (`products_id`,`language_id`),
  KEY `idx_products_name_zen` (`products_name`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM AUTO_INCREMENT=11640 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci;

I don't understand SQL (or any coding, really), but looks like the db wants utf8... is that right??? If so, then EP4 should have worked off the shelf. But EP4 seems to have improved since switching away from UTF8.

Naaaarg. lolz

[mc12345678]

I'll try replacing with html equivilent again.

In the mean time, I went to the DB using Sequel Pro and clicked Table Info (was looking at products-description). Found this info:

CREATE TABLE `products_description` (
  `products_id` int(11) NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT,
  `language_id` int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT '1',
  `products_name` varchar(150) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT '',
  `products_description` text COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci,
  `products_url` varchar(255) COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci DEFAULT NULL,
  `products_viewed` int(5) DEFAULT '0',
  PRIMARY KEY (`products_id`,`language_id`),
  KEY `idx_products_name_zen` (`products_name`)
) ENGINE=MyISAM AUTO_INCREMENT=11640 DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8 COLLATE=utf8_unicode_ci;

I don't understand SQL (or any coding, really), but looks like the db wants utf8... is that right??? If so, then EP4 should have worked off the shelf. But EP4 seems to have improved since switching away from UTF8.

Naaaarg. lolz

Okay, would like to regroup a little.

Right now, what is going on is that the database is prepared to handle utf8, but everything about the store is "in the past" and pushing latin1/ISO-8539-1 to the database (and expecting everything that comes from the database to be in the same format regardless of how it is stored). The next thing about all this as pointed out earlier, export followed by import of the same file made no changes to the content which is everything about EP4 functionality did not affect the encoding. Therefore, EP4 never was a problem from what can be determined. The problem has been in editing and properly storing the edited file to be able to be handled by EP4.

Right now the store is in a mixed state which is typically undesirable and could become problematic with upgrading as well considering that latin1 is trying to be pushed to utf8 instead of latin1 to latin1 and utf8 to utf8. But that all is a different topic.

Again, EP4 is not the issue regarding the character encoding with the upload or download. Right now it is finding a suitable editor that will allow the full use of the characters that have been presented to the database. Without completely installing a system with similar setup which may or may not be possible based on the age of software and availability of similar setup, all I can really do at the moment is offer guidance/suggestions of ways to work around it. I might be able to setup a local server and platform on my computer, but seems like it would take up several hours of time to do.

[Feznizzle]

Thank you for the offer, I'd happily buy some coffee to make it worthwhile for you. But I'm hoping that won't become necessary because I'm now thinking that maybe the solution is simply changing the site files to expect UTF8, per these instructions:
https://www.zen-cart.com/content.php...8859-1-to-utf8

Of course, because my db is already expecting utf8, I won't need to run that mod... just change language and config files.

I'll give that a quick whirl, report back.

[Feznizzle]

YAHOOOOOOO!

Houston we are a GO!

I have no idea when/how/why the site's db got upgraded and I'm beyond stumped about why the config/language files did not also get upgraded... but holly-frikken-lujah it's working like a charm baby!!!!

Awesome. Thank you so much for the help, MC!

Hopefully there will be no other repercussions from changing that, like payment processing or some other mod wanting iso-8539-1. But if there are, I'll deal with it later.

[mc12345678]

YAHOOOOOOO!

Houston we are a GO!

I have no idea when/how/why the site's db got upgraded and I'm beyond stumped about why the config/language files did not also get upgraded... but holly-frikken-lujah it's working like a charm baby!!!!

Awesome. Thank you so much for the help, MC!

Hopefully there will be no other repercussions from changing that, like payment processing or some other mod wanting iso-8539-1. But if there are, I'll deal with it later.

As eluded/discussed by DrByte and I have seen this, you may want to take a peek at the define pages at a minimum to validate that they are not already encoded in "latin1" then also other "places" where specifically latin1 was used (though that would be easier to identify through a comparison program of old to new or original to edited).

Congrats that things are working (better). would suggest updating the referenced thread to summarize the "solution" or at least the condition.

[Feznizzle]

Great advice, I will grep the php files for any references to latin1 and/or iso-8539-1.

And I'll update the original thread. TTFN! :)

[Feznizzle]

Now that I'm able to use EP4, I have a question related to creating categories.

When you export products, a category path comes with it. But when you export "Categories Only (with Metatags)", no path is given. This becomes a problem when you have a lot of categories (I have 1351) and you wish to add blurbs to each (category description/meta data).

Quick example using pets:
Dogs^Brown^Furry
Cats^Brown^Furry

I now have two "Brown" categories and two "Furry" categories, but no way to know which refer to Cats and which refer to dogs... thus I'd don't know where to put which descriptions.

So my question:
Is there a way to ask EP4 to include a category path column with the "Categories Only (with Metatags)" export?

Thanks!

[mc12345678]

Now that I'm able to use EP4, I have a question related to creating categories.

When you export products, a category path comes with it. But when you export "Categories Only (with Metatags)", no path is given. This becomes a problem when you have a lot of categories (I have 1351) and you wish to add blurbs to each (category description/meta data).

Quick example using pets:
Dogs^Brown^Furry
Cats^Brown^Furry

I now have two "Brown" categories and two "Furry" categories, but no way to know which refer to Cats and which refer to dogs... thus I'd don't know where to put which descriptions.

So my question:
Is there a way to ask EP4 to include a category path column with the "Categories Only (with Metatags)" export?

Thanks!

Sorry I missed seeing this earlier.

Yes, can be added. Export setup would need the field added to be captured, incorporate the same/similar "building" from the product's export, and done.

Now understand that it would be/should be only for informational purposes. Ie. Won't be able to modify it and make it do anything when importing by the intended filename. Otherwise, (and perhaps it was an omission) it has always seemed like that the category field modifications would be done somewhat along side the store's admin viewer where the category number is "obvious" for each such category.

But, I can see the benefit also. :)

I'll see what I can put together and upload to github.