Updating product properties and price via spreadsheets or modules

[websitecurious]

Hello,
I have posted before in this forum, and gotten some suggestions about syncing an accounting software (in this case we use Peachtree) and Zen Cart. While on the hunt of finding a way (or program) to synchronize data back and forth (quantity, prices, invoice, costumer orders, etc.), I had come across modules and plugins that could satisfy product quantity and price updates. Due to circumstances at the place where I am helping out and through some consideration, at the moment, I was asked to just dismiss the original idea and just focus on finding a quick way to update product quantity (for the costumers to see) and price on the website.

Upon being told this, I went back to the first idea I had when I was first asked to help out. Use an export option of data in the accounting software (in this case being to an Spreadsheet in excel), and find a way to input such data into Zen Cart. Immediately I had thought about the plugins offered in this forum. I have downloaded Xampp and set up two zen cart databases for local testing. One has only the Zen Cart Demo, and the other one contains a database copy of the actual website. I had thought of using macros/data import options in excel in order to drag information exported from the accounting software to a predefined spreadsheet, already set up, and ready to be imported into Zen Cart.

Now even if I would like all of this to be as automatic as possible, writing scripts to access Zen Cart would take me sometime since I have not had much experience with Zen Cart. So, I had thought about playing around using easy populate, or excel populate at the moment, and stick with the regular routine of logging into admin and uploading the file. However, I am confused as to what which would accommodate better for such simple need. I browsed through the forum and there are complains from one to the other. I went ahead and tried to download easy populate first, but realized only certain versions of zen cart seem to be supported and there are different versions of easy populate (including format used as an input). I also have read about problems with php5 and wondered if it would be better to upgrade at some point. Has anyone here tried the method I'm thinking of? Any suggestions of an approach and what would be best? Would either easy populate or excel be not a hassle but friendly enough?

Also, I would like to have the products on the website be arranged in a single column, with other columns besides them showing description (weight, stock, price, etc.) sort of like a spread sheet, where one can sort them by clicking on the headings. I don't suppose there is a quick method for that?

The website only consists of clicking on a product category for a lists of products. No need for fancy descriptions and such. The Zen cart version is 1.3.8a, under linux server, php 5.2.17 and we currently have our accounting software in a windows server.
Thanks for reading!

[kobra]

The Zen cart version is 1.3.8a

Please read the support life cycle
http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.p...ort-Life-Cycle

1.3.8a is full of known vulnerabilities and should be upgraded on your schedule versus getting hacked and having to clean the install and then upgrade at a time when it may not be advantageous for you

Once upgraded have a look at this plugin
http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.p...Support-Thread

[websitecurious]

Thanks! that cleared out many doubts!
I finished installing, patching and test driving a version of Zen cart of 1.3.8a with the website's data base just to get familiar with the version installation. Then for fun tried installing easy populate...of all the plugin versions I was confused...I had read some versions only handled .csv, tab-deliminated forms, or both. I think I have installed the right one, it has been working good so far. Sometimes it's a bit confusing to know if a version is supported in only a certain version of Zen cart or not. I deleted some columns with certain headings in the predefined template, and uploaded it to the Zen cart, I wasn't sure if it was possible to get good results out of this. So far it has worked fine. I will try and play around like this again once I update to newer programs. By any chance, what would happen if I try to install both excel and easy populate in the newer versions of Zen cart?