Database Question, related to importing from supplier feed

[GameChanger69]

No it doesn't. YOU define the product model.

The products_id is the unique identifier.

If you want to display four identical products AND use the same model number for each, no problem, assuming it does not matter that each product is not uniquely identified in the order details.
But if you want to update that product info from a third party csv, you'll need to update by using the unique product ids as the reference, not the model or you get the problem you have.

I would have thought suffixing the supplier reference in the model would be the way to go...or prefixing if the model is not relevant to the customer/search engines.

Thanks for your input. How would I go about exporting the unique identifier that is assigned to each product model back into the CSV list ?
I can see in the admin that each product is assigned a unique identifier but when downloading a full CSV via EP this ID doesn't show in any fields.

It seems to me a catch 22 situation and I am leaning towards going back to add the supplier code to the end of each product model.

[GameChanger69]

This question is more applicable to the thread that is associated with the plugin (EP4). The default operation for EP4 is to consider products_model as the unique key for data. When set to the default, if more than one object has the same products_model, then the last entry "wins".

If any supplier data presents the same products_model for two or more products or for an existing product that already has that products_model (unique key), then there will be such a problem. There are multiple ways around that, one of which would be to prepend/append a supplier's unique identifier to all products_model data for that supplier so that at least the same data fed from two or more suppliers would be unique. This wouldn't fix an issue of a single supplier providing the same products_model for two different product.

Thanks yes you are correct. Our suppliers do not use the same code for different products so that issue would not be applicable.

Apologies for hijacking this thread and I would move it to the correct thread if I knew how or is iit only something admin can do or should I just start a new thread in the correct place ?
There are multiple ways around that, one of which would be to prepend/append a supplier's unique identifier to all products_model data for that supplier so that at least the same data fed from two or more suppliers would be unique.

How exactly would I achieve this ? Also you mentioned multiple ways ? My thought process freezes here.

[mc12345678]

Thanks yes you are correct. Our suppliers do not use the same code for different products so that issue would not be applicable.

Apologies for hijacking this thread and I would move it to the correct thread if I knew how or is iit only something admin can do or should I just start a new thread in the correct place ?
There are multiple ways around that, one of which would be to prepend/append a supplier's unique identifier to all products_model data for that supplier so that at least the same data fed from two or more suppliers would be unique.

How exactly would I achieve this ? Also you mentioned multiple ways ? My thought process freezes here.

Needn't "move" what has been listed, simply add to the associated thread and then once that is posted, can copy the link from the post number and in this thread identify that the conversation continues at: (and then paste the link to that specific post)...

Again and in reference to the response to torvista, the default settings of EP4 do not include the products_id, because if the products_model (default setting) is used, the expectation is that the products_model is unique (not the current case in this situation) and with a unique products_model the products_id doesn't matter. EP4 has a setting to identify what is to be used as the primary key as well, there is code built in to support expansion supporting identification of an alternate primary key (say would want to capture the business that provided the csv file, then could use a combination of the products_model and the business as the unique key). Alternatively, in the spreadsheet program that is used to alter/work with your data, one way to add the company identifier or other unique data is to create a new column adjacent to the v_products_model column and then using whatever method is supported by the spreadsheet program to concatenate the new identifier using a formula in the first row's cell and then copy and paste that formula all the way down. Then copy and paste special that the new content over the existing. Delete the new column (or give it a heading that won't conflict with any other field), properly save the file to support import and then upload and import the file.

The concepts of this are covered in the instructions, though the details are left to be worked out in using the above tool. Details about how to prepend/append information to a worksheet should be covered by the program's own instruction or other Internet sources.

[torvista]

You should also investigate DBIO for import/export.