Easy Populate 1.2.5.4 support

[makenoiz]

Has anyone set up a cron to use with Easy Populate to auto update? Would love to hear if youve been successful and if you have any tips. I cant seem to reach the developer of the original Easy Populate. Also, does anyone know what the difference was in auto populate and auto populate advanced 3.0?

[David Allen]

Has anyone set up a cron to use with Easy Populate to auto update? Would love to hear if youve been successful and if you have any tips.

I have set up cron job to auto update the stock - based on Easy Populate. However because it is running as a cron you have to remove quite a lot of stuff (all the d/load stuff for a start). Also because it is running as a Cron, none of the built in security stuff is applicable (application_top etc).
I ended up rewriting the whole thing to get it working properly (cut and pasting large chunks). Thre result is quite good - my client just uploads a stock file (via ftp) and the cron runs every hour to check for a new file, and if there is one, it uploads it all to the datbase.
A lot of things had to be hard coded though. Removing the program from the ZenCart framework means that you have to explicitly include the bits you need (like database access, tax functions etc).
Hope this helps point you in the right direction.

[agile4]

Forgive me if this has already been asked and answered, but I have been reading for a couple of hours and am still a little confused.

What is the differecne between EP 1.2.5.4 and EP 4.0? Do they work with each other or are is 4.0 an updated/rewritten 1.2.5.4 or what?

I am setting up a Zencart site for my sister in law and she is not web savvy and need a relatively simple way to add and remove products.

Thanks

Tom

[chadderuski]

Forgive me if this has already been asked and answered, but I have been reading for a couple of hours and am still a little confused.

What is the differecne between EP 1.2.5.4 and EP 4.0? Do they work with each other or are is 4.0 an updated/rewritten 1.2.5.4 or what?

I am setting up a Zencart site for my sister in law and she is not web savvy and need a relatively simple way to add and remove products.

Thanks

Tom

Hi Tom,

EP 1.2.5.4 is a port from OsCommerce's version by Langer. Many people have modded and tweaked it with varying degrees of success and failure with the end result of falling back to 1.2.5.4

EP 2.x ( hard to find ) Was an attempt to rewrite/update EP, but is considered very faulty. Don't use it.

EP 3.0.3 'Advanced' was Langer's attempt to commercialize his improved version. It can still be had, but Langer has not been seen for years now.

EP 4.0 Beta is my work. I have put much effort into cleaning up and improving the code, completely rewriting much of it. Much effort was put into improving it's performance so it can be used on any platform. RECENTLY tested on a store with 900,000 sku's.

It has been been separated from the 1.2.5.4 code and installs it's own configuration keys so you can actually have both 4.0 and 1.2.5.4 installed.
HOWEVER!! The files from EP 4 and 1.2.5.4 are no longer compatible. I have rewritten category importing and added many fields that 1.2.5.4 can't handle. It should be considered it's own product.

It's still "Beta" because it's not completely done to my standards. The most recent update at github has many fixes (centered mostly around multi-lingual stores).

Once caveat: Use OpenOffice to make your CSV files. Better cross platform compatibility. Excel sort of does it's own thing (that's MicroSoft for ya), and I haven't had a chance to sort things out for all the versions since DOS. OpenOffice also lets you PICK your language. UTF-8, ISO 8859-1, etc. Very useful for foreign language stores.

I do not have a complete set of Doc/How-To's but have detailed important things to know like you MUST used Products Model # and they should be unique.

I also have rudimentary attribute importing working, but this needs more work and features to be truly useful. AS IS, you can create your attributes and options name and apply them to your products (even multiple attributes per product) at upload. Attributes must be applied AFTER you have created a product.

You can get it at github here:

https://github.com/chaddro/EasyPopulate-4.0

You'll see a ZIP button. Be sure to also install Dr. Byte's MySQL backup tool. You'll always want to backup your store before doing imports (no matter what version you use).

OH! Before I forget. EP 4.0 is now compatible with Zencart 1.5!

-chadd

PS. I'd be remiss in not mentioning Apsona ShopAdmin. This is a paid product that has received many positive comments. I have not reviewed it myself, so I don't know if it can do things like import attributes, or quantity discounts like EP 4.

[agile4]

Thanks Chadd,

I just installed it and at was a piece of cake.

The only issue I have is that I can not download the export file from inside of ZC. I get a permissions error. I have the temp directory in my admin/temp folder. The folder is set to 0755 but the .cvs files are created as 0644. Not sure how to fix this, but I'm sure it;s covered somewhere in the thread, so I'll do a search in a few.

Thanks again.

Tom

[agile4]

For now, I moved the /temp/ folder out of the admin folder and it fixed the download issue. Tomorrow, I'll try recreating it with a different method in the admin area to see if that works


Thanks

[chadderuski]

For now, I moved the /temp/ folder out of the admin folder and it fixed the download issue. Tomorrow, I'll try recreating it with a different method in the admin area to see if that works


Thanks

Hi Agile,

I now have a dedicated support thread for EasyPopulate 4.0:

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=190417

In order to put your move your temp folder into your admin, you will have to add an .htaccess file and add the allowed file types as .csv and .txt (in the even you get an error log from EP4).

I know that works for 1.3.9. I haven't tested it under 1.5.

[kjsattic]

Update on my issue, hopefully someone can help.

Whenever I attempt to download a file from the easy populate console the admin prompts me to log in, and won't actually allow me to log in until I clear my zen cart cookies. I wonder if this is something to do with my store using .htaccess files?

Similar things occur when I tried to uninstall easy populate using the YOUR_ADMIN/easypopulate.php?langer=remove address in my browser

Really am stuck with whats causing this

I am having this same issue. Has anyone figured out what needs to be done to fix this? Would greatly appreciate any help.
Thanks

[TamyA]

chadderuski,

I am wondering if this has been mentioned before, line 206 in easypopulate.php for zen cart 1.5 suppose to be <?php instead of <?.

I was getting this
'; echo 'Upload Directory: '.$tempdir.'
'; echo 'Verbose Feedback: '.(($ep_feedback) ? "TRUE":"FALSE").'
'; echo 'Split Records: '.$ep_split_records.'
'; echo 'Execution Time: '.$ep_execution.'
'; echo '
Custom Products Fields
'; echo 'Product Short Descriptions: '.(($ep_supported_mods['psd']) ? "TRUE":"FALSE").'
'; echo 'Product Unit of Measure: '.(($ep_supported_mods['uom']) ? "TRUE":"FALSE").'
'; echo 'Product UPC Code: '.(($ep_supported_mods['upc']) ? "TRUE":"FALSE").'
'; // Google Product Category for Google Merchant Center echo 'Google Product Category: '.(($ep_supported_mods['gpc']) ? "TRUE":"FALSE").'
'; echo '
Installed Languages
'; foreach ($langcode as $key => $lang) { echo $lang['id'].'-'.$lang['code'].': '.$lang['name'].'
'; } echo 'Default Language: '. $epdlanguage_id .'-'. $epdlanguage_name.'
'; echo '

Until i noticed that and made the change.

I am using Easy Populate 4.0.17 - Beta 12-24-2011

[chadderuski]

chadderuski,

I am wondering if this has been mentioned before, line 206 in easypopulate.php for zen cart 1.5 suppose to be <?php instead of <?.

Until i noticed that and made the change.
I am using Easy Populate 4.0.17 - Beta 12-24-2011

Hi TamyA!

I have a dedicated support thread for EP 4 here:
http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=190417

In answer to your question, <? is a php short tag. It is not "wrong" per say, but it would be better if I didn't use them. Some server configurations may not recognize the tag. Thanks for the heads up. I'll fix it in the next update.