EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread

[GAM]

Hi

Is there any funky switch (function/action triggered by a specific value) on one of the 'specials' fields (specials_price, specials_date_avail, specials_expires_date) that will remove or delete the Specials record for a product (linked record in the 'specials' table)... like the value '9' specified for product_status to remove/delete a product?

Would be very nice if there was.

Cheers
GAM

FYI
Looking into the code itself I discovered that specifying 0 (zero) on v_specials_price for a record deletes the Special on import.

[mc12345678]

I changed nothing. There are no other error message. Nothing was installed edited or deleted. When I click on EP the window does not come up instead I get that error message.

So it's working again? Did you have to reinstall the plug-in?

[mc12345678]

I am trying to upload my Full product listing but it is not importing into my database.

Seems like it is working for you again or at least not displaying an error?

Okay the real question, what is the name of the file that has the datat you are trying to import? Does the beginning of the filename match the beginning of the filename of any exported file?

[GAM]

Anyone able to shed some light on this... EP4 reporting the following even though 'specials price' is LOWER than 'normal price'.

(my debugging info preceding the standard error message is included in sample output below, e.g., s_price: 6.7270 p_price: 14.1363, where s_price = 'specials_price' and p_price = 'products_price')

s_price: 6.7270 p_price: 14.1363SKIPPED! - Model: EKFBASUSCH3AN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 90.0000 p_price: 115.5000SKIPPED! - Model: EKFBASUSCH3WAN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 90.0000 p_price: 127.9545SKIPPED! - Model: EKFBKITGAX58UD7AN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 90.0000 p_price: 139.1363SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC260275285GTXGWN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 80.0000 p_price: 109.8181SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC285GTXA - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 77.3520 p_price: 104.7272SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC295GTX1PCBBackAN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 50.0000 p_price: 123.0454SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC4890CFAN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 80.0000 p_price: 117.4545SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC4890SAPPHIREPCBAN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 80.0000 p_price: 107.6818SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC5870V2AN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 90.0000 p_price: 108.1363SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC9800GX2SLIN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 80.0000 p_price: 163.1818SKIPPED! - Model: EKFCR600CFA - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 35.3180 p_price: 143.4545SKIPPED! - Model: EKFCR600CFXA - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 40.3520 p_price: 163.8636SKIPPED! - Model: EKMMSUPHFINTELN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 8.5000 p_price: 10.3181SKIPPED! - Model: EKMOS680i1 - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 9.0910 p_price: 36.3636SKIPPED! - Model: EKMOS680i2 - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 9.0910 p_price: 36.3636SKIPPED! - Model: EKMOS680i2A - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 9.0910 p_price: 36.3636SKIPPED! - Model: EKFBKITGAP67AUD7AN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 90.0000 p_price: 155.0909SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC5850AEN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 99.9000 p_price: 112.6818SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC5870AEN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 99.9410 p_price: 124.5454SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC5870PEN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 95.8500 p_price: 108.1363SKIPPED! - Model: EKSUPHFFEN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 79.1270 p_price: 104.5000SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC570GTXSEPEN - specials price higher than normal price...

I've tried numerous things but just cannot understand why this is occurring for the handful of products above out of a few hundred in the original upload file.

Example of header and first data record in the file (only records that error are included in the current test file):

v_products_model,v_products_type,v_products_image,v_products_name_1,v_products_description_1,v_products_url_1,v_specials_price,v_specials_date_avail,v_specials_expires_date,v_products_price,v_product_is_call,v_products_sort_order,v_products_quantity_order_min,v_products_quantity_order_units,v_products_priced_by_attribute,v_product_is_always_free_shipping,v_date_avail,v_date_added,v_products_quantity,v_manufacturers_name,v_categories_name_1,v_tax_class_title,v_status
EKALUFC4870KITV2,1,ek/EKALUFC4870KITV2.jpg,ALU - FC4870 KIT V2,"<p class=""prodname"">EK-ALU-4870 Kit V2</p><br /><p class=""prodname2"">ALU replacement part for EK-FC4850/4870 water blocks</p><br /><p class=""proddesc"">With the ALU replacement part you can make all your EK-FC4850/4870 compatible with (Club 3D) non-reference Radeon HD 4870 graphic cards</p><br /><p class=""prodinc""><b>Enclosed:</b><br>- ALU Part<br>- Mounting screws<br>- Thermal pad</p><p class=""prodname2"">EKWB EAN: 3830046993670</p><div><p align=""center""><a title=""Check Compatibility list for this product"" target=""_blank"" href=""http://www.coolingconfigurator.com/waterblock/3830046993670""><img src=""/store/images/ek_compat.gif"">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</a><a target=""_blank"" href=""http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/shop/EK-IM/EK-IM-3830046993670.pdf""><img src=""/store/images/ek_install_man.gif"">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</a><a target=""_blank"" href=""http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/shop/EK-PSS/EK-PSS-3830046993670.pdf""><img src=""/store/images/ek_prod_spec.gif""></a><br /><a target=""_blank"" href=""http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/shop/catalogsearch/result/?q=3830046993670""><font face=""MS Reference Sans Serif"" size=""2"" color=""#f88c18""><strong>Search EKWB shop for 3830046993670</strong></font></a></p></div>",www.ekwb.com/shop/alu-fc4870-kit-v2.html, 6.7270 ,2013-01-01,2020-02-02,14.1363,0,0,1,1,0,0,,2009-12-02,4 ,EK Water Blocks,Water Cooling^Blocks^VGA-Full Cover,GST,1

I am using Excel and encoding in UTF-8 via Notepad++ to ensure the descriptions are not compromised and many other similar records with specials in the original file are being processed as expected. I just can't see a pattern or work out why it is falling over on these. I've been testing this extensively before posting.

Would appreciate any assistance.

Cheers
GAM

[mc12345678]

Anyone able to shed some light on this... EP4 reporting the following even though 'specials price' is LOWER than 'normal price'.

(my debugging info preceding the standard error message is included in sample output below, e.g., s_price: 6.7270 p_price: 14.1363, where s_price = 'specials_price' and p_price = 'products_price')

s_price: 6.7270 p_price: 14.1363SKIPPED! - Model: EKFBASUSCH3AN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 90.0000 p_price: 115.5000SKIPPED! - Model: EKFBASUSCH3WAN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 90.0000 p_price: 127.9545SKIPPED! - Model: EKFBKITGAX58UD7AN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 90.0000 p_price: 139.1363SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC260275285GTXGWN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 80.0000 p_price: 109.8181SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC285GTXA - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 77.3520 p_price: 104.7272SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC295GTX1PCBBackAN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 50.0000 p_price: 123.0454SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC4890CFAN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 80.0000 p_price: 117.4545SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC4890SAPPHIREPCBAN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 80.0000 p_price: 107.6818SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC5870V2AN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 90.0000 p_price: 108.1363SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC9800GX2SLIN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 80.0000 p_price: 163.1818SKIPPED! - Model: EKFCR600CFA - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 35.3180 p_price: 143.4545SKIPPED! - Model: EKFCR600CFXA - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 40.3520 p_price: 163.8636SKIPPED! - Model: EKMMSUPHFINTELN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 8.5000 p_price: 10.3181SKIPPED! - Model: EKMOS680i1 - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 9.0910 p_price: 36.3636SKIPPED! - Model: EKMOS680i2 - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 9.0910 p_price: 36.3636SKIPPED! - Model: EKMOS680i2A - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 9.0910 p_price: 36.3636SKIPPED! - Model: EKFBKITGAP67AUD7AN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 90.0000 p_price: 155.0909SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC5850AEN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 99.9000 p_price: 112.6818SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC5870AEN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 99.9410 p_price: 124.5454SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC5870PEN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 95.8500 p_price: 108.1363SKIPPED! - Model: EKSUPHFFEN - specials price higher than normal price...
s_price: 79.1270 p_price: 104.5000SKIPPED! - Model: EKFC570GTXSEPEN - specials price higher than normal price...

I've tried numerous things but just cannot understand why this is occurring for the handful of products above out of a few hundred in the original upload file.

Example of header and first data record in the file (only records that error are included in the current test file):

v_products_model,v_products_type,v_products_image,v_products_name_1,v_products_description_1,v_products_url_1,v_specials_price,v_specials_date_avail,v_specials_expires_date,v_products_price,v_product_is_call,v_products_sort_order,v_products_quantity_order_min,v_products_quantity_order_units,v_products_priced_by_attribute,v_product_is_always_free_shipping,v_date_avail,v_date_added,v_products_quantity,v_manufacturers_name,v_categories_name_1,v_tax_class_title,v_status
EKALUFC4870KITV2,1,ek/EKALUFC4870KITV2.jpg,ALU - FC4870 KIT V2,"<p class=""prodname"">EK-ALU-4870 Kit V2</p><br /><p class=""prodname2"">ALU replacement part for EK-FC4850/4870 water blocks</p><br /><p class=""proddesc"">With the ALU replacement part you can make all your EK-FC4850/4870 compatible with (Club 3D) non-reference Radeon HD 4870 graphic cards</p><br /><p class=""prodinc""><b>Enclosed:</b><br>- ALU Part<br>- Mounting screws<br>- Thermal pad</p><p class=""prodname2"">EKWB EAN: 3830046993670</p><div><p align=""center""><a title=""Check Compatibility list for this product"" target=""_blank"" href=""http://www.coolingconfigurator.com/waterblock/3830046993670""><img src=""/store/images/ek_compat.gif"">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</a><a target=""_blank"" href=""http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/shop/EK-IM/EK-IM-3830046993670.pdf""><img src=""/store/images/ek_install_man.gif"">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</a><a target=""_blank"" href=""http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/shop/EK-PSS/EK-PSS-3830046993670.pdf""><img src=""/store/images/ek_prod_spec.gif""></a><br /><a target=""_blank"" href=""http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/shop/catalogsearch/result/?q=3830046993670""><font face=""MS Reference Sans Serif"" size=""2"" color=""#f88c18""><strong>Search EKWB shop for 3830046993670</strong></font></a></p></div>",www.ekwb.com/shop/alu-fc4870-kit-v2.html, 6.7270 ,2013-01-01,2020-02-02,14.1363,0,0,1,1,0,0,,2009-12-02,4 ,EK Water Blocks,Water Cooling^Blocks^VGA-Full Cover,GST,1

I am using Excel and encoding in UTF-8 via Notepad++ to ensure the descriptions are not compromised and many other similar records with specials in the original file are being processed as expected. I just can't see a pattern or work out why it is falling over on these. I've been testing this extensively before posting.

Would appreciate any assistance.

Cheers
GAM

Maybe "backwards" or otherwise odd, but you said you're using Excel. I'm not sure how much of the above explanation shows data copied over to show us what is expected and how much is provided by EP4 (like the actual values of s_price and v_price), also, the file snippet shown does not appear to follow the formatting expected by EP4 (quotes around every field separated by a comma).

Wondering also if there is a currency conversion or something else odd going on that is preventing the import. Are you able to apply the desired special from within ZC admin for these products without issue? Is there a possible duplicate model name such that the new special price is greater than the existing product price or is the current product price less than the special price and the new product price is different?

Might have other ideas later, but that's what I have at the moment.

[GAM]

Maybe "backwards" or otherwise odd, but you said you're using Excel. I'm not sure how much of the above explanation shows data copied over to show us what is expected and how much is provided by EP4 (like the actual values of s_price and v_price), also, the file snippet shown does not appear to follow the formatting expected by EP4 (quotes around every field separated by a comma).

Wondering also if there is a currency conversion or something else odd going on that is preventing the import. Are you able to apply the desired special from within ZC admin for these products without issue? Is there a possible duplicate model name such that the new special price is greater than the existing product price or is the current product price less than the special price and the new product price is different?

Might have other ideas later, but that's what I have at the moment.

Hi MC

Thanks for taking the time to look into this and respond. After several more tests I believe I have discovered the problem... spaces before and/or after commas around those values i.e.:
, xx.xxxx ,

Example in bold:
v_products_model,v_products_type,v_products_image,v_products_name_1,v_products_d escription_1,v_products_url_1,v_specials_price,v_specials_date_avail,v_specials_ expires_date,v_products_price,v_product_is_call,v_products_sort_order,v_products _quantity_order_min,v_products_quantity_order_units,v_products_priced_by_attribu te,v_product_is_always_free_shipping,v_date_avail,v_date_added,v_products_quanti ty,v_manufacturers_name,v_categories_name_1,v_tax_class_title,v_status
EKALUFC4870KITV2,1,ek/EKALUFC4870KITV2.jpg,ALU - FC4870 KIT V2,"<p class=""prodname"">EK-ALU-4870 Kit V2</p><br /><p class=""prodname2"">ALU replacement part for EK-FC4850/4870 water blocks</p><br /><p class=""proddesc"">With the ALU replacement part you can make all your EK-FC4850/4870 compatible with (Club 3D) non-reference Radeon HD 4870 graphic cards</p><br /><p class=""prodinc""><b>Enclosed:</b><br>- ALU Part<br>- Mounting screws<br>- Thermal pad</p><p class=""prodname2"">EKWB EAN: 3830046993670</p><div><p align=""center""><a title=""Check Compatibility list for this product"" target=""_blank"" href=""http://www.coolingconfigurator.com/waterblock/3830046993670""><img src=""/store/images/ek_compat.gif"">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</a><a target=""_blank"" href=""http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/shop/EK-IM/EK-IM-3830046993670.pdf""><img src=""/store/images/ek_install_man.gif"">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</a><a target=""_blank"" href=""http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/shop/EK-PSS/EK-PSS-3830046993670.pdf""><img src=""/store/images/ek_prod_spec.gif""></a><br /><a target=""_blank"" href=""http://www.ekwaterblocks.com/shop/catalogsearch/result/?q=3830046993670""><font face=""MS Reference Sans Serif"" size=""2"" color=""#f88c18""><strong>Search EKWB shop for 3830046993670</strong></font></a></p></div>",www.ekwb.com/shop/alu-fc4870-kit-v2.html, 6.7270 ,2013-01-01,2020-02-02,14.1363,0,0,1,1,0,0,,2009-12-02,4 ,EK Water Blocks,Water Cooling^Blocks^VGA-Full Cover,GST,1

Despite the other field delimiter formatting mentioned, everything works fine and has worked for the several hundred other records in the file originally imported.

Now to identify why the additional spacing is occuring in my Excel file(s) and rectify.

Cheers
GAM

[GAM]

For anyone else that might experience similar circumstances with unusual spacing/formatting around numeric values in your Excel file, as per above posts that caused the specials price to be seen as greater than the product price due to a 'space' either side of the value in the field, check your column formatting. In my case above, somehow some unusual custom formatting slipped into a previously functional Excel/EP4 upload source file.

Cheers
GAM

[GAM]

For those that cannot or wish not to stop using Excel and have experienced formatting, character encoding and field delimiter problems with save as 'CSV' from Excel, check out this link to a VBA macro that just might solve your issues and/or make existing frequent conversion to UTF-8 tasks a lot more efficient and reliable...

http://vba-corner.livejournal.com/5733.html


I've trialled this a little today and it seems to work exactly as expected. It converts the fields in each record to that expected by EP4 (comma separated, quote enclosed) and appears to retain the UTF-8 encoding (not tested with foreign characters, only 'special' characters).


For reference and background, I previously had Excel output and import via EP4 working fine but I had to open and 'convert to utf-8' via Notepad++ before uploading to ensure I didn't lose formatting/special characters in my 'descriptions'. Although the file wasn't delimited correctly for EP4, i.e., no quotes around values, it did still work.

Hoping this might others.

Cheers
GAM

[GAM]

For those that cannot or wish not to stop using Excel and have experienced formatting, character encoding and field delimiter problems with save as 'CSV' from Excel, check out this link to a VBA macro that just might solve your issues and/or make existing frequent conversion to UTF-8 tasks a lot more efficient and reliable...

http://vba-corner.livejournal.com/5733.html


I've trialled this a little today and it seems to work exactly as expected. It converts the fields in each record to that expected by EP4 (comma separated, quote enclosed) and appears to retain the UTF-8 encoding (not tested with foreign characters, only 'special' characters).


For reference and background, I previously had Excel output and import via EP4 working fine but I had to open and 'convert to utf-8' via Notepad++ before uploading to ensure I didn't lose formatting/special characters in my 'descriptions'. Although the file wasn't delimited correctly for EP4, i.e., no quotes around values, it did still work.

Hoping this might others.

Cheers
GAM

STOP! BEWARE!
I've realised that the above solution for me is not quite so perfect after all... there is a flaw.

Date formats are changed to dd/mm/yyyy, which is not good at all.


I'll post back if I find a solution to the date issue.

Cheers
GAM

[mc12345678]

STOP! BEWARE!
I've realised that the above solution for me is not quite so perfect after all... there is a flaw.

Date formats are changed to dd/mm/yyyy, which is not good at all.


I'll post back if I find a solution to the date issue.

Cheers
GAM

I was using the same example for Excel; however, hadn't tried to upload the file yet. Glad you pointed that out. The "program" doesn't modify the data presented specifically for dates. Therefore, it would seem that you would need to apply a custom date format to the excel cell to force a YYYY-MM-DD and appropriate time format as part of the text export. Might be possible to do a test of the cell and if it is a date and time format to then translate to the correct format; however, wonder what other "numbers" could be turned into a date time based on what is input.