EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread

[favjola]

maybe I'm wrong, and I'm glad to be wrong! in the short guide of the plugin there is textually

"Categories are handled differently from other versions of EP. You can now import multilingual categories (Like Products Names, descriptions, etc.).
To achieve this, each v_categories_names_1, v_categories_names_2, etc. correspond to a language installed in your system, and individual category
names are separated by the Carat "^" symbol. For Example: Bar Supplies^Glass Washers^Brushes

"Bar Supplies" will be your Top level Category, with "Glass Washers" as a sub-directory, and "Brushes" as a sub-directory of "Glass Washers"."



in this case seems to support 3 levels of product categories.............

[mc12345678]

maybe I'm wrong, and I'm glad to be wrong! in the short guide of the plugin there is textually

"Categories are handled differently from other versions of EP. You can now import multilingual categories (Like Products Names, descriptions, etc.).
To achieve this, each v_categories_names_1, v_categories_names_2, etc. correspond to a language installed in your system, and individual category
names are separated by the Carat "^" symbol. For Example: Bar Supplies^Glass Washers^Brushes

"Bar Supplies" will be your Top level Category, with "Glass Washers" as a sub-directory, and "Brushes" as a sub-directory of "Glass Washers"."



in this case seems to support 3 levels of product categories.............

Hopefully I understood correctly, you want to know if a single product can be uploaded to an area of your site that is for example in a sub-sub-sub-etc Category of a category. For example: The "product" (Dog named Fluffy to be located in the category path of Animal->Mammal->Canine->Small Breed->Chihuahua.

Yes, it will place the "product" Fluffy in the sub category Animal^Mammal^Canine^Small Breed^Chihuahua when uploaded with that information.
Off the top of my head, I thought that it would create those categories if they did not exist automatically when uploading the product; however, I know that there is at least one file format that processes the entry to create the new category(ies) if they don't exist. The existence of the category is dependent on Capitalization as well. As you may have read, Chihuahua and chihuahua are two different categories when processed by the plugin, so a "new" category would be created if it didn't exist at the point the record was imported.

1) Does that help and 2) did I understand your question correctly?

[BlessIsaacola]

I am wondering if someone can please tell if this mod support product deletion. What I want is to use this mod (if possible to delete all products from our server that are no longer available). In the other Easy Populate, changing the status to 99 deletes the product from the server but I don't know how to accomplish the same goal in this mod. Thanks!

[mc12345678]

I am wondering if someone can please tell if this mod support product deletion. What I want is to use this mod (if possible to delete all products from our server that are no longer available). In the other Easy Populate, changing the status to 99 deletes the product from the server but I don't know how to accomplish the same goal in this mod. Thanks!

Don't hold me to it, but I thought I ran across something that said a status of 9 would delete it (or something). Otherwise hiding the product would make it unavailable to customers (status of 0 I thought).

Sorry, I'm mobile and don't have a good link to the code to be able to find out if the above is 100% accuratei do know that the "alternate" status was 9, but not sure what exactly it deletes.

[BlessIsaacola]

Don't hold me to it, but I thought I ran across something that said a status of 9 would delete it (or something). Otherwise hiding the product would make it unavailable to customers (status of 0 I thought).

Sorry, I'm mobile and don't have a good link to the code to be able to find out if the above is 100% accuratei do know that the "alternate" status was 9, but not sure what exactly it deletes.

Thank you so much for your prompt response. Status of 9 did the trick. Thanks!

[cherylc]

Sorry I'm new here and not sure how to post a new thread. I'm also a newbie using Zen Cart and I'm currently using EP4. The problem I'm having is that when I upload my attributes to the site the items are then listed with the following *Mixed ON. I didn't have this problem when using EasyPopulate and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I am having to manually change all the items on the admin console through the price manager. I'm not sure where the problem is as when I upload the full ep products are uploading to the site fine but when I upload the attributes file that's when it happens. I'm using the Basic attributes file. The Qty Min/Unit Mix:is switched to 'no' so I'm having to edit every item to switch it to yes. Any help greatly appreciated.

[mc12345678]

Sorry I'm new here and not sure how to post a new thread. I'm also a newbie using Zen Cart and I'm currently using EP4. The problem I'm having is that when I upload my attributes to the site the items are then listed with the following *Mixed ON. I didn't have this problem when using EasyPopulate and I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I am having to manually change all the items on the admin console through the price manager. I'm not sure where the problem is as when I upload the full ep products are uploading to the site fine but when I upload the attributes file that's when it happens. I'm using the Basic attributes file. The Qty Min/Unit Mix:is switched to 'no' so I'm having to edit every item to switch it to yes. Any help greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the forums!
I would say that your post is good, it defines your problem, identifies how you have basically repeated it. Perhaps there could be more about the version(s) of things you have installed; however, I would say that there is sufficient information to start problem solving the situation.

You said you are using the basic attributes file to upload your data, have you gone back after a basic upload and done a detailed attributes upload? Or an update of the all products? (I am not sure where the mixed attribute field is brought out of ZC via EP4 to be able to describe in what file to set the value and then upload into ZC/EP4.) In the mean time, it may be necessary to run a SQL statement to toggle the Mixed attribute on (which would be faster than digging into each product).

[cherylc]

Hi. thanks for your reply. No I haven't done a detailed attributes upload as I'm not sure how to do this. I was getting along with EasyPopulate fine then it just stopped working. Apparently there is some kind of bug? I've really struggled with EP4 - I'm OK with the full EP just the attributes files. I know I sound hopeless but I'm not sure how to run a SQL statement. Like I said I'm a total newbie to all this and am learning as I go along. I managed to find where the problem lies in the admin console but just can't figure out what it is on my files which is causing this to switch to 'no'. Also, the admin console runs really slow on my pc so yesterday it took me over 2 hours to edit 111 items. By the way I'm using Excel - don't know if this makes a difference. I'm also using version 1.5.1 of Zen Cart

[mc12345678]

Hi. thanks for your reply. No I haven't done a detailed attributes upload as I'm not sure how to do this. I was getting along with EasyPopulate fine then it just stopped working. Apparently there is some kind of bug? I've really struggled with EP4 - I'm OK with the full EP just the attributes files. I know I sound hopeless but I'm not sure how to run a SQL statement. Like I said I'm a total newbie to all this and am learning as I go along. I managed to find where the problem lies in the admin console but just can't figure out what it is on my files which is causing this to switch to 'no'. Also, the admin console runs really slow on my pc so yesterday it took me over 2 hours to edit 111 items. By the way I'm using Excel - don't know if this makes a difference. I'm also using version 1.5.1 of Zen Cart

Generally speaking, using Excel with EP4 could cause problems if additional actions are not taken with the CSV file that is produced from it or from within Excel to ensure that the CSV file is properly formatted.
Examples identified here have been, the change of date format (Excel default (01/02/2013 versus 2013-02-01)), not all strings get captured in quotes, and a few other things that are "unexpected" when exporting a document as a CSV.

So a detailed attributes file is a lot like the basic attributes file. The easiest way "to do that" is to export a detailed file and take a look through it. From there you can make changes (suggest saving as a different name so that you don't lose the previous download), and then upload the changed document. The suggested editor when using EP4 is Open Office (OO) as it can be configured to address all of the "other" issues not addressed by Excel. That said, I do not think that Excel specifically is the reason you're seeing what you are seeing.

If you look in the file admin\includes\functions\extra_functions\easypopulate_4_functions.php search for "function ep_4_set_filelayout" then find "$filelayout[] = 'v_products_quantity_order_units';" just below that and add:

$filelayout[] = 'v_products_quantity_mixed';

and then a little below there, look for:
"p.products_quantity_order_units as v_products_quantity_order_units,"
and just after that add:

p.products_quantity_mixed 		as v_products_quantity_mixed,

save the file back to it's location, and then your import and export of the full product list should include the information related to the mixed attribute.

Regarding why you have to "change" that value, for products that have already had that set as on (value of 1) this should not change; however, the typical default setting of ZC is to create the product with the attribute set to off (value of 0).

My recommendation would be this: Upload new product(s), add attribute(s), then upload the product list again with the value of v_products_quantity_mixed updated to show 1 for those products that are to have mixed value(s).
(Knowing the version of ZC in this regards, does help at least a little. It confirms that this product is compatible and not a reason for the "error".)

Help? (BTW, don't have a problem providing more information as requested, I understand that you are new to all things Zen, but also don't want to talk down to you and go through some long description that you already know how to do or understand. :) )

[cherylc]

Hi. Thanks very much and believe me you can talk down to me....the simpler the better for me!! I will try what you suggest and hope this works. I don't have an EP to upload at the moment as I am still working on the next category product. I've found it easier to do all my categories as a separate file then upload individually. As the website is now live I am basically just adding more stock as we get it. So just to make clear...I make the changes you suggest on the admin console, then I download a new EP file, save it to my computer, add products then upload and import? Can I still use the basic attributes file? Also, I added our website to the 'Showcase' list but it hasn't appeared and there was no option to add a photo. Does the site need to be verified first? Many thanks for taking the time to reply. It is much appreciated!