Easy Populate 1.2.5.4 support

[DrByte]

that's WAY beyond the scope of easy populate.

Setting all the extra details for music products is a ton of extra coding and debugging to do.

[Woodymon]

Hi all.

In post #138 I asked if current EP v.1254 has known conflicts with any other mods. Also on post #132 I asked if EP v.1254 had any issues running on ZC 1.3.0.2. But no responses to either post.

Anyhow I thoroughly read through this thread and the archived EP support thread, and the readme and install docs and wiki before installing. And then went ahead and downloaded EP v.1254 from modhole site. Installed without a hitch, and without conflicting with the other mods I have installed (as far as I can observe with very limited testing).

In EP I downloaded "Complete tab-delimited .txt file to edit (Attributes Not Included)" and opened in EXcel. The file containd my two test products. Then for testing purposes I added one product and saved in tab delimited txt format.

But before I upload and possibly make a mess of things, two questions...

In the "v_date_added" field column the entries in that column show in Excel with a format of
7/28/2006 1:44:10 AM (excel cell formatting option shows m/d/yyyy h:mm

Whereas if I open the file in a text editor I see a formatting of 2006-07-28 01:44:10

So I'm not clear on the date conversion process supported by EP and support for timestamps within the "v_date_added" field.

In Admin > Configuration > Easy Populate I see six different date formats to choose from, neither of which shows m/d/yyyy as an option or which suggests including a timestamp.

Question 1: So on upload does EP auto convert Excel m/d/yyyy to m-d-y format as I have set in EP "Upload File Date Format"


In the same admin menu I see a "Default Raw Time" setting with default value of "09:00:00".

Question 2: So does this mean that the time stamps in the "v_date_added" field shown in the downloaded file are ok as is, and when editing new products in the spreadsheet, if I do not enter a timestamp next to the date, then EP will auto append "09:00:00" to the "v_date_added" field?

Thanks for any pointers.

BTW I see the new Advanced version was just released today. Congratulations! Is there a side-by-side feature comparison table available? Will an updated "non-advanced" version be available soon to try out? Thanks again.

Woody

[DrByte]

1. EP auto-detects the date-separator and uses what you provide .... 3 valid choices are: - / .

2. I believe this means that if no time is provided for "specials" start/end then it will use the time supplied in the configuration setting.

[lhhgbh]

Any clue how to help me out from my post a few back? I cant seem to get my products to show up... I included what message Im getting when I add to DB, but nothing shows up. thanks!

[DrByte]

Sorry - I don't follow exactly what you've done.

If I understand properly, you have:
- a v_products_model column (which you don't want to have, but require for EP)
- a v_products_image column (which you hope to use to upload images with.. but cannot)
- a sample spreadsheet with columns you don't want
- and some errors

Where I would start:
- delete the columns you don't have any data for ... except v_products_model (and keep the EOREOR column)
- copy your v_products_name contents to the v_products_model column ... keeping the v_products_model title on the column
- upload and import/insert

Then manually upload the images via FTP to the /images folder. You could upload them before importing if you prefer.

[langer]

I still cant get anything to show up... I changed the tab delimited file that the model column had two different made up names "suck1, suck2 as you can see below.. Everything seems to work fine, but no product showing up in the store.. Im using the import from temp dir. option to put them into the DB.. I use drag and drop from my hard drive to the ftp folder to upload the updated sheet.. So what have I missed?

Filename: 1st.txt

NEW PRODUCT! - Model: Suck1 | http://img | I Suck at | %0d%0a%0d% | | 9.99 | | | 8/6/2006 0 | 1000 | | I Suck/Rul | | | | | | | | 0 |
NEW PRODUCT! - Model: Suck2 | http://img | I Suck at | %0d%0a%0d% | | 9.99 | | | 8/6/2006 0 | 1000 | | I Suck/Rul | | | | | | | | 0 |
SKIPPED! - Model: - No category provided for this product | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
Upload Complete

Have you looked in the product catalog to see if they are there? It looks like you have set status = 0 (inactive) so they should be uploaded, but not visible. Status = 1 will make them visible.

[lhhgbh]

I had deleted the columns that I didnt have any data for before and that didnt work.. I kept the model column even though I didnt need it, that didnt work.. I put something generic in the model column, that didnt work.. its not that I cant get the images to show up.. I cant get anything at all to show up.. Here are the columns I use..."products image, product name 1, product description 1, products price, date added, qty, category name 1, category name 2, i use status, but have it set at 0 (not sure what the #'s mean), EOREOR

i dont use the following: products url 1, products weight, date available, manufacturer, category name 3, name 4, name 5, name 6, name 7, tax class

Are there certain columns that have to have something entered and I have left them off? Also for my description I use HTML... Thanks for any insight...

[lhhgbh]

i have tried it both ways with 1 and 0.. I will try it again now...

[langer]

In the "v_date_added" field column the entries in that column show in Excel with a format of 7/28/2006 1:44:10 AM (excel cell formatting option shows m/d/yyyy h:mm, whereas if I open the file in a text editor I see a formatting of 2006-07-28 01:44:10

So I'm not clear on the date conversion process supported by EP and support for timestamps within the "v_date_added" field.

In Admin > Configuration > Easy Populate I see six different date formats to choose from, neither of which shows m/d/yyyy as an option or which suggests including a timestamp.

Question 1: So on upload does EP auto convert Excel m/d/yyyy to m-d-y format as I have set in EP "Upload File Date Format"

In the same admin menu I see a "Default Raw Time" setting with default value of "09:00:00".

Question 2: So does this mean that the time stamps in the "v_date_added" field shown in the downloaded file are ok as is, and when editing new products in the spreadsheet, if I do not enter a timestamp next to the date, then EP will auto append "09:00:00" to the "v_date_added" field?
Woody

Maybe I can add to this. Spreadsheet apps often show the time in their own format, even though it is raw time in the underlying file, hence the discrepancy. Saving in raw time is best, as it is the fastest to process, however spreadsheet apps can be uncooperative in this regard. The date format in config is for when dates that are not raw, how should Easy Populate handle these? This depends on your locale usually (in UK it is dd/mm/yy and in US it is mm/dd/yy) - is is the order only that is of interest - the rest can be figured out by ep.

The default raw time is the time appended to the current date where date fileds are blank. It is useful if you want to prevent a special from starting before a particular time for eg.

[DrByte]

Here are the columns I use..."products image, product name 1, product description 1, products price, date added, qty, category name 1, category name 2, i use status, but have it set at 0 (not sure what the #'s mean), EOREOR

You said you used "something generic" for products_model. You can do that ... as long as it is unique per product ... that's why I suggested copying the products_name for it.

If you don't use the v_ prefixes then you will get no data loaded

products_status: 0=disabled, 1=enabled. If disabled, will not be visible to shoppers, but can be edited in Admin