Easy Populate 1.2.5.4 support

[awhfy99]

The answer to #2 is yes. I have a folder with multiple images (like 1.jpg, 1_a.jpg, etc. They were uploaded to a sub-folder of images using EP and they work just fine. You do have to place the path in the v_image column of EP (images/whatsmyfolder/1.jpg) and upload the images first before the EP is done (just like the man said).

[awhfy99]

Hi Kai,

As to #2, I am not sure, as I don't have or use IH2, so I can't say 100%, just a guess. My guess would be that IH2 should operate the same as before - consider EP to be something like a typist, entering the product info for you.

Hope this helps some.

Guess I should have mentioned that the watermarking and zoom features are the two that I use and they work perfectly.

[kai920]

awev - thanks for the clarification on #1.

awhfy99 - did you upload the images using FTP or IH2 prior to running EP? I'm still a little bit confused as to whether I can use IH2 to automatically resize and rename images before EP is used. (as awev said, images have to reside on the server before using EP)

[awev]

awev - thanks for the clarification on #1.

awhfy99 - did you upload the images using FTP or IH2 prior to running EP? I'm still a little bit confused as to whether I can use IH2 to automatically resize and rename images before EP is used. (as awev said, images have to reside on the server before using EP)

If I am understanding everything correctly this is the order that things may be done in (based on an edumayaked [educated estimated wild guess] guess) :

1) Upload images to correct area(s), such as /images/cat_1, /images/cat_2, /images/manufactures, etc
2) Upload the EP file and import it, loading the data into ZC, making sure it knows the correct location and name of the image (could also be done as step 3)
3) Instruct IH2 to create images of different sizes as you see fit (do this as the second step if you want to)
4) Let IH2 add the watermark as an image is called for and displayed - no interaction on your part other than turning the feature on to begin with.

From the look of things it really doesn't matter if you upload the product/item information using EP (step 2) before using IH2 (step 3), or after (step 3 now becomes step 2, and the former step 2 now becomes step 3). ZC picks an image based on what is needed, (i.e., small, medium or large,) and IH2 sees the request and overlays a watermark (a second image, with a high transparency setting). EP doesn't care what image ZC displays, or how IH2 helps out, it only cares that an image exists (such as the main image (medium sized)). The most important thing is step 1, getting the main image into the proper position for both EP and IH2 to work with it.

Again, take what I say with a grain of salt, and do a little testing. I only read the description a few months back for IH2, and other image handlers, and have not installed it, nor looked at the code. This seems to be a best guess on my part.

Two things to keep in mind - how much space all of the images take up on the server (my hosting companies like to limit that), and do you think IH2 will give you just as good of an image as you can create yourself? The three hosting packages I use limit the amount of HDD storage space that I can use, and the number of images are large enough, and the amount of traffic is small enough (wishing it was the other way around), that I let ZC resize my images on the fly. If I had my way I would use my photo editing program to create .gif images for the small/thumbnail views, and then size down my main images as .jpg for the main view, and keep the originals as the large image, and do it all as batch files. This would let me check the images for the quality vs. compression and a few other things, such as estimated download speeds, and adjust as I see fit.

[kai920]

thanks again for the reply. I think I got the hang of it now... my plan:

1. resize my product image(s) into the desired maximum size (400x400). since IH2 does not seem to alter the original image, I thought this would lessen the space requirements on my server.

2. if I want to have multiple images per product, append _01 _02 _03 to the end of the same filename. for example product, product_01, product_02, and so on.

3. upload these images to my category directory, cat_a cat_b cat_c etc.

4. in the EP delimited file, I have to make sure that each item has a unique model number

5. enter the product image URL into the EP file. I only need to input the one filename without any appended numbers (see #2 above). example: cat_a/product.jpg -- IH2 should recognize the other two files automatically (product_01 and product_02)

these are the steps I've come up with so far.

Any tips on how to generate the HTML used for the product description?

[awev]

thanks again for the reply. I think I got the hang of it now... my plan:

1. resize my product image(s) into the desired maximum size (400x400). since IH2 does not seem to alter the original image, I thought this would lessen the space requirements on my server.

=-=-=-= Snipped - don't need to repeat everything here =-=-=-=-=-=

5. enter the product image URL into the EP file. I only need to input the one filename without any appended numbers (see #2 above). example: cat_a/product.jpg -- IH2 should recognize the other two files automatically (product_01 and product_02)

these are the steps I've come up with so far.

Any tips on how to generate the HTML used for the product description?

The outline on how you plan to proceed looks good, and correct. Just test it with a couple items to make sure IH2 gets things correct - it should.

That last question is the hardest one to answer without knowing what tools/programs you have available and are familiar with. If you know HTML you can insert the paired tags yourself as you edit the file (say in Excel or OpenOffice Spreadsheet), or use a text editor - Crimson Editor (cedit) or the one built into ZC itself. I like to use a number of programs when I am creating a whole page/site, depending on if I feel like using windoze (HotDog Pro, or Jr/Express for the extra simple/quick) or Linux (Screem) - a program I have from a vendor automatically generates auction listings for me with HTML code in place in M$'s windoze, yet not in Linux, even using win4lin - bummer . You can use a word processor that generates HTML based on the features you select (WordPerect, OpenOffice, M$ Word, etc), select view code, copy and paste it into the open file. Even a plain/fancy text editor will work - again if you know HTML.

Just an idea of what I do, and I'll add comments following it.

<p><b> The new Zoxy 321</b> replaces the Yxoz 123.  We have listened to you, our customer, and taking all of your suggestions to heart we created this to meet your current and future demands.  We started from the ground and worked our way up, to help integrate all of the new features, instead of having you guess where everything is.</p>
<p>You asked for more robust process with less energy. Have a look at what we have been able to do for you</p>
<ul><li><b>25% quicker</b> with only half the power - you finish quicker, saving time, and you are able to work on larger projects, or have more projects going at the same time.</li>
<li><b>Better integration</b> means you are able to access the functionality that you need without scratching your head, and losing valuable time, <strong> saving you 10%</strong> in labor compared to the Yxoz 123, and <b> over 15% labor savings</b> compared to our competitors. </li>
<li>Other great features and their benefits goes here, and under a couple more bulleted entries.</li> </ul>
<hr />
<p>The above information is believed to be accurate at the time of this writing.  For more detailed information please see the link below.  </p>

So it looks like:
The new Zoxy 321 replaces the Yxoz 123. We have listened to you, our customer, and taking all of your suggestions to heart we created this to meet your current and future demands. We started from the ground and worked our way up, to help integrate all of the new features, instead of having you guess where everything is.
You asked for more robust process with less energy. Have a look at what we have been able to do for you

• 25% quicker with only half the power - you finish quicker, saving time, and you are able to work on larger projects, or have more projects going at the same time.
• Better integration means you are able to access the functionality that you need without scratching your head, and losing valuable time, saving you 10% in labor compared to the Yxoz 123, and over 15% labor savings compared to our competitors.
• Other great features and their benefits goes here, and under a couple more bulleted entries.

<horizontal rule here - this forum doesn't let me reproduce here>
The above information is believed to be accurate at the time of this writing. For more detailed information please see the link below.

The <b> and </b>, as well as <strong> and </strong>, paired tags is for bold, <ul> and </ul> is for unordered list, <li> & </li> is list item, <p> and </p> are the paragraph markers, and <hr /> is a horizontal rule. Note that some items, like the <hr /> is not a paired tag, yet because of the new coding standards, everything should have an opening and closing tag. To get around that, instead of <hr></hr> (the slash "/" denotes a closing tag) the slash is added to the end of the opening tag, and it is understood to be a tag pair by itself. We could do the same with the paragraph tag, such as <p /> as you normally do no have a paragraph within a paragraph, yet for humans to follow along (meaning me) I use the opening and closing tags for paragraphs, not the shortcut method. In the old style of coding HTML the closing tags for paragraphs where omitted, and the horizontal rule did not have a closing take, same with the blank rule tag <br />.

I like to make bold/strong the first couple words or sentence of my opening paragraph, and then the first couple words in the bulleted list. For the list I like listing the benefit first - to grab the attention of the reader, and then the feature that provides that benefit. Helps answer the questions like "What is 25% faster?" or "How did you manage to get an additional 15% improvement while saving 50%?". No, I don't provide all of the details, trade secret or something to that effect, yet give a general idea of how it is done or how I can make that claim. Your style will determine a lot, and testing will help out as well.

Dag nab it, why did you have to ask such a hard question?

[UBERHEIT]

Hi,

I have had Zen Cart for over a year now for our hobby shop. My Husband spent countless hours and sleepless nights figuring out how to initially set up the store. Neither of us have any prior php experience, not even much html. I understand this forum offers many explanations on how to do things but quite frankly, I just don't understand any of it - it's too technical for me and I don't understand all the acrynoms.

Yesterday, my question was whether I could do a bulk product upload on Zen Cart and came across this Easy Populate. I went to the site and clicked on the link for the demo but there aren't any instructions on how to use the demo.

The first thing I would like to do with my Zen Cart before "experimenting" is to backup all my data, my store format, current categories, products and layout - how do I do that?

Secondly, I need an easy-to-understand instructions (non-techy as possible) on how to use Easy Populate.

Lastly, is there maybe another and more importantly, easier, solution to the bulk product upload than Easy Populate?

Thank you in advance for all your help!

[awhfy99]

Hi,

I have had Zen Cart for over a year now for our hobby shop. My Husband spent countless hours and sleepless nights figuring out how to initially set up the store. Neither of us have any prior php experience, not even much html. I understand this forum offers many explanations on how to do things but quite frankly, I just don't understand any of it - it's too technical for me and I don't understand all the acrynoms.

Yesterday, my question was whether I could do a bulk product upload on Zen Cart and came across this Easy Populate. I went to the site and clicked on the link for the demo but there aren't any instructions on how to use the demo.

The first thing I would like to do with my Zen Cart before "experimenting" is to backup all my data, my store format, current categories, products and layout - how do I do that?

Secondly, I need an easy-to-understand instructions (non-techy as possible) on how to use Easy Populate.

Lastly, is there maybe another and more importantly, easier, solution to the bulk product upload than Easy Populate?

Thank you in advance for all your help!

Backups are always a great idea. If you haven't done one before, what you will need to do (assuming you have access to cPanel as most hosts have this) is to log in and choose the backup option. From there, you can backup your database as well as your store configuration by selecting the appropriate options. The backups are normally downloaded to your PC, so save them where you will remember.

Zen Cart has an override system, meaning that any modified files should be within that framework. Your layout should not be affected as long as you follow the instructions on installing the EP feature. The installation is done by placing the correct files in their correct locations, running a sql patch, and then activating it through your admin, so the worst that should happen is that it will not work until everything is finished.

Once installed, just download a full version of your store (this is the first link under the input section) in Easy Populate. Use a spreadsheet application like Excel97 to open this file. The file you are working on is formatted in columns and rows, the top row MUST be left intact and the last column MUST be populated with EOFEOF on every line that is to be uploaded.

The location of the data is pretty straight forward, whatever follows the v_ on the top line is what goes into that column for each product. Many can be left blank (default values will be inserted like in date_added, date_avaialble, etc. ) but model, name, description, image, caterory (_1 is the uppermost one, _2 is the first sub-category, etc) and status (1 is active, 0 is inactive) all need to be populated.


When you are done adding new products (try just one first), rename and save your file (as tab delimited text). Go into your stores admin, select Easy Populate from the tools menu and click on Browse. Find you file on your PC and select Insert into db. One line should take a few second to do. Hopefully, you will get a confirmation that the product was added (if not, that is another issue). Go into your store an check to be sure that it looks as expected.

Anyone, if I left anything out, please feel free to help me out!

Dennis
www.stampdays.com

[awhfy99]

I might add that there are at least two contributions that should be added to most stores (in my humble opinion). The first is the "Backups for Zen Cart" (allows MYsql database backups from your admin tool dropdown) and "Save Your Sidebox Layout" (keeps your layout as it is when you save it - in case you upgrade to the latest version of Zen Cart).

Dennis
www.stampdays.com
(An OSC site soon to be Zenned)

[awhfy99]

This is an issue I experience on one my sites. I'm really not sure what causes it, probably some sort of configuration by the host, or some other thing, I never got an answer either. Something to do with php.ini files I think.

I should make clear that I only have this issue on a site that has been upgraded with each new ZC release. I don't have this issue with new ZC installations.

Even though the browser times out, easypopulate does what it's supposed to do, although of course, you don't get any notification of what it just did, but it works.

I thought that might be the case here since my installation was 10 months old and the EP worked OK until I upgraded it to 3.7.1 but now I am not sure. I did a fresh install and the EP worked great until I uploaded the EP data from the old install to the new install. The full download did upload and it did show a few delimiter errors generated on line 241 of the functions php (something about an explode of excel_$date). After upload was complete and it showed all 39+ K lines, I tried to upload a one line file and it timed out again. Same thing as before, I get no confirmation on that file. It may be because my db is 150+ categories and almost 40k products (it's a clone of my OSC site) but I don't quite understand why everything works fine on OSC but not on Zen. Especially since the original huge file did give a confirmation (and the errors generated) Leads me to think that maybe a parameter is cockney on the later or is getting reset after the initial use. Don't want to knit-pick, but knowing the if's and what's that EP did or didn't do, could be helpful.