Quote Originally Posted by UBERHEIT View Post
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