Importing products

[WhitePhantom]

Thanks SB, I understand that model has to be unique - I've set v_product_model to a unique value in each record. I've left the category the same, because my new products belong to the same category that the existing products belong to, also left other fields the same but only where it's ok to do so - tax code, products weight, date added, that kind of thing.

I've read your notes about SKU - I've followed the rules, but not the format you used - I've applied SKU codes that are more understandable to me. The category is 'Own Designs', and my existing product models are OwnDesign01 and OwnDesign02 - my 4 new products are OwnDesign03, OwnDesign04, OwnDesign05, OwnDesign06. All unique, no spaces or special characters.

I've read over the wiki a few times, and just can't see where I'm going wrong. Also can't understand why I'm getting the Upload Complete message when the upload hasn't worked.

[CoolCarPartsOnline]

Sorry to ######## into this. I haven't used the free EP in years but I believe all versions of EP come with an option to download a template. If you download the template you can just follow the same pattern used.

I would also suggest using the template file to play around with all the EP option to help you understand what each line affect in the store front. This will be hugely appreciated if you ever plan on adding more columns to your EP import/export options.

[libertyguy]

PS:...

I routinely use Easy Populate to manage product data on scores of my clients' websites.

Some of these stores have over 10,000 products.

Easy Populate can add/update this number of products in a few seconds...

A few seconds???? I have 30,000 items I update price and quantity daily Only fields are model, price and quantity Takes 3-5 minutes Running 5.4 on 3.8 Upload to temp and update from there

Nick

[schoolboy]

A few seconds???? I have 30,000 items I update price and quantity daily Only fields are model, price and quantity Takes 3-5 minutes Running 5.4 on 3.8 Upload to temp and update from there

Nick

OK... so I exaggerate slightly

Yes you are quite right... a LARGE file does take time to parse.

I do this routinely as well - sometimes with very large lists - and it does seem like "just a few seconds" - though I don't run a stopwatch on it.

While we are on this subject of large files, it is safer to split large files into several smaller ones when using EP. (Some servers experience time-out issues.)

[WhitePhantom]

I have the templates that came with EP alright, so just want to check a couple of things before I start playing around with them...

- If I delete all but one line from each template file, will the upload create any new category (and sub-category if applicable) in the text file, or do I need to create categories through admin before I can upload products to them?

- Does the order in which I upload the files matter?

And back to my previous attempts to upload files... I just now did a 'Download Complete tab-delimited .txt file to edit', changed the Product Name of one of the products, saved the file, and did Upload EP file, picked up the file I had just modified, and got the result shown here:

Upload Results

File uploaded.
Temporary filename: C:\WINDOWS\Temp\php51F1.tmp
User filename: Full-EP2010Feb17-2109.txt
Size: 895

Upload Complete

But... when I went into Catalog -> Categories/Products, the name was still exactly the same, so obviously upload didn't happen. This is cracking me up - I feel like I'm so close but then just keep hitting a brick wall

Please please can anyone shed any light on why this is happening?

[BenhamCollectibles]

I am also interested in the answer this very last question. I really would like to update the quantity on all 6,000 of my products quickly, but I am afraid of re-uploading the edited file for fear that it will just make new entries for each model number. This has happened to me before and it is a mess to clean up, starting with emptying the store inventory completely. But I just read below that you should upload to the temp file? I am not sure how this works, so I am anxiously awaiting the responses to this thread in general. I'll bet a lot of people wonder about this exact situation.

[schoolboy]

There is little point duplicating the advice I give in the WIKI, so my suggestion is that you read through that quite diligently. I go into some detail about the need to be aware of category naming, and the potential to duplicate product data if you are not careful here.

Remember: My wiki talks about EP 1.2.5.4 . I have tried some of the later versions, but have felt that these are not reliable. I do not know if the advice I give in the WIKI is therefore applicable to versions other than 1.2.5.4.

If you are using a version other than 1.2.5.4 then tread carefully... The CSV version of EP is particularly shaky and I do not advocate its use at all.

I also know that later versions of MS Excel (particularly Office 2007) do not save the TXT file particularly well. I have often found it stripping in double quote marks in the description field - even though I have configured it NOT to do this.

So I tend to use OpenOffice these days and keep well away from MS.

You need to bear in mind that ALL STEPS of the EP process need to be faultless. It is very fussy and intolerant of errors - whether these are in the TXT file, or whether there is a glitch in your program files. (Very often, when people have asked me to look into their EP problems I find that they have FTP'd the files to completely the wrong locations... If the basic installation of the software is faulty, it's no wonder it does not work).

But as I have said on so many occasions... I use EP 1.2.5.4 on a very large number of clients' sites and I have never had it fail on me. Occasionally a blip or two - which on further investigation have always pointed to "operator error".

[rstevenson]

A quick additional note, in regards to the above advice to be careful about what Excel might add to a file. I use a programmer's text editor (BBEdit, only for Mac) to look at Excel's output file before I load it up to the server. It will quickly show anything that Excel has put wrong, without any possibility that it will do the same thing itself. I can also "Zap Gremlins" with a command, which removes invisible codes that might mess things up. Can't hurt; might help. ;-)

Rob

[WhitePhantom]

Hi guys,

Just to let you know, I (with a little help!!) figured out what was happening here.

My temp directory on the server wasn't allowing the txt file to be copied, therefore wasn't finding any file to import.

This was because of my zencart being hosted on a Windows server, and of course I should have, as per the install.txt file, followed the instructions to get the permissions on that directory changed:

"** your temp folder must have owner permissions to read/write/execute (chmod 700) for EP to work.
EP now adjusts this for you (unless you have a windows server - ask your host to adjust permissions on this folder for the IIS web server)"

Note to self: RTF i.txt!!

Rgds,
J.

[schoolboy]

A quick additional note, in regards to the above advice to be careful about what Excel might add to a file. I use a programmer's text editor (BBEdit, only for Mac) to look at Excel's output file before I load it up to the server. It will quickly show anything that Excel has put wrong, without any possibility that it will do the same thing itself. I can also "Zap Gremlins" with a command, which removes invisible codes that might mess things up. Can't hurt; might help. ;-)

Rob

I do the same - with Emerald Editor, and you'll be surprised what Excel leaves inside a file that should be unformatted plain tab-delimited text. It particularly likes to put in double quotes, extra commas and single quotes at times.