Quote Originally Posted by Scrat View Post
blazed8 Without writing some bespoke software, EP can update stock levels and enable and disable products in the basic setup already (this does exclude Stock by Attributes works via a different database table/s).
In the last but one column in the complete file you will see v_status:
1 = Enabled
0 = Disabled
9 = Delete from database
Under v_products_quantity this the current stock available.
So using a table in OO or Excel you should be able to use your spread sheets !!
Yes, this technique is possible... but you have to move with a bit of care...

I have found that v_status=9 tends to remove the product data (desired behaviour) AND its image (undesired behaviour if your intention is to re-upload modified data)

Bear in mind that the auto-increment feature in the product ID will put in a new ID when the dbase is re-populated with the refreshed data.

This is not an easy one... v_status=9 should ONLY be used when a product is well-and-truly discontinued. It shouldn't really be used to "temporarily" remove data about a product that is then "refreshed" with a clean EP import.

I used to work with a dropshipper who (fortunately) understood the needs of their agents and they produced FOUR separate datafiles daily:

1. DISCONTINUED PRODUCTS (To which we just said v_status=9)
2. OUT OF STOCK PRODUCTS (To which we just said v_status=0)
3. BACK IN STOCK PRODUCTS (To which we ran a v_status=1 and it would re-activate all relevant v_status=0 products)
4. NEW PRODUCTS (Which were added in a normal EP upload with v_status=1)

Put pressure on your supplier to do the same... They MUST have a stock management system, and are therefore able to generate these 4 files with relative ease.