Is it even possible..

Hi All,

I am trying to achieve a task, I don't know how to go about it or what to search for. Hopefully it's possible or could already be available as an add on. I'll describe and perhaps someone can point me right.

I have a suppliers CSV file which is updated daily, by them and I draw it by their url as supplied to me. Then I upload what is in stock and mark out of stock what is not on that list.

However what I cant do is monitor their new product lines and I was wondering if a script could be run even as a cron job or something that will compare the CSV on a daily basis and can allow me to see what's new (even filter results perhaps) so I can just upload those and their images.

I look forward to any possible advice.
Thanks You
Renz

There are features in MS Excel that allow you to compare data from two spreadsheets - including duplicate filtering, and various possibilities in the Pivot Table function.

However, put pressure on your supplier to provide separate csv's:

• New Stock
• Out of Stock (with date)
• Back in Stock (with date)
• Discontinued
  A good drop shipper will do this - in fact, I know of a few in the UK that supply their data in these formats - they know that the easier it is for their partners to update stock, the better it is for sales.

Hi School Boy,

I could not agree with you more about this...the easier it is for their partners to update stock, the better it is for sales. and I am baffled as to why the don't make it easier, but what I have got is one feed and one feed only..So if there is another way, I would love to know. I am Not sure how to go about the pivot function have you any more tips on how to use the excel comparison features?

Regards
Renz

Renz:

Hi School Boy,

I could not agree with you more about this...the easier it is for their partners to update stock, the better it is for sales. and I am baffled as to why the don't make it easier, but what I have got is one feed and one feed only..So if there is another way, I would love to know. I am Not sure how to go about the pivot function have you any more tips on how to use the excel comparison features?

Regards
Renz

There are some excellent tutorials on MS Excel, and there is a lot of detail involved - and as this is (strictly speaking) not a Zencart issue, you will have to look for Excel tutorials on the WWW.

It will be pointless to duplicate the advice here as it alread exists on the WWW.