Apsona CSV data exporter [support thread]

This add-on exports data records (customers, orders, products, product attributes, and categories) to CSV format from the admin to interact with the Apsona service.

Tested with Zen Cart 1.3.8, but should work on earlier versions as well.

Download link:
http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=product_contrib_info&products_id=1500

More details about how this add-on works are here: http://apsona.com/pages/ec/howItWorks.html

You will need this add-on for using the Apsona service.

Comments/feedback very welcome.

This seems exactly what I was looking for so thank you.

I have two remarks if I may:

1. When I export the Orders, all orders show twice. It exports 1,2,3, and then starts again with 1,2,3 etc.
2. The discount amount is not exported, when I select orders_products.

Can you fix it?
Please?

ZC 1.3.8a

Hello,

Thanks for the feedback. I'd love to fix these two issues, but I'd like some help with them.

• I am not seeing this order duplication problem you mention, so perhaps there is something in your environment that I have not accounted for. Does this happen under all circumstances, or only when you choose a particular date value in the export form?

• As for the discount amount, would you happen to know the table/column in the database where this value appears? I looked around in the schema and in the source code but wasn't able to deduce the answer. I am hoping some of the other folks in this forum will be able to help answer these questions as well.

Thanks.

Hi Apsona,

Thanks for your reply. i played a lot with your code to make it custom for my own use and the order export is working fine. (it was my mistake)
And the discounts, I added by referring to the discounts-table.

I love your exporter, it's great.
Removed the quotation marks and some fields that I didn't need to my backend system.
Thanks.:clap:

Hi,

I'm currently using Easy Populate (EP) 1.2.5.7 which allows uploading of meta data (which earlier versions of EP don't support)

I am about to start the upgrade path form ZC 1.3.8a to 1.3.9b.

EP 1.2.5.7 is not yet compatible with the 1.2.5.7 and or PHP 5.3

Your add-on looks like a good fit and a great replacement for EP, but is it compatible with the latest version of ZC and will it run on PHP 5.3 ?

Thanks,
Mike

Mike_Dean - The exporter add-on is meant only for data export. It does not do any importing, unlike Easy Populate. Perhaps you are referring to Apsona ShopAdmin, which is entirely different from the exporter add-on, and does export, import and quite a lot more.

Thanks,
Apsona
http://apsona.com

Can I export, change and then import mass attribute prices using your shop program rather than updating prices individually using zen cart admin?

moesoap - The Apsona CSV exporter export-only, it doesn't have an importing or uploading part to it. But you can use Apsona ShopAdmin (which is a very different and more capable app, also free) to do the export/edit/re-update cycle not just for product attributes but for products, categories, orders and customers.

Apsona
http://apsona.com

I tested the Apsona ShopAdmin and I can say it's loaded with useful features. Unfortunately, for us we decided not to use it because it requires our server to have allow_url_fopen to be turn on and we decided against that for security reasons.

BlessIsaacola - I'd like to address the security concern and the reasons for the choices we made with ShopAdmin. I will provide some brief technical details here, but please feel free to follow up.

• ShopAdmin has to download the user interface software layer (JavaScript and CSS files) into the user's browser. This is obviously necessary, otherwise we can't paint the browser's screen.
• It can't download that software directly from the ShopAdmin server, because it will run head-on into the Same-Origin-Policy issue that Ajax programmers have to deal with. So it will have to provide a pass-through so that the software is downloaded from the ShopAdmin server via the Zen Cart application.
• PHP provides two ways of implementing such a pass-through: either allow_url_fopen or curl. But curl, to my mind, is the less desirable choice because it spawns a new child process on the server, with two undesirable results:

1. It will require the child-process-spawning capability, and there are lots of attack vectors that open up if you include that capability. This is in fact the usual trick that Windows viruses use to get in to a victim computer.
2. It increases the load on the server, because spawning another process is a high-overhead operation (the same reason why FastCGI is preferable to CGI).
   In contrast, allow_url_fopen has neither of these drawbacks, since it is implemented directly within the PHP virtual machine. It also offers fine-grain control to the web server setup.
   The ShopAdmin code is written to take care that we do not download anything else through the server, and more importantly, it does not write anything to the server's file system (other than updating the database, according to the user's instructions). As you well know, when it comes to security, we have to be paranoid. And when someone is trusting their business and their livelihood with a piece of software, that software had better be totally reliable, or it will soon be a forgotten memory.

Hope this helps.
Apsona
http://apsona.com

apsona:

BlessIsaacola - I'd like to address the security concern and the reasons for the choices we made with ShopAdmin. I will provide some brief technical details here, but please feel free to follow up.

• ShopAdmin has to download the user interface software layer (JavaScript and CSS files) into the user's browser. This is obviously necessary, otherwise we can't paint the browser's screen.

• It can't download that software directly from the ShopAdmin server, because it will run head-on into the Same-Origin-Policy issue that Ajax programmers have to deal with. So it will have to provide a pass-through so that the software is downloaded from the ShopAdmin server via the Zen Cart application.

• PHP provides two ways of implementing such a pass-through: either allow_url_fopen or curl. But curl, to my mind, is the less desirable choice because it spawns a new child process on the server, with two undesirable results:

2. It will require the child-process-spawning capability, and there are lots of attack vectors that open up if you include that capability. This is in fact the usual trick that Windows viruses use to get in to a victim computer.

3. It increases the load on the server, because spawning another process is a high-overhead operation (the same reason why FastCGI is preferable to CGI).

In contrast, allow_url_fopen has neither of these drawbacks, since it is implemented directly within the PHP virtual machine. It also offers fine-grain control to the web server setup.

The ShopAdmin code is written to take care that we do not download anything else through the server, and more importantly, it does not write anything to the server's file system (other than updating the database, according to the user's instructions). As you well know, when it comes to security, we have to be paranoid. And when someone is trusting their business and their livelihood with a piece of software, that software had better be totally reliable, or it will soon be a forgotten memory.

Hope this helps.
Apsona
http://apsona.com

Very well stated and written. I wasn't saying anything bad about Apsona. I don't have any issues with Apsona and actually wished we can use it on site. It's a business decision for us nothing against Apsona.

There are way too many documented cases online of how hackers have used turning allow_url_fopen on as means of carrying out attacks. While Apsona product will cause no harm, leaving the door open to others by turning on allow_url_open is not something we are comfortable with it. Purely business decision nothing against your product.

Although both Curl and allow_url_fopen presents security risks, allow_url_open has a long documented cases online of abuse than curl.

I have used this addon, it's nice and easy to use.
But there is a big problem with me, when I export the customers, I could not export the total account, I don't know why, I have tried this on 2 of my sites, and local, unfortunately, I get the same problem.

And I found a wired thing, the customers from USA,Canada,Spain, would not be missed, and from others such as UK, Russian...could not be exported:no:,

In fact, at the web admin, I have 807 customers, but I could only export 459 of it.

I don't why, please help.

By the way, my store is 1.3.8a

and I have checked the customers at web admin,
such as the customers no. 800-807, there are 4 missed no. such as 801,802,805,806. and the rest could be exported.:wacko:

And more, when I export the orders.csv, every order would be duplicated:wacko:, I have 411 orders, but the csv would export 822 orders, everyone would have a copy.

In fact, this is easy to fixed by del the copy orders, after the right order list, there would be a copy of them.

I think I have found where the problem is.

At the as apsona_functions.php about line 90 z.zone_id = o.entry_zone_id, if the customers have not selected the zone that the system provide, it would not be exported. Such as UK, Russian,which system do not have the deafult zoom. and the model have not accept the typing zoom. And also if the customers have not filled the zoom section, it would aslo be missed.

The full code is:

WHERE c.customers_default_address_id = o.address_book_id and o.entry_country_id = t.countries_id and ci.customers_info_id = c.customers_id and
        z.zone_id = o.entry_zone_id  and
        (ci.customers_info_date_account_created >= ' . $dateSince . ' or ci.customers_info_date_account_last_modified >= ' . $dateSince . ')';

But I don't know how to fix it.

Please help:hug:

goagal - As you point out in your code, the Apsona CSV data exporter relies on hard-coded SQL queries, and therefore falls short in the ways you describe. I would suggest that you use Apsona ShopAdmin instead. With ShopAdmin, you can export filtered sections of your data without these difficulties.

Hope this helps.

Apsona
http://apsona.com