Problems with EasyPopulate Advanced

I need some help. I PURCHASED easy populate and the developer absolutely refuses to respond to trouble tickets. I have a $10,000 project I cannot get paid for until I finish this. I simply want to import products via the tab delimited spreadsheet import option. I can import a maximum of 26 rows without any errors, but the products don't show up. If i put any more than 26 rows i get the following error and products still do not show up. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Even if you know of another module to mass upload and manage products via a spreadsheet.

Error Message:
ERROR! - Column count mismatch on row 2 - The likely cause of this is inconsistant use of a text delimiter in your file or an obscure character in a product name of description.
Ensure there is no text delimiter, or all fields (including column headings) are delimited.
You may alternatively need to adjust the value of "$ep_overrides['file_buffer']" higher in your overrides file.

I do not know where '$ep_overrides['file_buffer']" is. Please help me.

Thanks,

Jeremy

I've had the same problem with the developer not responding but maybe I can help.
First thing to ask is did you start with a spreadsheet or a text delimited file first?

Last time I heard, Langer was experiencing very poor health. He hasn't been on the forum for a few years now, and frankly, I hope he's just "retired" and not "expired".

However... Your issue.

I have found EP 1.2.5.4 to be the most reliable of the free versions.

I'd suggest (as your project is urgent) that you UNINSTALL the commercial version - and put 1.2.5.4 in there.

(Later, set up a TEST site and try the comm module again)

Read my WIKI on 1.2.5.4 (where there is also a link for the download.

Hello Schoolboy,

The reason for my purchasing the EP Advanced was to be able to import meta tag information along with the product information. This to save time rather than going through the shop and manually adding the meta tag information to each individual product.
I mean per item I would be able to import the meta tag data along with the normal item/description/price etc etc.
My files were of course working fine with the non commerical verison of Easy Populate.
So is there a way to import the meta tag info along with all the normal information? Is so what would the column title(s) be?

Been using EP Advanced for a couple of years now. I absolutely love that software without it I won't have a business.

The buffer error only shows up when you tabs don't match the header, or you start on a column that is not column A in excel. Plus you have to include the EOREOR.

By far the EPA is one of the most user friendly none complicated Zen Cart tool. There are tons of documents barred inside the download for customization and explanation.

I think the problem lies in your excel (tab sheet) rather than the software itself. You can copy and paste value in a new excel sheet and try to run it again.

Or you can upload the tab file to the server (FTP) then import it into database. I can upload up to 5000 Products in one sheet.

EP does allow you to upload meta data, move products and categories, add categories and edit products based on product_id which i think the Free one doesn't do.

CoolCarPartsOnline:

I think the problem lies in your excel (tab sheet) rather than the software itself.

I would agree with this... in 95% of the cases where EP is reported to "fail", the problem is a TXT FILE issue.

EP is very fussy, unfortunately, and requires the TXT file to be, quite literally, perfect and free from formatting errors. If PART of an upload is succeeding, then the software is working. The breakdown then HAS to be in the TXT file (note, I do not say "spreadsheet" as a TXT file is NOT a spreadsheet!).

If EP is faulty (usually because of a faulty FTP upload of the module) then it will not even load one record...

CoolCarPartsOnline:

Or you can upload the tab file to the server (FTP) then import it into database. I can upload up to 5000 Products in one sheet.
I also recommend this method... Files can be corrupted using the Upload/Insert function.

CoolCarPartsOnline:

EP does allow you to upload meta data, move products and categories, add categories and edit products based on product_id which i think the Free one doesn't do.

It IS possible to ADD these fields to ver 1.2.5.4 (I have done it) and LankeeYankee put up a tutorial somewhere on the forum on how to do it.

schoolboy:

I would agree with this... in 95% of the cases where EP is reported to "fail", the problem is a TXT FILE issue.

EP is very fussy, unfortunately, and requires the TXT file to be, quite literally, perfect and free from formatting errors. If PART of an upload is succeeding, then the software is working. The breakdown then HAS to be in the TXT file (note, I do not say "spreadsheet" as a TXT file is NOT a spreadsheet!).

If EP is faulty (usually because of a faulty FTP upload of the module) then it will not even load one record...

I also recommend this method... Files can be corrupted using the Upload/Insert function.

It IS possible to ADD these fields to ver 1.2.5.4 (I have done it) and LankeeYankee put up a tutorial somewhere on the forum on how to do it.

Easy Populate is the greatest software ever. When I tested the Free version (2+ years ago) it was a mess especially if you have multiple products with same model number such as in our business.
I happen to have been using the advanced for a few years, when Langer was still answering emails and he helped iron out some wrinkles now everything is fine and dandy it is such a great tool to export Google Base for larger store such as mine as every other tool I ran into will time out even though my server is setup to handle huge files. Also it is very easy to add new database fields to import or export.

I think the forum will benefit a lot if the EPA is made available through the Add ons section even though it is not Free it covers a lot of things that current Free EP doesn't do.

Hello CoolCarPartsOnline

Does your products upload file also have the meta tags as part of it?
If so would you be willing to send me a copy of your file? All I am really after is the top row, showing all the row titles, to make sure I start with something I know works.

Schoolboy,

I would ask you the same question but for the non commerial version of EP:-

would you be willing to send me a copy of your file? All I am really after is the top row, showing all the row titles, to make sure I start with something I know works.

Of course as I mention, the one part I am most interested is the part of the file referencing metatags per product.

darkmarauder:

Hello CoolCarPartsOnline

Does your products upload file also have the meta tags as part of it?
If so would you be willing to send me a copy of your file? All I am really after is the top row, showing all the row titles, to make sure I start with something I know works.

My version of EP is commercial so you have to pay for it from the developer. It is highly recommended from someone who deals with 130K product and growing.

You can upload all product information from one sheet. Such as meta tags, product linking and all the information you might think of.

Let me also answer Schoolboy part.

The free EP can be downloaded from the download section. There are a few threads open that discuss the Free EP.

I believe both EP come with template files that you can download and use to upload the products.

darkmarauder:

Schoolboy,

I would ask you the same question but for the non commerial version of EP:-

would you be willing to send me a copy of your file? All I am really after is the top row, showing all the row titles, to make sure I start with something I know works.

Of course as I mention, the one part I am most interested is the part of the file referencing metatags per product.

I believe you are referring to the header row of the "spreadsheet" ?

This won't help you with meta tags. Before you can incorporate meta tag data into the "spreadsheet", the capacity for easypopulate.php to read/write into these database fields need to be built.

It's not difficult to make these edits to easypopulate.php, and the technique is outlined HERE.

You need to be very careful making these edits, however... follow the instructions with appropriate care.

You may want to consider adding other fields from the products table while you are doing the edits. (You will also see the FIELD NAMES for the various meta data fields. You MUST make sure your edits to the php file use the same field names...)

when you have successfuly edited easypopulate.php, and over-written the existing file (after backing it up!)...

... do an EP "dump" of your existing products.

It will produce a TXT file with the relevant headers for the meta tag field(s).

Right this is really becoming a complete mess.
I fear I may have confused the matter somewhat.

So:-
Completely forgot EPA, I have perfectly good price files and it's just causing me more trouble than I need.
So my question is, with a shop already installed with Easy Populate free, and with the shop having products in it. How can I precisely import meta tag information in to the shop at the same time that I upload a price file?

May I suggest Apsona ShopAdmin? It will let you import/update products and their metadata. And IMHO it's easier to use than EP.

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

OK Apsona... I'm getting this:

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING, expecting T_OLD_FUNCTION or T_FUNCTION or T_VAR or '}' in /home/modsh2/public_html/football/admin/apsona_functions.php on line 15

Possibly because I gave you my top-level URL and not the folder in which the demo shop sits. ?

That looks more like an error that occurs because of an older PHP version. Perhaps you are using a PHP version older than 5.1? ShopAdmin requires PHP 5.1 or better.

Regards.

OK... will try it on 5.2 .

A quick look at the config indicates that it refers to your server before "kicking into life".

This suggests it gets "authorisation" to apply the module (enable it) after verifying that the user has signed up with you.

Good idea...

But does the URL submitted during sign up HAVE to be the exact location of the store? (ie: full http path to the store)... Or can it jus be the path to the root (even if the store is in a sub-folder?)

As you say, the software is downloaded from our server, for several reasons:

• Easier for us to push out bug fixes to all users
• Easier for us to provide customizations for particular users, since we are able to identify the user who is asking for the software (e.g., someone wants custom fields in their product table)
• We can track the usage patterns of our system so that we can focus our optimization efforts on more-commonly-used aspects
  As for the URL, we only ask that you provide the URL to the shop so that we can correlate it for data analysis purposes. We do not insist that it should be any particular place in your shop.

Hope this helps.

Apsona
http://apsona.com

OK... working

Glad to hear that it's working. I would be delighted to get your feedback on it, and your thoughts on how to improve it.

Regards.
Apsona
http://apsona.com