Apsona ShopAdmin - a free tool for import/mass update/reporting

icecold:

I am trying to export all my products, and ALL fields, to a csv, no matter what, I got the dreaded 'We are sorry but the page you requested is no longer available, it has been moved or deleted' error, which means it run out of time or memory or something I really don't know the fact is not writing product.csv, as this is the name Apsona Shop Admin gives to the csv, I am on a VPS therefore I configured max input time to -1 (infinite) max execution time to 360000 and the memory for php.ini is 2048M, so where can be a problem? Apsona creates all kinds of smaller files but with a really huge one, it's not working, so what configuration is recommended in this case?

You may need to break it up by doing seperate exports and only selecting some of the fields and joining them later. Check your cache log and make sure it is actually timing out too. I had 16k priducts and had no problems but also exported using php myadmin.

The products and images follow standard naming conventions and you can make your own using the product id and image location. I've been able to do it if it is needed.

Paul69:

You may need to break it up by doing seperate exports and only selecting some of the fields and joining them later. Check your cache log and make sure it is actually timing out too. I had 16k priducts and had no problems but also exported using php myadmin.

Are you on a shared host? I am talking about a VPS it should be a way to do it ... Without splitting the files ...

I dont see how a virtual instance would make any difference. The max memory setting could be an issue try using phpmyadmin and export the products table. In my case the products table was the largest with the product descriptions taking the most space. Apsona will only pull from one table at a time from what I can remember so I guess I dont understand why a complete export would not work through phpmyadmin. Now importing is completely different but at least it would be a start. The only issues I could remember having had to do with uploads not downloads.

icecold:

Are you on a shared host? I am talking about a VPS it should be a way to do it ... Without splitting the files ...

With my VPS (2GB), I have to split all exports into 5k product 'chunks' via a loop.

Not only does execution time come into play, but memory exhaustion as well.

I stopped using Apsona as it doesn't seem to handle 75k products very well.

Limitless:

With my VPS (2GB), I have to split all exports into 5k product 'chunks' via a loop.

Not only does execution time come into play, but memory exhaustion as well.

I stopped using Apsona as it doesn't seem to handle 75k products very well.

And what you use instead?
For me it has been really useful for simple daily product stock updates ...

icecold:

And what you use instead?
For me it has been really useful for simple daily product stock updates ...

I wrote scripts (wget and sql code) that does my imports via cron jobs.

Hi,
using Apsona on a local Xampp install I have found that
it works on xamp 1.80 using php 5.4.4
it does not load completely on xampp 1.81 using php 5.4.7.

No error log messages of use.

Is anyone else using Apsona on a php 5.4.7 (windows?) server?

I am using Apsona with Zecart 1.5.0 and am running in to a couple problems. First, how do you use Apsona to update inventory lists across a category? A mass change is easy enough, but I if I have 50 different products in a category, and want to update them all to reflect their individual quanitity in stock, how do I do this? I thought I could just update the number on my spreadsheet, import the csv file and create/update, but that seems to remove the file from the storefront, but it's still in my database, I just can't see it. This is evident because Apsona gives me a warning that the data is already in the database when I try to reload it. I then go back to Zencart, delete the category and everything in it, and all of my associated images disappear from my images folder.

Second, is it possible to make a "Discount" or Special Pricing" column on a csv file to upload via Apsona? If not, is there a way to update the info so the special pricing I make in Zencart doesn't disappear?

I know I'm doing something wrong here. Any help would be most appreciated.

I thought I could just update the number on my spreadsheet, import the csv file and create/update, but that seems to remove the file from the storefront,

Yes. It should update only the fields you are importing. If it is removing them, it must be either changing the enabled field to 0 or changing the category and/or master category.

A mass change is easy enough, but I if I have 50 different products in a category, and want to update them all to reflect their individual quanitity in stock,
I don't understand the distinction between these two cases.
An update of any product field is based on the id or unique model number, doesn't matter "where" they are.
Are you saying the group of products you want to update is just those in one particular category?

Second, is it possible to make a "Discount" or Special Pricing" column on a csv file to upload via Apsona
You have have any column you like in the spreadsheet. Apsona will not choke on it: it will just map the columns to field names it recognises, the others you can choose to map from the drop-down selector above the field, or not and they are ignored on the import.
I have an enormous spreadsheet for product control, most of which Apsona import can ignore with no problem.

If you can't map to where you want, contact Apsona, I think they can customise the code you download for you only.

torvista:

Yes. It should update only the fields you are importing. If it is removing them, it must be either changing the enabled field to 0 or changing the category and/or master category.

I don't understand the distinction between these two cases.
An update of any product field is based on the id or unique model number, doesn't matter "where" they are.
Are you saying the group of products you want to update is just those in one particular category?

You have have any column you like in the spreadsheet. Apsona will not choke on it: it will just map the columns to field names it recognises, the others you can choose to map from the drop-down selector above the field, or not and they are ignored on the import.
I have an enormous spreadsheet for product control, most of which Apsona import can ignore with no problem.

If you can't map to where you want, contact Apsona, I think they can customise the code you download for you only.

Thank you for the guidance. I exported the data after my last three attempts at updating the data and the Category column returns blank. In other words, I import the data with a Category Column properly assigned and filled out. The data show up in my store. Next I update my CSV file to reflect new Quantity in Stock number, copy the CSV file (including the Category) to the the Apsona Shop Admin Import/Update field, get all the verify all the columns are there and select update. Everything seems to work ok, but all the items in the category I am updating disappears from my store. I export the file using the filter feature and find that everything...including the Enable column is there, and the Category column is there too...but all category name is missing from every line. What am I doing wrong?

How large a store have people managed to use this with.

I am a fan normally but have had bad experiences recently with two large stores. One for example is like this:

products : 50000
orders : 300000

What happens is that apsona starts but in starting sets running some crazy large queries that ultimately crash the db server. Now this is not a weak little shared hosting server.

anyone run with this kind of load successfully?

@Seajay
For a product to show up in the shop it needs to have a master category assigned to it and also belong to least one category...which should be the master category too.
So an import of a new product needs both those fields to exist.

If your export shows the category column to be blank, then thats the problem.

If you add a new product from the admin, check it shows up in the shop, export it, change one field (stock for example) and import it..does it disappear?

Hi,
Products->choose a filter->Then from the the right menu dropdown choose "Update all..."
I've tried various options but nothing happens after clicking Update.
This is the first time I've used it.

Anyone else with this problem/has used it recently successfully?

I am trying to update a Category that is listed under a Master category and I keep getting the message through Apson that the category that I'm updating is not valid. Here's what I've got:

Master category Category
VHF Radios VHF - Fixed Mount

I have VHF - Hand Held under the VHF Radios Master category and that I can update via Apsona. Any idea what am I doing wrong?

Is anyone else having a problem with Apsona updating. It was fine last night, but now today I can open an input file, but it gets stuck during the validation step. I'm not seeing any errors in my cpanel error log and there is no error messages on the site.

Thanks,
Gary

Well the problem didn't have anything to do with Apsona. I didn't think it did, but wanted to check with the people in the forum to make sure. The one file I was trying to import was somehow damaged, but I don't know how, or what kind of damage it had. I ended up moving just the data to a new file and that worked.

Thanks,

I had a problem with Apsona not loading on a local installation due to the php.ini error_reporting options.
As the "problem" may be a Zen Cart one, its posted elsewhere but here's the reference if anyone encounters the same issue:
http://www.zen-cart.com/showthread.php?207339-Undefined-index-path-in-configure-php-%28using-Apsona%29

I love this mod! I have a lot to learn as I am a newbie to Zen. What I think I can do with this mod, or what I think this mod should be able to do. Is be able to report on a record that was not modified in an update. Such as price did or did not rise in amount and Qty did or did not change. When I check a report of my import for updated records I get every record that went through the upload when some were just overwrites, and had no change.

Does anyone know if this mod will function in such a way. I need a record where other avenues can be modified from this Database. as well as price changes with in it on my own scale not percent. ???? Thanks in advance

I upload products with Apsona they show up in the shopping cart but the next time I look they have diapered, What am I doing wrong?