Switching over to Zen-Cart

HI Folks,
I have an issue... I'm trying to switch over to ZenCart from a ColdFusion cart I made years ago, but I need to keep track of the Items we already have in our stock, on the shelves. They are aleady labeled with a part number and I want THAT part number to be the same on EVERYTHING. IF I ADD a new item, I want it to be item number H45522, not item #2.
Can I do this.
Thanks Guys.

Product ids are auto-generated and strictly numeric, but you can use the model number field for your part number.

We have over 3000 parts. Is there a way that I can import then all so I don't have to enter every single one by hand?

Easy Populate is a common method. V1.2.5.4 in Free Addons is reputed to be the most stable.
You would have to get your existing product db into the form used by Zen Cart; there are plenty of threads on how to do this.

Awesome. Thank you so much. I'll look into it. Where abouts in Upstate NY are you. I'm in Glens Falls.

If it's just product info that's important to you then easy populate can be used to import all the relevant data. (SEE NOTE, below)

If your products have "attributes" (like a t-shirt with selectable size and colour options), the import of the data is a little more detailed.

If you want to port across customer data, and order histories, then it gets very complex.

NOTE: Glenn Herbert points out that Easy Populate can import the data, but EasyPop will need each PART NUMBER to be unique, as it uses this part of the data as a key index and reference file.

The reason it does this is that (in conventional retailing) the PART NUMBER - or "Stock Keeping Unit" (SKU) is exclusive to a single product. Conventional retailing uses this number as a key monitor of stock - at a variety of levels and purposes.

A SKU should "live and die" with the product. You'll see this applied to product barcodes. When a product is discontinued, its barcode "dies" too. It is never applied to another product.

What are your reasons for giving every product idential Part Numbers? I'm struggling to see the sense in this.

I think by "I want THAT part number to be the same on EVERYTHING" the OP meant that the part number should be the same for the part in whatever system it is displayed. It was a case of thinking that the product id should match the part number, when the model field can be given that information.

Understood... but if EasyPop is to be used to load the product data to ZC, what will happen if the v_products_model fields are all identical, is that EP will just load ONE product, and during the load, it will simply UPDATE that one product with any new variables it finds in the remainder of the TXT upload feed file.

So... EP will upload the first record, then it skips to the second and sees the v_products_model is the same as what it just loaded, so EP will look at that line in the TXT feed and only apply any new variable it finds (price, for example) to the product it just configured.

EP will then run through the TXT file, dutifully reading the v_products_model as being already inserted, and will just keep updating that FIRST record until it reaches the end of the TXT feed, when it will apply the final set of variable differences.

So... you will just have ONE product in the store, and it will reference the data as found in that final line in the TXT feed.

EP will only load a NEW product in any given TXT feed, when it sees a CHANGE in the values contained at v_products_model .