EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread

I have just uploaded the CSV file that Easy Populate made for me. Two issues;

still dropping all directories if there are no products in that folder
&
it does not save the tax class value. After the upload both the Products Price Net & Gross are the same value.

adb34:

I have just uploaded the CSV file that Easy Populate made for me. Two issues;

still dropping all directories if there are no products in that folder
&
it does not save the tax class value. After the upload both the Products Price Net & Gross are the same value.

I've gone back to review the past reported posts you've made to try again to understand what is meant by "dropping directories", what I understand you to reference is categories (not directories). As to "dropping categories", I'm not sure I understand what is happening to be able to provide further guidance (though I wish to so that the issue/understanding can be resolved).

As far as the tax class "value"... The process uses the tax class name as entered in the database (it does not generate a new one automatically) to look up the tax_class_id and then to assign the tax_class_id to the product upon import. If the tax class name that is in the import file does not match the tax_class_name in the database, then no "change" will be made to the tax_class_id "field". Although I didn't search deeply for this aspect, but because the products_tax_class_id exists in the product table, if you know add the tax_class_id into your import file (field: v_products_tax_class_id) and add products_tax_class_id to the user defined fields in the configuration menu, then these values should be updated/output when such is desired to be provided/addressed.

I assume that the display of the same values for net and gross is abnormal for the store's current setup? Meaning that if you manually set a tax class to a product then entered a price in either field that the other field does update to reflect the with/without tax price? (Just one of those checks to be sure that the software is setup as expected and not that this program has caused something, especially since this type of "test" is something I would do if I were "in front" of the computer screen.)

Back to my understanding of the "dropping directories" issue and other discussion from before. The Categories Only (with metatags) addresses the data specific to a category. It's category description, it's category name, the image associated with the category, etc... In a way it has nothing to do with the product that is in that category, just the category itself. When reviewing product associated with a category, the category_1 field (or similar number) is populated with the category "tree" for that product and is expected to be provided in the language related to the number (in this case 1). The branches of the tree are made by using the carat (^) symbol (character between () is the ^). So if you had a product like a t-shirt that is in the shirts sub-category which is in the men category then the category listing could be something like: men^shirts^t-shirt and that would populate the product into that category. If the category(ies) didn't exist, then they would be created with the parent being the category to the left of the referenced category.

With regards to using the dropdowns at the top of the screen. If nothing is done with the status dropdown, then only active product will be exported which is the same for the next selection of active. Then there is the inactive product and lastly all product. The filters only adjust what is exported when clicking the export button next to that group of dropdowns. Those filters do not affect the clickable links that are below the dropdowns.

Bloody hell you have written a lot. I will take a copy, read it tonight and get back to you.

adb34:

Bloody hell you have written a lot. I will take a copy, read it tonight and get back to you.
Had 2 options. Write a little about nothing, or provide information on what I think I understand. :) either way probably did or would have missed the mark. :)

mc12345678:

Had 2 options. Write a little about nothing, or provide information on what I think I understand. :) either way probably did or would have missed the mark. :)

I have put a response together, would you like me to MP you, or put it in here?

adb34:

I have put a response together, would you like me to MP you, or put it in here?
If it's a hate message or otherwise doesn't meet the general posting policy, better via PM. If it is something to discuss the operation of EP4, others are likely to gain something from it and could/should be posted here. :)

mc12345678:

If it's a hate message or otherwise doesn't meet the general posting policy, better via PM. If it is something to discuss the operation of EP4, others are likely to gain something from it and could/should be posted here. :)

Not worth the effort to send a hate message.

The first bit about the missing ‘Tax Class’ and ‘products Price’ my own stupid fault and I have fixed that.

Sorry for the missing understanding. It is terminology that I used when I was a Network manager here in the UK.

I did a backup of my store and with problems beyond my control I had to re-build my store and used that backup to populate my new store.
When you go admin->catalog->CATEGORIES / PRODUCTS – TOP you are presented with column titles of ‘ID’ ‘Categories/Products’, ‘Model’, ‘Price/Special/Sale’, ‘Quantity’, ‘Status’, ‘Sort’ and ‘Action’.

If you have anything written in ‘Categories/Products’ and value in ‘Quantity’ for example 63 of 63, then all of the ‘Categories/Products’ are backed up so that when you need to upload the backup all is put back so you will get ‘Categories/Products’ and value in ‘Quantity’ 63 of 63 and all is well.

However, if you have one product ‘Out of stock the ‘Quantity’ for the ‘Categories/Products’ will display 62 of 63. Then after a backup and you want to use that backup, the ‘Out of Stock’ product is not there and the value in ‘Quantity’ will be 62 of 62. Therefore, the ‘out of stock’ product or then products will be lost (not backed up).

Also, if you have ‘set up’ the drill down of ‘Categories/Products’ for example Shoes->color->blue->sizes but do not put any products under sizes, then the ‘Categories/Products’ sizes is not backed up, so that when you use your backup the ‘Categories/Products’ sizes will not be there.

I hope this helps you.

adb34:

Not worth the effort to send a hate message.

The first bit about the missing ‘Tax Class’ and ‘products Price’ my own stupid fault and I have fixed that.

Sorry for the missing understanding. It is terminology that I used when I was a Network manager here in the UK.

I did a backup of my store and with problems beyond my control I had to re-build my store and used that backup to populate my new store.
When you go admin->catalog->CATEGORIES / PRODUCTS – TOP you are presented with column titles of ‘ID’ ‘Categories/Products’, ‘Model’, ‘Price/Special/Sale’, ‘Quantity’, ‘Status’, ‘Sort’ and ‘Action’.

If you have anything written in ‘Categories/Products’ and value in ‘Quantity’ for example 63 of 63, then all of the ‘Categories/Products’ are backed up so that when you need to upload the backup all is put back so you will get ‘Categories/Products’ and value in ‘Quantity’ 63 of 63 and all is well.

However, if you have one product ‘Out of stock the ‘Quantity’ for the ‘Categories/Products’ will display 62 of 63. Then after a backup and you want to use that backup, the ‘Out of Stock’ product is not there and the value in ‘Quantity’ will be 62 of 62. Therefore, the ‘out of stock’ product or then products will be lost (not backed up).

Also, if you have ‘set up’ the drill down of ‘Categories/Products’ for example Shoes->color->blue->sizes but do not put any products under sizes, then the ‘Categories/Products’ sizes is not backed up, so that when you use your backup the ‘Categories/Products’ sizes will not be there.

I hope this helps you.

So, issues described that remain a problem are on the store front, and store front only?

One thing before possibly describing what's going on, again want to say that EP4 is not exactly a backup tool... It's original purpose appears to have been to make import of bulk product such as those provided by a "vendor" easy and quick, then it changed a little to make it easy to manipulate the data in the database in a bulk manner (increase/decrease all prices by a certain amount), but not strictly as a backup tool (there are other more dedicated programs to do that). So, that PA made. :)

The export of the "Full product data" will include all active (v_status = 1) and inactive (v_status = 0) product. The same is true if using the dropdowns at the top of the screen provided the last one (status) is set to "All".

On import, all rows that meet the primary key criteria (default: products_model) will be imported. Based on the settings in the admin configuration->Easy Populate 4 at the setting Make Zero Qty Products Inactive: When uploading, make the status Inactive for products with zero qty (default: false). If this has been changed to true, then on upload of the out-of-stock product, the product will become deactivated and the total quantity of product per category will decrease.

Now, the default for that setting is false, which means that product with zero quantity are to be uploaded and remain "active" to the store visitor(s). Mind you, there is one "issue" discussed over the last couple of pages that relates to populating some other areas of the database (still need to write the other two solutions I have considered for "restoring" from that situation) such as manufacturers. The described issue though seems to be something a little different.

See if setting the Make Zero Qty Products Inactive option to false resolves your issue, otherwise need to find out more about your products table I think. If it does not resolve the issue, could you (maybe again?) post the settings you have for EP4?

Sorry but you are correct, very new to ZC, which new application do you suggest I transition to.

Thanks,

mc12345678:

So, issues described that remain a problem are on the store front, and store front only?.......

No this problem is in the back office.

I will investigate and get back. It is a pity that EP4 is not for a store backup, it would make a perfect package to do both bulk upload and backup.

adb34:

No this problem is in the back office.

I will investigate and get back. It is a pity that EP4 is not for a store backup, it would make a perfect package to do both bulk upload and backup.
The only time that a product is removed from the database when using EP4 is if the status is set to 9 for the product. Otherwise, whatever is in the file and meets the criteria to be imported will and the total quantity of items currently in the database will not be reduced (unless the status was set to 9 for a product).

zc 1.5.5a EP4.0.35 many mods

I've very very noob on this. I've installed and configured the mod in my test site and seems in order to my untrained eye.

I've exported my db and it shows up in my admin/temp folder with filename FUll-EP2016Jul18-xxxxxx (x being numeral)

The file opens in Open Office Calc (which I'm also noob to but have some basic exp with other spreadsheets)

What I want to do is add/populate Meta titles, words, descriptions for existing individual products. No other changes. I see the appropriate columns in the spreadsheet.

I've read the readme, install notes and the wiki but I'm still unclear...

1. Do I delete the columns from the spreadsheet that I am not changing or do I leave them. (ie if I have only model number and meta text columns, and meta on/off columns will I end up overwriting the entire kit and caboodle.)

2. And, if deleting the columns that aren't being changed is ok, what name would I call the new file I make with the meta info. ( I see some sample naming conventions for featured and other type files but not for this particular example)

soxophoneplayer:

zc 1.5.5a EP4.0.35 many mods

I've very very noob on this. I've installed and configured the mod in my test site and seems in order to my untrained eye.

I've exported my db and it shows up in my admin/temp folder with filename FUll-EP2016Jul18-xxxxxx (x being numeral)

The file opens in Open Office Calc (which I'm also noob to but have some basic exp with other spreadsheets)

What I want to do is add/populate Meta titles, words, descriptions for existing individual products. No other changes. I see the appropriate columns in the spreadsheet.

I've read the readme, install notes and the wiki but I'm still unclear...

1. Do I delete the columns from the spreadsheet that I am not changing or do I leave them. (ie if I have only model number and meta text columns, and meta on/off columns will I end up overwriting the entire kit and caboodle.)

2. And, if deleting the columns that aren't being changed is ok, what name would I call the new file I make with the meta info. ( I see some sample naming conventions for featured and other type files but not for this particular example)
   The instructions were written with a slight air of ambiguity about the specific columns because of the way EP4 can be modified and that then the instructions would be "wrong". The first guidance is as you have done, try to see what the code will do if setup to have "just" what you want. Recently a lot was done to only modify the fields of a record that were included in the file. Regarding main products and categories only the products and/or categories in the import file are touched by the code. Uploading product x will not delete products y and z nor modify their data...

As to the filename. The filename is like a configuration setting. Files named one of the "special" filenames are treated uniquely, any other filename is processed as a full import. The important part of the filename is everything up to and including -ep when read from left to right. Best to leave that part unchanged (capitalization does not matter) and as desired/necessary to modify anything/everything after that and leave .csv at the end (extension).

I am running 1.5.5
I have successfully uploaded many products using EP4

I first created one item with all the attributes/options needed.
The exported list of options for this item is 98 lines long.
I changed the model number to one that needs the options loaded.
After I uploaded the attributes/options for this item it give me the message that the file was imported
But none of the attributes/options are displaying on the item
I have tried both Basic and Complete versions of the attributes file downloads as the basis for my uploads.

Any suggestions please!

These are the same for about 2000 of my items
I really don't want to have to Key these in manually.

Nevemind... I had to add the code changes to make it work.
Since I have to create an upload file with 98 attributes per item, it's faster to use the Copy function in the attributes manager.
This had been a total waste of time!

munizjm:

Nevemind... I had to add the code changes to make it work.
Since I have to create an upload file with 98 attributes per item, it's faster to use the Copy function in the attributes manager.
This had been a total waste of time!
Sorry that there were difficulties in getting this version to work as desired. Regarding repeating attributes, copy and paste tends to work rather quickly. That said, there is not always just a single solution to all issues. There certainly are ways to dip and dive and get the in program copy method(s) to accomplish the desired task, but 1) glad you got it to work, and 2) glad you found a way to get your desired result.

Some of the strength of this/this option is more on repeating these types of modifications on a routine basis as in from a vendor that routinely provides attributable data, or if there is a need to perform some type of mass modification and doing so with a SQL statement doesn't seem easy/feasible, want to have some presentable document to show what the status was/should be after import, want to work off-line, etc... weakness(es)? Requires getting familiar with at least one new application if being used one time, is prone to user error in content modification, and repetitive information must be copied in some way rather than clicked through. (sorry last one is a stretch. :P)

I have a problem:
An SQL error has occured. Please check your input data for tabs within fields and delete these. If this error continues, please forward your error log to the Easy Populate maintainer
and this:
When executing:
SHOW COLUMNS FROM products_with_attributes_stock
MySQLi error 1146: Table 'instates_Vrsfnwp9bt9b1kjesfn908.products_with_attributes_stock' doesn't exist
I attempted an upload and it says: File uploaded successfully: filenam.csv BUT no products are added. I did a test.... Downloaded the entire csv, deleted a product in the admin then uploaded the entire csv without editing.
Any help would be appreciated.
Zencart version 1.5.4, linux server all other requirements seem to be "ok" on my servers.

In your removal of Stock By Attributes you did not remove at least the define for the products_with_attributes_stock table which means you have files still on your system.

Besides revisiting your previous install of SBA to identify all of the files that should be removed or restored, to move forward with EP4 you would want to goto tools->developers toolkit, then search for: TABLE_PRODUCTS_WITH_ATTRIBUTES_STOCK then should find it in at least two locations one in the admin/includes/functions/extra_functions file and the other where it looks something like:

define('TABLE_PRODUCTS_WITH_ATTRIBUTES_STOCK', 'products_with_attributes_stock');

does this work with 1.5.5a?? i can't get it to work.. it says file uploaded successfully but there are no products in the database and i get what looks like these error messages?

lidlchris:

does this work with 1.5.5a?? i can't get it to work.. it says file uploaded successfully but there are no products in the database and i get what looks like these error messages?

Sigh... have you 1) read the instructions, 2) read even the last page of posts or 2?

Upload... to provide files to the server, been a term used for like 30 years to represent movement of files or information from a local system or area to a remote location.

Try importing... the listing of files presented in the above image is incomplete... there is no "error", there is an indication that nothing is present...