EasyPopulate 4.0 Support Thread

chrysalid:

I've been trying to find a way to 'escape' the comma - and have had no luck. So I just deleted all of the contents in the description.
There are now no comma's anywhere in the csv file.
When I try to import I get "No model field in record. This line was not imported" over and over - no records import.
But I have no idea why...
What now?
Thanks!
Amber

If you are using OpenOffice to export your file, you do NOT have to worry about commas, quotes, etc. in your descriptions. But you do need to make sure you are exporting your file correctly from OpenOffice. This has been explain in detail in the first couple posts of this thread.

Also, please read the README docs that come with the mod. I always recommend that you enter a product manually first through the admin, then do an EXPORT to get your file header and column mapping. This goes a long way to explain how to use the mod. Most things are very self-explanatory.

-chadd

hermes369:

Easy Populate 4 seems to be working great but I'm having a vexing problem. I've successfully imported my products but when I go to edit an individual product, I make a change click on preview, and then don't have the Back, Update, or Cancel buttons on the preview page. I do have the option with products I've uploaded individually; otherwise I would think the problem is elsewhere.

I've compared the query strings from a manually-added product and one from Easy Populate, and there is no difference other than the category and ID of the product.

I've turned on strict debugging and looked in my logs but there are no errors to give me a clue. It seems as if not allowing me to edit the product is set somewhere and I don't know where to fix it.

I'm running on a cPanel VPS with Zen Cart 1.5.1, upgraded from 1.3.9h. Everything else is working just fine.

The only thing that I can think of without seeing your data / install is that you have not set v_product_type to 1 which is a normal/standard product.

I'm going to simplify this is the next update so that the column doesn't export unless you have enable "music" columns.

-chadd

Just to recap:

When first learning to use EP4, first manually create a product within your category tree, i.e.

products_model: widget_101

in it's proper category:

Widgets > My 101 Widgets

So you now have a widget within it's Top level category, and sub-level category.

When you export your data, you'll see the category column as this: "Widgets^My 101 Widgets"

Now, before you do anything else, you should be able to Export your data, and WITHOUT DOWNLOADING OR EDITING, import that SAME file. You should get NO errors, and a notice that says the products was "Updated".

Go look at the product and ensure the the "round-robin" Export -> Import worked without error. If you have not error, you're ready to download your CSV file and begin working on it.

If you have not experience with data import/export, easypopulate (any versions!), it is best to go slow and only work with a couple products until you are confident about what you are doing.

All I can say is that EP4 has been tested by numerous users, some with sku's numbering the hundreds of thousands (one store has 980,000 sku's!!!) without error (server permitting!).

I hope this clarifies some things for new users...

-chadd

Hmmmm. v_products_type is set to 1 for all items. There must be some kind of way to see what's different between whatever is generating the product preview for products I may edit and the ones I can't. I guess I'm looking for something like a Console, or Event Viewer for mysql. Obviously there is some difference somewhere. I appreciate the advice to go slow. I will try that again presently.

Thanks for the response!

veery frustrated over here.

Spent a few days going through all of my products via a downloaded .csv file to remove all of the HTML tags in the MetaTag descriptions.

Divided the spreadsheet int 3 separate sheets of approx. 2000 parts each.

made sure that all " were removed from the text in the description fields.

Uploaded and imported the files only to find that ALL of the product descriptions are being cut-off.

So now what?

The descriptions were correct (with regards to length) in downloaded spreadsheet.

I went back through the descriptions and noted that all text after the ® was dropping off.

Could be happening with trademark and copyright symbols too, haven't looked yet.

Anyway around this?

Serious:

I went back through the descriptions and noted that all text after the ® was dropping off.

Could be happening with trademark and copyright symbols too, haven't looked yet.

Anyway around this?

Serious,
I sent you a PM. Please contact me off line so I can help you better.
-chadd

how do you import items and have easy populate 4 make the categories for them. it trys to import them and it says
SKIPPED! - Model: 18200 - No category provided for this new product
SKIPPED! - Model: 18201 - No category provided for this new product
SKIPPED! - Model: 18202 - No category provided for this new product
SKIPPED! - Model: 18203 - No category provided for this new product
SKIPPED! - Model: 18204 - No category provided for this new product
SKIPPED! - Model: 18205 - No category provided for this new product
SKIPPED! - Model: 18240 - No category provided for this new product
SKIPPED! - Model: 18241 - No category provided for this new product
SKIPPED! - Model: 18242 - No category provided for this new product
SKIPPED! - Model: 18243 - No category provided for this new product
SKIPPED! - Model: 18244 - No category provided for this new product
SKIPPED! - Model: 18245 - No category provided for this new product
SKIPPED! - Model: 18248 - No category provided for this new product
SKIPPED! - Model: 18249 - No category provided for this new product

please let me know what im doing wrong thanks

Dashizna:

how do you import items and have easy populate 4 make the categories for them. it trys to import them and it says

SKIPPED! - Model: 18249 - No category provided for this new product

please let me know what im doing wrong thanks

Hi Dashizna,

You should read the first posts in this thread for more detailed info, but you must provide a category name in the v_categories_name_1 column.

This error means you left it blank.

chadderuski:

Hi Dashizna,

You should read the first posts in this thread for more detailed info, but you must provide a category name in the v_categories_name_1 column.

This error means you left it blank.

haha my bad helps when you have the head line there when you upload the file.

I have a site running Zencart 1.5.0, I had easypopulate 1.2.5.4 working on it, We wanted some newer features so I installed EP 1.5. Once I got EP 1.5 installed I tried an import and it acted like it ran but was running on a blank file. I tried installing EP 4 and have the same results. When I rolled EP 1.5 back to 1.2.5.4 it just loads a blank page once you click the insert to db button so I went back to 1.5 and 4. I was thinking that I had something wrong import file wise but I created products manually, ran an export with EP 4, deleted the products and imported the same unedited file and had the same results, nothing done and no products created. With both EP 1.5 and EP 4 they have no trouble uploading the file, they just don't import it. I have tried setting the temp folder to 700, 755 and 777 with no change. I am sure I messed up something with the EP 1.5 install, does anyone have an idea what direction I should be looking.

EP 1.5 results

EP 4 results

Thanks, James.

jamesjweg:

I have a site running Zencart 1.5.0, I had easypopulate 1.2.5.4 working on it, We wanted some newer features so I installed EP 1.5. Once I got EP 1.5 installed I tried an import and it acted like it ran but was running on a blank file. I tried installing EP 4 and have the same results. When I rolled EP 1.5 back to 1.2.5.4 it just loads a blank page once you click the insert to db button so I went back to 1.5 and 4. I was thinking that I had something wrong import file wise but I created products manually, ran an export with EP 4, deleted the products and imported the same unedited file and had the same results, nothing done and no products created. With both EP 1.5 and EP 4 they have no trouble uploading the file, they just don't import it. I have tried setting the temp folder to 700, 755 and 777 with no change. I am sure I messed up something with the EP 1.5 install, does anyone have an idea what direction I should be looking.

As my brother once said, RTFM! :smile:

You have to name the file "Full-EPxxxxxx.csv" or "Attrib-EPxxxx.csv" etc for it to be read to the correct db....

The problem with 1.2.5.4 appears to have been a bad configuration_group_id number in mysql. I manually (via phpmyadmin) pulled ALL of it's entries out of mysql, reinstalled and it works. As for EP 4, I went back and looked at my sample export and realized that the products_model value was missing from the export, it was simply "" but EP did not show an error. When I recreate that now EP 4 reports "No model field in record. This line was not imported" as it should, I have no idea why it was not saying that this morning. This morning it was just reporting like I showed in those screen shots. Ignore my brother's smart-@$$ reply about the file names, I just grabbed the first screen shot I came to when I was posting. Here is one with a correctly named file that was doing the same thing.

I think my other problems with EP 4 might have been due to ignoring the warnings about excel, avoid Micro$ucks, in that case his RTFM comment is valid.

Thanks, James.

On the Admin/tools/ep4 you need to scroll down and find your .csv file and then click on the Import link.

After uploading a new .csv file for some new products I noticed that the metatag symbol on the applicable category pages are still black and not orange (no metatag data).

I've made sure that the v_metatags_products_name_status, v_metatags_title_status, v_metatags_model_status, v_metatags_title_tagline_status fields are all marked as "1".

What am I missing?

jamesjweg:

I think my other problems with EP 4 might have been due to ignoring the warnings about excel, avoid Micro$ucks, in that case his RTFM comment is valid.

Thanks, James.

James,

The big problem with Microsoft Excel is that the different versions 2000 through 2010 all handle csv export "their own way" and on top of that, platforms (win vs mac)
are also different. Also, MS won't let you specify your source data's encoding (say from some supplier) that may be in iso8859-1 but you then need to convert and export as UTF8. Open Office will do this. Open Office will also properly encapsulate your data, not just what it thinks you want encapsulted.

Another stickler is that I am use php's fgetcsv() to read data, and IT has it's own issues... especially when dealing with UTF8 multi-byte languages.

-chadd

Serious:

After uploading a new .csv file for some new products I noticed that the metatag symbol on the applicable category pages are still black and not orange (no metatag data).

I've made sure that the v_metatags_products_name_status, v_metatags_title_status, v_metatags_model_status, v_metatags_title_tagline_status fields are all marked as "1".

What am I missing?

The very best way to ensure that your are creating your metatags correctly is to first complete one properly through the admin, and then export that product. This will help you see the correct mapping.

-chadd

If I upload a bunch of random Skus that are not linked to anything via the easypopulate to save time..will it just kick those out as not identified? I have about 23k different skus and am trying to find an easy way to update without doing a lot of excel work. lets say that i am off by about 100-200 products that are not on my site or in zencart what will it do with those skus once i import?

VBE-1:

If I upload a bunch of random Skus that are not linked to anything via the easypopulate to save time..will it just kick those out as not identified?

"It depends," on whether you do something else that kicks an error - for example, not having a model number. If you have a model number and it matches an item, I assume it will update the sku; if it does not match a model number, it will probably add them as new items.

has there been any update to Easy Populate 4.0.19 - Beta 1-28-2012 for uploading attributes ? I have a ton of attributes to put on but can't see a way to do it, over 27.000 attributes is frightning !!!