Database I/O Manager (DbIo) Plugin [Support Thread]

mcqueeneycoins:

Hi all, just a couple of questions I'm having trouble finding the answer to in the readme docs, etc.

1. Is there a way to update a product with a linked category without changing the master category? In otherwords, how can I add/update a new product with 2 or 3 different categories through DBIO? Can more than one category be listed in the v_categories_name column, and if so, what should I use to separate them?

2. If I turn on the "allow duplicate model" option, would I be able to simply "overwrite" an existing product with a new product without having to use the REMOVE command for the old and a new line for the NEW? I have a lot of unique, single quantity items, so trying to find an easy way to just replace old, out of stock items with the new ones without having to create a bunch of new products.

lat9--sorry to bug you, but I had asked these questions awhile back and doesn't look like I ever got a clear answer. Would you be able to assist? Thank you for all you do!

1. There's not a way to simply link a product to another category. You'd need a 2-line import, the first to change the product's master category to the linked one and the second to change the master category back.

2. What's the goal of what you're trying to do? Are you overwriting a specific product-id to reflect new product content or are you creating a new product with the same model number?

lat9:

1. There's not a way to simply link a product to another category. You'd need a 2-line import, the first to change the product's master category to the linked one and the second to change the master category back.

2. What's the goal of what you're trying to do? Are you overwriting a specific product-id to reflect new product content or are you creating a new product with the same model number?

Ideally I would be able to overwrite the existing product id to reflect new product content, without having to use the remove command first. For example, replace and apple under the red category with a banana under the yellow category without creating a linked product (or leaving the apple product active). Or, even if I could just replace apple 1 with apple 2 in the same category, but with different model numbers, without creating a new product (or leaving the old product there) that would work too.

I have 5,000+ products active at any given time, and the majority are unique single quantity items. Would just like to be able to clean up the database easily as they sell and replace them with new inventory. If it's not possible that's ok, just thought I'd ask.

Thanks again (any happy holidays!)

Granted, it's been a while since I've fussed with DbIo, but there's nothing I remember that prevents you from updating the model and content for a given v_products_id.

Just a side thought here.

reusing, deleting, and etc of database items can only result in problems.

A customer of 10+ years would have many items in their records that would not like having their data manipulated in such a manner.

With today's available storage, a few outdated db items hanging around should have little or no effect on operation.

IMHO, it's better for the customer to see "Sold Out" than "No Product Found".

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it"

lat9--unless I'm doing something wrong, even if I change product data in the csv file, it assigns it a new product ID on upload creating a new product and leaving the old product in place. Please let me know if there is a workaround I'm missing.

dbltoe:

Just a side thought here.

reusing, deleting, and etc of database items can only result in problems.

A customer of 10+ years would have many items in their records that would not like having their data manipulated in such a manner.

With today's available storage, a few outdated db items hanging around should have little or no effect on operation.

IMHO, it's better for the customer to see "Sold Out" than "No Product Found".

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it"

dbltoe--again, correct me if I'm wrong, but I am under the impression that a customer's order history will be saved based on the item they purchased at the time. If I update the product title, etc. I did not think that would also change the product information saved in their order history/data.

My issue is that I'm adding ~500 products a month to replace items that sold. If I just keep adding new products, I'm having to scroll through hundreds of pages in my admin to make any changes. Unless I deactivate the products, my customers will be faced with the same issue--scrolling through hundreds of pages of sold out products just to find what they're looking for--not a user friendly experience. Even doing this with DBIO creates a cumbersome (and large) file that takes longer to upload/update and more potential for error in my opinion. What I am hoping to do is essentially replace old products with new, and update the "date added" field so customers see it as a new product, but without taking up extra database space and cleaning up old products in the process.

mcqueeneycoins:

...
dbltoe--again, correct me if I'm wrong, but I am under the impression that a customer's order history will be saved based on the item they purchased at the time. If I update the product title, etc. I did not think that would also change the product information saved in their order history/data.
no, you are quite correct. customers detailed order data is stored in the orders_products table.

My issue is that I'm adding ~500 products a month to replace items that sold. If I just keep adding new products, I'm having to scroll through hundreds of pages in my admin to make any changes. Unless I deactivate the products, my customers will be faced with the same issue--scrolling through hundreds of pages of sold out products just to find what they're looking for--not a user friendly experience. Even doing this with DBIO creates a cumbersome (and large) file that takes longer to upload/update and more potential for error in my opinion. What I am hoping to do is essentially replace old products with new, and update the "date added" field so customers see it as a new product, but without taking up extra database space and cleaning up old products in the process.

you have a very real problem. that said, i'm not a fan of your solution. i would do modifications of the database select statement to present far less data to you. in that manner, one would not have to sort through hundreds of pages of sold out items on your admin pages. depending on what version of zc you are on would indicate where one might put said code. this is something i have done before...

with regards to what to display to the customer, that is another tricky one that i have addressed with various solutions.

the potential problem you have, and perhaps something else could chime in, might be in some of your SEO implications in your suggested solution. depending on whether you have an URL rewriter, you may get penalized for duplicate content.

but there are more creative solutions to the problem of having a tremendous number of products in your products table.

that said, i have seen various manufacturers reuse UPN numbers; so it is not like what you are thinking about doing is unprecedented.

best.

Thanks, carl--using 1.5.8a at the moment. With an existing 1.5.4 site I have url rewriter and have been manually replacing products like what I describe above, but trying to be more efficient with the new 1.5.8a site I'm working on. At the end of the day, if the database product ID does not change, but everything else about the product is updated (model, name, price, etc.) AND url gets rewritten once updated, would this not be any different than creating a brand new product using a newer product ID? Customer order history is saved separate and can be recalled as needed. As long as I don't anticipate needing to reactivate an old product, I guess I'm failing to see the downside to what I'm proposing, but I'm not the expert and hence the reason I'm reaching out for advice. I just want to make sure if I execute on my plan using DBIO (assuming I can), I'm not overlooking something that will create problems.

Right now, when I update product information for a given product, including model, name, and category, what I hope will replace the old product with the new product just ends up creating a linked product. Is there a way to instruct DBIO to "move" the product rather than "link" it?

i do not use dbio so i can not comment on its use.

i was only commenting on your method of solving your problem.

best.

lat9:

Granted, it's been a while since I've fussed with DbIo, but there's nothing I remember that prevents you from updating the model and content for a given v_products_id.
I just ran a quick Products update (using demo data) with the following CSV

v_products_id,v_products_model,v_products_quantity,v_dbio_command
1,MG200MMS-updated,28,

The model for product-id 1 was MG200MMS prior to that import; after the import it was MG200MMS-updated.

lat9:

I just ran a quick Products update (using demo data) with the following CSV

v_products_id,v_products_model,v_products_quantity,v_dbio_command
1,MG200MMS-updated,28,

> The model for product-id 1 was MG200MMS prior to that import; after the import it was MG200MMS-updated.

I must have made an error somewhere--I just tried to do the same with a different product and lo and behold it updated. But, if I change the categories, it still creates a linked product rather than moving the product altogether. I guess as long as I keep the replacement products within the same category it should work for what I'm trying to do.

Appreciate the help from everyone involved. If there is a way to move the product without linking it, please let me know.

Zencart 2.1
dbio-2.0.1

I just started using this today. I have two questions.

First is how do we add an item if its not in the system. For example I dont have a v_products_id until i add it to the website. Like it did on ep4

Also from testing when i export my products my special price goes under v_products_price_sorter. When i try and change the price nothing happens on the front end.
How could i add the special pricing into the original product upload

There's additional documentation on the plugin's GitHub repository: https://github.com/lat9/dbio/wiki

The docs for the ProductsHandler identify how to manipulate a product (like adding or removing).

DbIo's readme includes information regarding the various I/O handlers provided (see the Customization :: I/O Handlers section). There's a specific handler for Specials; it's not present in the base Products handler.

Okay i managed to get the hang of this thing. The only issue I have is Special pricing.

Is this the best way to update special pricing when adding a new item

• create product (using products handler)
• then I have to export again to get the new product ids from the product i created.
• then i have to add it to the(special handler template) (there is no id created in special field when adding a product so i have to match it up with what's on the product handler

Is there a way i can add the special price to the product handler so i dont have to do all these steps. Seems like a lot of work compared to ep4 unless I am misunderstanding.

I had some time to explore and experiment with DBIO as you can tell from all my post. The biggest challenge was adapting to the differences compared to EP4, but overall, I found DBIO to be a solid program.

One suggestion I have for improvement is to include a note in the documentation about adding new products. Specifically, mention that you need to set v_products_id to 0 when adding a new product. This detail was a bit confusing until I came across it in a forum thread.

That said, the documentation was well-written and made the learning process much easier—great job on that!

During my testing, I noticed a potential issue: when a template is created, it cannot be deleted. Attempting to do so simply refreshes the page without removing the template.

chadlly2003:

Okay i managed to get the hang of this thing. The only issue I have is Special pricing.

Is this the best way to update special pricing when adding a new item

• create product (using products handler)
• then I have to export again to get the new product ids from the product i created.
• then i have to add it to the(special handler template) (there is no id created in special field when adding a product so i have to match it up with what's on the product handler

Is there a way i can add the special price to the product handler so i dont have to do all these steps. Seems like a lot of work compared to ep4 unless I am misunderstanding.
Unfortunately, due to the complexity of Specials, adding that to the Product handler isn't possible.

chadlly2003:

I had some time to explore and experiment with DBIO as you can tell from all my post. The biggest challenge was adapting to the differences compared to EP4, but overall, I found DBIO to be a solid program.

One suggestion I have for improvement is to include a note in the documentation about adding new products. Specifically, mention that you need to set v_products_id to 0 when adding a new product. This detail was a bit confusing until I came across it in a forum thread.

That said, the documentation was well-written and made the learning process much easier—great job on that!

During my testing, I noticed a potential issue: when a template is created, it cannot be deleted. Attempting to do so simply refreshes the page without removing the template.
Thanks for the report that a template, once created, cannot be removed. I've created this GitHub issue for tracking: https://github.com/lat9/dbio/issues/222

Quick question regarding the date added column--I have tried updating the date using DBIO and have tried a couple different date formats, but nothing seems to work. Most formats give me an error message on upload about the invalid date format, default value being used, but the format that doesn't give me an error message doesn't actually change the date. Is there a special way I can get the date added to change? Using excel the only format DBIO import seems to allow is 12/24/2024 5:47:00 AM, but again doesn't actually update the field. I've got 4,000+ products I'm trying to "reset" date added for...don't want to manually update each one in phpmyadmin. Thanks!

mcqueeneycoins:

Quick question regarding the date added column--I have tried updating the date using DBIO and have tried a couple different date formats, but nothing seems to work. Most formats give me an error message on upload about the invalid date format, default value being used, but the format that doesn't give me an error message doesn't actually change the date. Is there a special way I can get the date added to change? Using excel the only format DBIO import seems to allow is 12/24/2024 5:47:00 AM, but again doesn't actually update the field. I've got 4,000+ products I'm trying to "reset" date added for...don't want to manually update each one in phpmyadmin. Thanks!
A product's date-added is not changeable on an update; it's only set (to the current date/time) when a product is added.

lat9:

A product's date-added is not changeable on an update; it's only set (to the current date/time) when a product is added.

Ah, bummer! Is it something I could update via sql command (and, if so, what would that command look like)? I basically want to reset the date added on all products to match the launch date of the site, when it's ready. Thanks!