Easy Populate 1.2.5.4 support

Actual image FILES (the jpeg files themselves) reside in the IMAGES forder(s) and get to the server via FTP, or when you ADD a product in the admin console and upload its image.

The image name in Easy Populate is the DATABASE REFERENCE - a record of the NAME and LOCATION of the image. It is little more than a "label" that the software uses to locate the image associated with a product.

It is used (for example) in compiling <img src> paths via the php, in order to create suitable HTML for bring that image "into play"...

Hi,

I am using Zen Cart 1.3.8a and Easy Populate 1.2.5.4.

I have all of my products loaded OK.

Here is my problem.

My inventory changes everyday,

I sell products and get more in.
I do not only sell through my store.
I sell on ebay and through other sites in
my niche.

My problem is I update a spread sheet to keep track of
everything, but that means adding and subtracting products
from that spread sheet.

If I could just use that spread sheet to make my file for the
Easy Populate upload that would be fine, but if I understand
correctly the old inventory doesn't clear out when you upload
new inventory. So that would be a mess.

With the volume that I do it would be very hard to track
what's still in stock, what's out of inventory and what's new
on different spread sheets. I am dealing with a few thousand part numbers.

Any thoughts would be very very welcome. :smile:

I guess it comes down to...is there an easy way to update the store on a regular basis
with a new upload of all of my inventory every time?

Thanks.

blazed8 Without writing some bespoke software, EP can update stock levels and enable and disable products in the basic setup already (this does exclude Stock by Attributes works via a different database table/s).
In the last but one column in the complete file you will see** v_status**:
1 = Enabled
0 = Disabled
9 = Delete from database
Under v_products_quantity this the current stock available.
So using a table in OO or Excel you should be able to use your spread sheets !!

Scrat:

blazed8 Without writing some bespoke software, EP can update stock levels and enable and disable products in the basic setup already (this does exclude Stock by Attributes works via a different database table/s).
In the last but one column in the complete file you will see** v_status**:
1 = Enabled
0 = Disabled
9 = Delete from database
Under v_products_quantity this the current stock available.
So using a table in OO or Excel you should be able to use your spread sheets !!

Yes, this technique is possible... but you have to move with a bit of care...

I have found that v_status=9 tends to remove the product data (desired behaviour) AND its image (undesired behaviour if your intention is to re-upload modified data)

Bear in mind that the auto-increment feature in the product ID will put in a new ID when the dbase is re-populated with the refreshed data.

This is not an easy one... v_status=9 should ONLY be used when a product is well-and-truly discontinued. It shouldn't really be used to "temporarily" remove data about a product that is then "refreshed" with a clean EP import.

I used to work with a dropshipper who (fortunately) understood the needs of their agents and they produced FOUR separate datafiles daily:

1. DISCONTINUED PRODUCTS (To which we just said v_status=9)
2. OUT OF STOCK PRODUCTS (To which we just said v_status=0)
3. BACK IN STOCK PRODUCTS (To which we ran a v_status=1 and it would re-activate all relevant v_status=0 products)
4. NEW PRODUCTS (Which were added in a normal EP upload with v_status=1)

Put pressure on your supplier to do the same... They MUST have a stock management system, and are therefore able to generate these 4 files with relative ease.

Scrat thanks for your response.

schoolboy:

This is not an easy one... v_status=9 should ONLY be used when a product is well-and-truly discontinued. It shouldn't really be used to "temporarily" remove data about a product that is then "refreshed" with a clean EP import.

schoolboy, what will happen if I use v_status=9 and upload
products that are then "refreshed" with a clean EP import?

Thanks

Hello All,

Here I am once again trying to figure out EP at its best. But I am determined to complete this task till the end. Todays issue is Categories.
I have installed EP 1.2.5.4, on my ZC 1.3.8.
I used the sample files under Tools>Easy Pop to create my spreadsheet in excel and save as a txt delimited file to upload into the db.
The problem that im having now is when I look at the website, there are no updates made...but when i look in Admin>Catalog>Categories, it shows that there are 35 active products. When I click on the product folder to see what is listed...its blank!

Is there something Im missing? I thought all I would have to do is upload to db, and everything is all set.
Where do i begin to solve this problem?

Also, as for my images....just to be clear can I just upload the full image zip file into the image folder in the root directory?
public html/images
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Joann
https://www.lovejonesboutique.com

LovejonesBoutique:

Hello All,

Here I am once again trying to figure out EP at its best. But I am determined to complete this task till the end. Todays issue is Categories.
I have installed EP 1.2.5.4, on my ZC 1.3.8.
I used the sample files under Tools>Easy Pop to create my spreadsheet in excel and save as a txt delimited file to upload into the db.
The problem that im having now is when I look at the website, there are no updates made...but when i look in Admin>Catalog>Categories, it shows that there are 35 active products. When I click on the product folder to see what is listed...its blank!

Is there something Im missing? I thought all I would have to do is upload to db, and everything is all set.
Where do i begin to solve this problem?

Also, as for my images....just to be clear can I just upload the full image zip file into the image folder in the root directory?
public html/images
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Joann
https://www.lovejonesboutique.com

Can you zip up the txt file you were using and link a copy here, that way we can upload it and have a look see in our test carts to see what is happening with it and try and narrow down your problems and provide a solution.

As for images.. if you don't want individual folders for different categories / brands/ suppliers etc, then yes, you can just upload all your images to the image directory, and then in EP, you would just use the actual files name of the image to be used for each product.

Mike

blazed You would get a new product_id number which would then reflect on search engine index's. (ie you ranking in search engine results for that particular product).
As Schoolboy says just use 1 / 0 if you are regularly updating products, only use 9 if you never would have that product in again. By disabling the product this should not effect your shops speed and this product would not show in the cart if disabled.

LovejonesBoutique Did you enter a product manually in ZC first ? as if you uploaded via EP first, your products will not show up. I haven't done this myself but you might try 'Reset ALL Products Master Categories ID' in Store Manger.
From my experience you really want to put your images in separate folders and you can control this easier if you have hundreds of images.

Ok, using version 1.2.5.6 and unfortunately it does not have meta tag support which I need. Then I download the CSV Easy Populate...and it has meta tag support, but doesn't have the sort order support I need. :frusty: I like the interface and the custom forms on 1.2.5.6.....but how can I add the meta tags on that? Thanks.

I've added ALL the product table fields to 1.2.5.4 in the past. There is a post by Lankeeyankee describing the procedure.

Search for add fields to Easy Populate

Note: his procedure applies to 1.2.5.4 .

This may have been answered already in this thread, but...

What is the correct syntax for the directory specified in v_products_image? If I want to reference an image that's in /images/uploads/image.jpg, what do I put in this field in the spreadsheet?

Thanks.

mzimmers:

This may have been answered already in this thread, but...

What is the correct syntax for the directory specified in v_products_image? If I want to reference an image that's in /images/uploads/image.jpg, what do I put in this field in the spreadsheet?

Thanks.

uploads/image.jpg

Hi all,

Hopefully someone can help me. I've just installed Easy Populate Advance2.75a-Zen-Cart 1.2, and I'm having an issue when it comes to uploading a csv file: Nothing happens.

It can see the file in the temp directory (which is chmod to 777) in the dropdown, but when I try and upload it, there is no message telling me that there's any success or failure and the products aren't being populated into my DB.

I've tried using the demo data that came with the install, and still the lack of results.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks!

Scrat:

blazed You would get a new product_id number which would then reflect on search engine index's. (ie you ranking in search engine results for that particular product).

Thanks again Scrat, affecting the serps would not be good.

Jshessel If you read the epic of a thread you will see that there are several version's of EP, it has a very battle scared history ( ZC attributes are very clunky and hopefully this will be simplified in future releases with stock by attributes included in ZC 2.0 ) but we have what we have so we have to deal with it as it is !
If you are very good with php then I would have a go with this version you are dealing with but you would need to do some work on it, but if you are not I would stay with Version 1.2.5.4 by 'langer' (no body else's) and this works.
Yes people are using the 1.2.5.7b version but from my experience this had issues (which may now have changed as I have not used it for a while) I think there is now a thread regarding that version, check it out.

Thanks for the response, Scrat.

Where does one find Easy Populate 1.2.5.4? I can't find anywhere to download it from.

Edit: Never Mind! I was able to find the link! Here's hoping this fixes things.

A few of us, led by the capable jrobeson, are looking at a completely re-vamped Easy Populate...

( I hope that V2 will not be too radical on the dbase side... Murphy's law says the day that the new EP is available, so will V2 :laugh: )

I hope that V2 will not be too radical on the dbase side...
I totally understand why, but you know as well as I the way EP and ZC's attributes work is a real pain in the :censored: so if there is any change it may be for the better...

I am hoping that someone can help me with this error when trying to upload my products. This has only just happened and nothing has changed in the cart and it has been working fine for over a year

Warning: file(/home/ecomums/public_html/shop/temp/Full-EP2010Mar12-0202.txt) [function.file]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/ecomums/public_html/shop/tek/easypopulate.php on line 1209

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/ecomums/public_html/shop/tek/easypopulate.php on line 1310

normally my web host guy looks at all this for me, and this was why I moved over to him for the support but he has just informed me he wont any more.
So any help would be great

I have the latest Zen cart and EP 1.2.5.4 I have used it before and uploaded data to it and now for some reason all I get is a Upload Results

File uploaded.
Temporary filename: /tmp/phpjduLc5
User filename: Master.txt
Size: 1723550

Upload Complete

It does not add any data to the shop?

Any Ideas at what I missed?