Hello folks, I'll try to answer a few questions as best as I can
bangsters:
hi.
I purchased EP advanced a couple months ago....i'm resetting my store and made duplicate products as links...however, the products show up multiple times on the same category. How come? I tried to put the categories and links in ptc_categories_index_path and ptc_categories_linked_path. So if i link to 4 categories, i put 4 rows of data in the spreadsheet right? And in those 4, the ptc_categories_index_path is the same throughout and the linked categories in ptc_categories_linked_path? However Since I put 4 rows of data, the item appears 4 times in my category as well....
what am I doing wrong?
thanks
First, I don't have or use EPA (Easy Populate Advanced), and so I can't answer. Second, you would have to go to the web site for EPA for support, as this is the commercial version, and I think the code has be compiled (no longer in plain text), so it isn't something I could look at. In EP it is something like v_category_1, v_category_2, ... v_category_7 - so you could have something nested six categories down from the main category. It may be something similar, such as ptc_categories_linked_path_1, ptc_categories_linked_path_2, etc.
shawnz28:
Before I go any further I just uploaded the files and clicked on install. I got the following messages.... the link names in the "errors" are not true as I have changed them for this example. Just verifing all is ok or did I forget something
Warning: fopen(/home/salty/public_html/store/temp/Full-EP2007Sep01-2109.txt) [function.fopen]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in /home/salty/public_html/store/admin/easypopulate.php on line 1089
Warning: fwrite(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/home/public_html/store/admin/easypopulate.php on line 1090
Warning: fclose(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/salty/public_html/store/admin/easypopulate.php on line 1091
Warning Easy Populate support & development by langer. Donations are always appreciated to support continuing development: [email protected]
Success Installation Successfull! A full download of your store has been done and is available in your uploads (temp) directory. You can use this as your 1st template for uploading/updating products.
Success File Full-EP2007Sep01-2109.txt successfully exported! The file is ready for download in your /temp/ directory.
I would try doing two things - looking at the file created to make sure everything is there, and then try uploading just a couple items to ensure it works. It sounds as if it worked everything out, so it should work, just run a couple test to make sure.
boinkit:
I've just started using Zen Cart and have installed Easy Populate to migrate 400 or so products from my existing shop to the Zen one I am building.
The products have all moved over and Easy Populate has dumped them all into a category called 'New'
I have downloaded the EP text file and gone through it changing all the product categories so that they are all correct. I have then uploaded the file (splitting it first of course!) and it seems to have uploaded fine.
However, the products have all moved into categories that I put in the spreadsheet, however most are still in the 'New' category that it originally created.
I didn't create any categories within Zen for it to upload to, I believed Easy Populate would do that for me.
Now it seem though that while all the products are in their main categories they are linked from the ones originally put into the 'New category'. So, if I make 'New' inactive (as I don't want it to show up with all 400 products in) it means that the links are inactive and I end up with no products in any other categories.
How can I fix this? Other than to manually move each product from within Admin?
Would it be better to just start over, delete all products and create the categories again? Then upload everything with Easy Populate? (If so, how can I do this?)
Please can you help me?
Why you are getting the results that you are I have no idea. Make sure you save the file that you edited with the correct categories. Next, using whatever tool you want to use, even the MySQL patch box is an option, delete all of the categories and items. EP uses a rather simple test, and based on the results determines what needs to be done. It goes something like this:
1) Extract the info from the uploaded file
2) Break it into parts, and assign the different values to the different v_whatever_etc
3) Test to see if item exist in the database by doing a search for it, and save the results (True = found item, False = not found/new item).
4) If it found the item in the database (True) then continue with step 5, else it is a new item and jump to step 8
5) Populate some information for the update from the current record (info in the db) into p_whatever_# (use as defaults just in case we don't get anything new for it)
6) If the value for v_whatever_# is not blank or null then assign it to p_whatever_# of the same name.
7) Don't insert it as a new item, instead use the MySQL UPDATE command to commit the changes, and then jump to 10 below
8) Since this is a new item (was not found in the db, so the result was False), populate p_whatever_# with the values from v_whatever_# of the same name
9) Use the MySQL INSERT command to commit the new information to the database.
NOTE: It is here that if it is a new item that it creates the categories if they don't exist. It should be that easy from your point of view, yet to EP it is just a bit more involved, not much more though.
10) If we have not reached the end of the file yet then return to step 3 above to process the next item.
```The above is just a bare outline of what EP does. It does look to see if the category already exist, like it tests for an existing item. Use care, Cat_1 is not the same as cat_1 or even cAt_1, it is case sensitive. EP should create a new category if it doesn't find an existing one by the same name, it is both smart and dumb in that way (smart in that you should not have to create a new category, dumb in that it is not smart enough to know what you really mean).
I hope I have been able to help just a little bit in understanding things, and maybe help get things working.
