Delete product or category without deleting image

Latest versions of Zen and Easy Populate.

Little background: I'm tweaking my database (which I change in and upload from Filemaker) and uploading after changes.

In this case I changed the top level category of a number of items in Filmaker and once I uploaded I noticed that it didn't CHANGE the items but ADDED the same items AGAIN with the new category. Then I had to go through deleting the duplicates (which, as an aside, showed as linked products because there is no master category-that's how I found the problem).

3 Questions, all related:
FIRST QUESTION/ISSUE:
Doesn't Zen make these changes based on the model number (my product number) which would tell it that it is the same product? If not, can I do that somewhere?

Essentially I want to make any changes offline in Filemaker and always have those reflected in Zen after uploading them.

SECOND QUESTON/ISSUE:
Is there a place to delete multiple items at the same time or do I have to hit delete/confirm with every item? With the issue above I ended up deleting whole categories rather than individually deleting the duplicated items. Faster while I'm testing but could be an issue when I'm live.

THIRD QUESTION/ISSUE
Last, I'm still testing but have about 4000 pictures I copied over from the working old school site and it took some time. As I deleted the items that were duplicated the pictures associated were deleted as well. I knew it would happen but I've been trying to find a place to stop that and tell Zen to delete the item/category but not the associated picture(s)

In this case I wanted the pictures to remain since the items were still there due to the duplication mentioned above.

Hope it's clear...probably not! Let me know.

Still having fun!

The module for deleting products calls the function zen_remove_product which removes the image if it is not used by another product ...

Hey again Linda!,
Didn't seem to work. The products I had to delete were duplicates save for the top level category (listed as invalid, these items showed as linked items even though I didn't specify). They shared the save image.

When I deleted those the associated pictures were also deleted even though they were used by the duplicate/good version of the product.

No place to toggle the zen_remove_product feature easily? It would come in handy when I have to delete entire categories because of a change to the category (and not the products) in the offline database.

Thanks for staying on my shoulder! I'd better set up a comfy chair for you.

P.S. got but haven't tried your fix for the "expected" date issue. I'll post result when I get to it.

You are sure all of your files are v1.3.7?

You don't have any add-ons that might have changed this?

Let me go test a few more conditions ... :unsure:

Can you give an example of an image name and directory that you are using?

I still cannot repeat this in the main image directory:
/images

nor in a subdirectory for it ...

You know Linda, let's drop this one. I did so much that day that I'm not sure I can even replicate it now or if it will occur again (shouldn't).

I guess you answered my big question with this one that you can't preserve the associated pictures when you delete an item. Eventually after testing I will delete everything and load again which means I have to reload the 1000's of pictures again.

WAIT....i'll just rename the folder in FTP before then, that should work in these situations....DUH.

Just 'cause you asked, I've put my product images in /images/pictures (didn't know back then if /images would be cleeared with a future update).

You rule!

You could if you comment out the delete when not used by another Product ...

However, if you lose track you end up with 1000s of images on your server and never figure out how to clean up the mess ... :eek:

Think I'll try it next time I wipe ALL of the categories/items at their top level. Worst case is a little more loading time.

Good thing is I'm with a hosting service where I could never reach capacity so I don't have to worry about that aspect.

Cleaning house is the least of my worries!

1:00 am again! Got a lot done though but I better stop at a clean break.

Enjoyed talking with you and thanks for all the help today.

I was surprised to see I posted less than 10 questions, seems like 100's! (certain is does to you!!)

Sign off and feed the cat!