Can somebody help me, i'm sinking!

Hello Everybody,
I am a novice web designer but seem to be doing ok so far.
I have downloaded and installed the 'zencart' programme and my new e-commerce website is live. www.claresdvds.co.uk
My intention is to sell DVDs online. My supplier sends me a notepad file with all the data seperated by commas.
I have installed 'phpMyAdmin' with no problems but i now have no idea how to upload my notepad file and i don't understand how my zencart will find and sort this information.

I am doing this on a budget and would hate to have to get a professional to do it for me so any information would be gratfully received.

Many thanks

Clare:blink:

Look for the mod "Easy Populate" in the download section. Just being curious, how many products are there in your notepad file?

Shirley :)

shirster:

Look for the mod "Easy Populate" in the download section. Just being curious, how many products are there in your notepad file?

Shirley :)

Hi Shirley

I have at least 30,000 items...

Thanks

Clare

Wow, see if the EP mod works ok for you then :)

Make sure you read the instructions and the support thread carefully, I once imported a couple hundred of items from another shopping cart script and the master caregory was all messed up...

Shirley :)

Hello

I have uploaded my file successfully, thanks for the recommendation.
Next question...how do i get my my search engine to find and display the products?

Thank you for your patience

Clare

Hi Clare,

Glad to hear that it worked for you :)

By "your" search engine you mean the search engines in your country? Or search engines in general such as Google and Yahoo? Or a custom search engine that you built or bought? Or the built-in search in Zen Cart?

Shirley :)

Hi Shirley

Sorry, i mean the search engine in my zencart shop.

I just dont know how to link my database with the site?

Clare

Hi Clare,

If you've uploaded your products successfully, you should be able to see them in your shop right away and you can search for any products... or is it not the case? Is your shop online so we can have a look?

Shirley :)

Hello shirley

Yes my shop is www.claresdvds.co.uk

Thanks

Hi Clare,

Are you sure that the Easy Populate stuff has been installed correctly, and your text or excel file that contains your product information has been uploaded successfully? I would suggest that you go check out the Easy Populate support thread if you encounter any problems during the install and upload process.

By the way, are you seeing the products in your admin?

Shirley

Hello Shirley

I cannot see any of my files in the admin section either?

These were the set up directions i followed for easy populate:

"Upload all files in their respective directories,
set permissions on temp to 777
The sample file will show you how add/delete your products using excel,
follow the setting that are there and you shouldn't have any problems.
Uploded your products (Tab Delimited) Excel file to Store Root/temp
Open your Zen-Cart Admin
Go to Tools and click on Easy Populate
Import your products file and upload your images into the directory
that you used in your products file and you should be done"

The part in red was the only bit i didn't understand.
I just pressed import to DB in the admin section?

What am i doing wrong?

Thank you for your time shirley

Clare

Hi Clare,

That red bit refers to the image path that you entered in your product file. I would suggest that you go to this thread http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=34970 for any questions that you might have; I would love to help you but I've only used the mod once so I don't think I'll be able to offer much help.

Good luck !

Shirley :)

Thanks for all your help shirley...

Clare

If your suppliers text file is comma seperated you'll need to reformat it to work with easy populate. Go to your temp folder and download the example file and you'll see the format your information needs to follow. Could involve a lot of work though for 30,000+ products.

Might be an idea to ask your supplier for the file in easy populate format or at least in tab delimited.

No problem Clare, good luck ! :)

Hi,
I set the files to 'tab delimited' and even uploaded and imported the easy populate example file but i cant view either?

Can someone help me please.

Clare

Follow these steps:

1. Download the example easy populate file from your temp folder to your computer.

2. Open the text file with Microsoft Excel (or any other spreadsheet program). Choose tab-delimited in the open dialog box.

3. After examining the spreadsheet and understanding the formatting, delete all products that are already there, making sure to leave the top row intact (ie. all fields that begin with v_ ).

4. Use copy and paste or type out your product info from your suppliers text file in the empty rows underneath the v_xxxx headings ensuring they are in the correct columns for description, price, image, etc.

5. After all info in entered, save your file as a tab-delimited text file (click file, save as, and choose Text (Tab Delimited)(*.txt) ) and then use easy populate to import the info into your database.

6. If you haven't already done so, upload all your product images to the folder/s you specified in the tab delimited text file you just created. If you only specified a filename then images will need to go into your /images/ folder.

PM me if you need any further explanation.

Steve.