Add products to store (Offline Mode)

[Guest]

Is there a way to add numerous products to osc whilst offline, and then upload them all in one go when I go back online?

 

I hope this makes sense. Basically, I cant always connect to the Internet for longperiods and I would like to use the time I'm unconnectedto add products..

 

I have tried the Windows Product Manager - but it requires a constant Internet Connection.

 

If anyone can help me solve thisI wouldbe very grateful, and I'm prepared to pay for a solution.

 

Thanks

[♥bruyndoncx]

have you looked at easy populate ?

[Guest]

Is there a way to add numerous products to osc whilst offline, and then upload them all in one go when I go back online?

 

I hope this makes sense. Basically, I cant always connect to the Internet for longperiods and I would like to use the time I'm unconnectedto add products..

 

I have tried the Windows Product Manager - but it requires a constant Internet Connection.

 

If anyone can help me solve thisI wouldbe very grateful, and I'm prepared to pay for a solution.

 

Thanks

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Ihave tried it, but when i add informationusing excel and upload the products I have added dont show :/

[♥bruyndoncx]

Ihave tried it, but when i add informationusing excel and upload the products I have added dont show :/

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

then I suggest troubleshooting that install as easypopulate is the osCommerce 'industry standard' tool used by tons of people.

[Guest]

then I suggest troubleshooting that install as easypopulate is the osCommerce 'industry standard' tool used by tons of people.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

EP is too messy,I'm just going to run a copy of my store locally and upload the Images/Database.

[♥bruyndoncx]

that was my next suggestion for the tech savy user, the one that knows how to replace specific tables, and ensure not to update these tables in the online copy (unless generating a new offline copy)

[♥bruyndoncx]

I was also wondering if mysql had some kind of replication mechanism so you could synchronisize databases between the server and the mobile solution.

A bit like sybase/sqlanywhere, sqlserver replication, ...

 

maybe it's not straightforward on mysql, but it might be in teh future of osC once there is database independence.

[Guest]

Presumably Icould download the 'Live' db and import it intothe 'Local' store, add products, backupand import the modified db into the 'Live' Store?

 

Sounds to simple to be good.. lol..but I'm hoping :)

[♥bruyndoncx]

not the whole database, just the products related tables

 

This is the list coming to my mind, need to check the details for attributes, there are some more.

 

products, products_description

categories, categories_description

products_attributes, [more], ...

products_to_categories

manufacturers

(manufacturers_info if you have that contribution)

[Guest]

well, it's 02.51am here in UK nad I'm gonna get some sleep before I tackle this hurdle..lol

 

Thanks and Goodnight :)

[Bigredman74]

You can download the complete live db, edit it locally, and then upload it back to the live shop, if you export the database using phpMyAdmin and select Add DROP TABLE and Add IF NOT EXISTS before exporting both the live and local dbs.

[♥bruyndoncx]

You can download the complete live db, edit it locally, and then upload it back to the live shop, if you export the database using phpMyAdmin and select Add DROP TABLE and Add IF NOT EXISTS before exporting both the live and local dbs.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Huh, not 100% sure of the effect, but I think it is not the desired effect as you would drop the live customer table before uploading the offline one.

 

This whole scheme does NOT WORK if you select the COMPLETE live db, you can only select the tables for update offline that won't change online while you are updating it offline.

So even for the products table this is not 100% cosher, because you might loose products viewed statistics for instance.

[Bigredman74]

True, I guess you could do it that way during a low time in customer activity. But as you said before, EasyPopulate is the best way to do it. Pete, take Carine's advice; troubleshoot EasyPopulate and get it working. The time you spend to get it installed and working correctly will result in saving you even more time when updating and adding new products in the future.

[Guest]

I'm trying EP again, but this is how the sample file looks in Excel: http://www.server10.co.uk/screenshot.gif is this right? And do you have to use htmltags manually?

[♥bruyndoncx]

Note, you can not predict when customers will sign up or order from you.

You could say 'down for maintenance' and disallow anything, but why would you if you can avoid it.

 

The sample looks like it should look in excel.

I tend to keep a file with a nice header line and use coloring for the different columns to easy navigation.

Also in the export, you can delete columns you don't use, as a minimum you should keep the model number (first one) and active and EOREOR columns at the end of the record.

 

Yes, htmltags you need to use manually this way. I typically copy&paste from other cell, the only tags I really use in descriptions is lists and some bold, so it's not that hard to remember.

Additional images are probably handled better via an extra contribution rather than linking into the text.

There is an images contribution that searches for additional images based on a naming convention. So just uploading the images with typically a modelnumber_1.jpg, modelnumber_2.jpg etc name does the trick.

[♥bruyndoncx]

ah, and ofcourse not to forget, when you show a products description, in the product_info.php page, adding the php funciton NL2BR will insert HTML <br> characters for any NL (enter key) found.

 

Search the forum, there is an existing tip about this.

[granitestater]

ah, and ofcourse not to forget, when you show a products description, in the product_info.php page, adding the php funciton NL2BR will insert HTML <br> characters for any NL (enter key)  found.

 

Search the forum, there is an existing tip about this.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

i'm trying to find this NL2BR function, but can't seem to find any additional information on it...how do I go about adding spaces into my Product Description?

[granitestater]

i'm trying to find this NL2BR function, but can't seem to find any additional information on it...how do I go about adding spaces into my Product Description?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

this is what http://us2.php.net/nl2br recommends:

 

nl2br

(PHP 3, PHP 4, PHP 5)

 

nl2br -- Inserts HTML line breaks before all newlines in a string

Description

string nl2br ( string string )

 

Returns string with '<br />' inserted before all newlines.

 

Note: Starting with PHP 4.0.5, nl2br() is now XHTML compliant. All versions before 4.0.5 will return string with '<br>' inserted before newlines instead of '<br />'.

 

Example 1. using nl2br()

 

<?php

echo nl2br("foo isn't\n bar");

?>

 

this will output :

 

foo isn't<br />

bar