EasyPopulate-SIMPLY AWESOME

[Daddyslipdisk]

Well, I have finally and successfully uploaded over 3000 products into the osCommerce store. But it surprised me how many problems I had during the configuring of it that EVERYONE should have run into. Even if you follow the instructions to the letter from the pdf file, you still get hammered with all types of obstacles that are not mentioned anywhere. And even common things that laymen like myself would run into are covered here in the forum MULTIPLE times, so I thought I'd document my problems and the solutions to them to help others who are going to run into them. I'm NOT going to cover items that are addressed in the EasyPopulate.pdf file of the docs folder you unzipped. Read that thoroughly and follow it to the letter. The following are items that I ran into that I feel weren't covered well enough or at all. All of these problems are covered within the forum somewhere, but this should cover everything you'll experience when importing and how to avoid the problems ahead of time. Enjoy and let me know if this helps anyone at all.

 

Problem 1 - Warning: file (/blah/blah/blah..) The first issue I got was the one that everyone seems to experience at least once during importing and that is the setting in easypopulate.php for the line that says $TEMP_DIR. If it's not set correctly, you'll get errors that look like this;

 

Warning: file(/yourserverusername/homepages/16/d100301682/htdocs/catalog//catalog/temp/test898_tabdelimited.txt): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /homepages/16/d100301682/htdocs/catalog/admin/easypopulate.php on line 684

 

Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /homepages/16/d100301682/htdocs/catalog/admin/easypopulate.php on line 689

 

The directory structure will be different, but that's the error.

 

Solution - There are 2 reasons that I came across that cause this issue. The first (but not the reason why the specific error above happened) is that during the regular installation procedure, a "temp" folder isn't created in the "catalog" directory when it should be. And if it is, it isn't set with the right permissions. That's a big problem because the program is trying to write to that folder and obviously, if it doesn't exist or can't be written to, you get errors. Use an FTP program and log onto your site. Open the "catalog" folder and see if there is a folder called "temp" there. If there isn't, make one. If there is (or if you create one), chmod it to 777 meaning give all permissions to User, Group, and Other. That's the first thing. The second thing, and the reason for the error above is that you'll notice that the address it's looking for is "..htdocs/catalog//catalog..". Obviously catalog//catalog is not correct. This problem originates from a file that you uploaded during installation in the catalog/admin folder called easypopulate.php. By default, if you open that file using a text editor, you'll see that the file has 2 lines in it that say;

 

$tempdir = "/catalog/temp/";

$tempdir2 = "/catalog/temp/";

 

You can update multiple files to fix this issue or just change those lines. You'll want to give it "directions" on how to get to that temp folder from the root of your server. In my case, I changed mine to;

 

$tempdir = "/home/globeche/public_html/catalog/temp/";

$tempdir2 = "/home/globeche/public_html/catalog/temp/";

 

Do not use a web address like http://www.mysite.com/catalog/temp because http wrappers won't allow it to write to that temp folder. I've seen some posts in the forum here that say, "put $localhost in there", etc. But when I tried that, I got the same error again, but with $localhost as part of the error. Just put the full server path to that temp folder like I did above and you'll be good to go and those errors will go bye-bye.

 

 

 

Once I was able to get past that first error, I then began experiencing problems with the import. And how you configure your import file is VERY important. The best thing I can tell you is to download the "complete" store file using EasyPopulate to see how the columns should be named. That's very important. The easyPopulate.pdf file does a great job explaining each field and what it's for, as well as how to do categories, product attributes, etc. READ IT!

 

Problem 2 - EOREOR field The first import issue that is easy to miss in the instructions though is the EOREOR field. I read somewhere in some documentation that if you left that field blank it would default to some default setting. :lol: My sides hurt.

 

Solution - You MUST put "EOREOR" (without the quotes) in EVERY CELL AT THE END OF EVERY ROW in the EOREOR column. If not, it'll import the first product and that's it. EOREOR tells easyPopulate that it's the end of that row and to now go to the next row to import the next product.

 

Problem 3 - The Apostrophe Catastrophe The second thing an import will die on is apostrophes ('). easyPopulate does NOT like apostrophes in the file you're importing.

 

Solution - Replace all of your apostrophes with \'. So, for instance, the word "won't" will look like this instead - won\'t . And if you're using a text editor and using the "replace" feature, make sure you physically look for apostrophes in the file, because for some reason, there can actually be apostrophes that it doesn't recognize. For instance, there's a difference between ' and ?. There's not a key on the keyboard to generate that latter character. I don't even know how it's created in the first place, but easyPopulate doesn't like either one. So look closely at your data and make sure you replace both by putting a forward slash (\) in front of each and every one, regardless of whether it's ' or ?.

 

 

Problem 4 - Delimited Unlimited Your fields are all screwed up when it imports. Pricing is in the description field, model number in the product name, vice versa, etc. It's just all messed up.

 

Solution - Go tab delimited. Stay away from comma delimited files completely. I simply don't see how anyone can even describe a product without using commas anyway. So just avoid it. The next obvious thing is, check your field names. Again, I can't stress enough to read that section of the easypopulate.pdf document. It's your Bible.

 

 

And that's about it really. It took me a week to figure out the above problems I was having and if I had a post like this available to me a week ago, I would have been singing easyPopulate's praises a week ago. Since I've resolved these issues, I am INCREDIBLY happy about easyPopulate. And I think I'll start to help people out here who have import issues, because it seems like I hit every error there was. Most of which could have been resolved by reading that pdf file. SO READ IT!

 

And of course, let me know if any of this has helped anyone at all. God bless and enjoy!

[RobertBlas]

Nice summary,

Why not add the here with title "Extra Documentation:"

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,500

[Daddyslipdisk]

That's fine with me. I just hope that it helps someone out and saves them hours of frustration.

Nice summary,

Why not add the here with title "Extra Documentation:"

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,500

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[dougedmunds]

Problem 3 - The Apostrophe Catastrophe The second thing an import will die on is apostrophes ('). easyPopulate does NOT like apostrophes in the file you're importing.

 

Solution - Replace all of your apostrophes with \'. So, for instance, the word "won't" will look like this instead - won\'t . And if you're using a text editor and using the "replace" feature, make sure you physically look for apostrophes in the file, because for some reason, there can actually be apostrophes that it doesn't recognize. For instance, there's a difference between ' and ?. There's not a key on the keyboard to generate that latter character. I don't even know how it's created in the first place, but easyPopulate doesn't like either one. So look closely at your data and make sure you replace both by putting a forward slash (\) in front of each and every one, regardless of whether it's ' or ?.

 

I want to add to the notes on this point to help out others who have this problem.

 

Our products have names like this one: Abies 'Golden Boy' and the bare apostrophes

get converted by easypopulate as HTML code 39 in the mysql database. When we sent out confirmation email, the customer sees Abies 39Golden Boy 39 in the text of the email because of this. The conversion from apostrophe to html happens in the code in function walk (starting around line 1250), apparently to respond to magic quotes (a topic which I don't understand).

 

We are not having that problem with the 'fancy quotes', the ones that curl right or left, so it might not be necessary to escape them with a backslash. Those are generated by some word processor programs, such as MSWord, to replace ordinary apostrophes for quoted phrases.

 

The fancy quotes are upper ascii coded:

145 ? single quote left

146 ? single quote right (apostrophe)

147 ? double quote left

148 ? double quote right

Edited October 10, 2005 by dougedmunds

[shotputty]

I want to add to the notes on this point to help out others who have this problem.

 

Our products have names like this one: Abies 'Golden Boy' and the bare apostrophes

get converted by easypopulate as HTML code 39 in the mysql database. When we sent out confirmation email, the customer sees Abies 39Golden Boy 39 in the text of the email because of this. The conversion from apostrophe to html happens in the code in function walk (starting around line 1250), apparently to respond to magic quotes (a topic which I don't understand).

 

We are not having that problem with the 'fancy quotes', the ones that curl right or left, so it might not be necessary to escape them with a backslash. Those are generated by some word processor programs, such as MSWord, to replace ordinary apostrophes for quoted phrases.

 

The fancy quotes are upper ascii coded:

145 � single quote left

146 � single quote right (apostrophe)

147 � double quote left

148 � double quote right

 

 

This solution is so simple, it's genious. Long long time ago but thanks a million!!!

[TurboNova]

Easy Populate 2.74-MS2, having problems now

 

I have a store www.efikits.com. We have been uploading products just fine for several months now. My server did some upgrades and I am wondering if this had an effect on the easypopulate mod. I can download the database with EP just fine and when I add something to it and re-upload the database it works also. The problems is when I delete something from the CSV file and send it back to the site it does not delete. I can both add and delete lines and the new products will add but the old products will not delete.

 

We have been both deleting old products and uploading new products this way for months and it has worked just fine. Now it will only add them but not delete them. I can delete them one by one but that will take too long.

 

Anyone have an idea?

[♥geoffreywalton]

There was me thinking you had to set the status to INACTIVE.

 

Are you using ZEN cart or osc?

 

If that does not fix it, you might read the documentation and follow the steps on how to ask for help, especially the section on info to provide. This makes it easier to debug.

 

G

[TurboNova]

Where can I find the documentation? I am running OSC. Status to inactive?

[♥geoffreywalton]

Download the package and unzip it.

 

There is a folder called docs in it.

 

v_products_model,v_products_name_1,v_products_description_1,v_products_url_1,v_p

roducts_image,v_products_price,v_products_cost,v_products_quantity,v_products_wei

ght,v_date_avail,v_date_added,v_attribute_options_id_1,v_attribute_options_name_1

_1,v_attribute_values_id_1_1,v_attribute_values_name_1_1_1,v_attribute_values_pri

ce_1_1,v_attribute_values_id_1_2,v_attribute_values_name_1_2_1,v_attribute_values

_price_1_2,v_attribute_values_id_1_3,v_attribute_values_name_1_3_1,v_attribute_va

lues_price_1_3,v_attribute_values_id_1_4,v_attribute_values_name_1_4_1,v_attribut

e_values_price_1_4,v_attribute_options_id_2,v_attribute_options_name_2_1,v_attrib

ute_values_id_2_1,v_attribute_values_name_2_1_1,v_attribute_values_price_2_1,v_at

tribute_values_id_2_2,v_attribute_values_name_2_2_1,v_attribute_values_price_2_2,

v_attribute_values_id_2_3,v_attribute_values_name_2_3_1,v_attribute_values_price_

2_3,v_attribute_values_id_2_4,v_attribute_values_name_2_4_1,v_attribute_values_pr

ice_2_4,v_attribute_values_id_2_5,v_attribute_values_name_2_5_1,v_attribute_value

s_price_2_5,v_manufacturers_name,v_categories_name_1,v_categories_image_1,v_categ

ories_name_2,v_categories_image_2,v_categories_name_3,v_categories_image_3,v_cate

gories_name_4,v_categories_image_4,v_categories_name_5,v_categories_image_5,v_cat

egories_name_6,v_categories_image_6,v_categories_name_7,v_categories_image_7,v_ta

x_class_title,v_status,EOREOR

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