Help a Novice get his large database imported.

[chadster]

I'm looking for some guidance from those who have experience working with large product databases. I would possibly compensate someone for some assistance if necessary if they could provide some on-going support.

I have installed Easy Populate, but am not convinced if this is the way I should go.

Below are a few sample lines of a database file I received from a distributor. There are over 20,000 lines in the database file in all. I plan to list products from a few other distributors also.

 

My specific questions are these:

1.) Is Easy Populate the way to go, or could/should I be importing directly into phpmyadmin or something like that?

 

2.) Each product has several rows of "options" (in the example below there are several sizes). How do I import this correctly so that I get one product with several options and not 5 different products? (Keep in mind the number of options will vary.)

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

Name Description Detailed Description Preferred Vendor List Price Online Price Weight On Hand Category Subcategory1 Subcategory2 Subcategory3

product001general Text Description. Text Detailed Description Vendor Name 45 38.25 0.6

product001general-2(Md) Text Description. Text Detailed Description Vendor Name 45 38.25 0.6

product001general-3(Lg) Text Description. Text Detailed Description Vendor Name 45 38.25 0.6

product001general-4(XL) Text Description. Text Detailed Description Vendor Name 45 38.25 0.6

product001general-5(2X) Text Description. Text Detailed Description Vendor Name 45 38.25 0.6

product002general Text Description. Text Detailed Description Vendor Name 45 38.25 0.6

product002general-2(Md) Text Description. Text Detailed Description Vendor Name 45 38.25 0.6

product002general-3(Lg) Text Description. Text Detailed Description Vendor Name 45 38.25 0.6

product002general-4(XL) Text Description. Text Detailed Description Vendor Name 45 38.25 0.6

product002general-5(2X) Text Description. Text Detailed Description Vendor Name 45 38.25 0.6