Some pre-install Easy Population Questions.

[everyth5]

I am thinking of installing Easy Populate into my WORKING site (which I am currently backing up onto my computer ;) ) but have some questions about the documentation in the manual that I think I should clarify first.

 

1.The manual says:

 

If you have made database changes to the products, products_description, or other product or category related tables, you may have some issues running the stock EasyPopulate.

 

When they talk about the database, is that the database IN osCommerce or the database (Excel) that I used for my products that I have on my computer?

 

2. The manual says:

 

EasyPopulate requires the use of the product_model field (model number). It won't work without the model number. The model numbers you assign must be unique, i.e. you can't give all your products a product_model of "test".

 

Are these fields and numbers referring to my Excel database as well?

 

3. The manual says:

 

If you set the quantity of an item to zero, EP will automatically make the item Inactive in the database. To change the behaviour, see the Configuration Variables section.

 

Does this mean that I HAVE to have a quantity field in my database that I am planning to upload? And I have to have a value in that field for each product?

 

That is all for the preliminaries.

 

Hope someone can give me some answers. The Manual is not too NEWBIE friendly, but I am sure it works or it wouldn't be here. lol

 

Thanks in advance.

[osCommerce4you.com]

1. osCommerce Database. It means it is recommendet not to change those tables structure. Added data is ok.

 

2. product_model field simply should be unique for each product. Easy populate uses this value.

 

3. Sure, the quantity field is required for OSC

 

Those are the answers for your preliminaries, but I feel you have not enough understanding of what you do :(

Some more osCommerce skill is required.

[choosealogin]

The quantity field is something that's already there...it's there when you add a product the old fashioned way. It's how many you have "in stock".

 

I think you're confusing an excel spreadsheet that already holds info about your products with the excel spreadhseet that you'll upload with EP. You can use the data from your existing spreadhseet (if you have one) but you need to format it to match what EP uses. All the field names, etc need to match the EP format. It's probably easiest to start with an EP spreadhsheet and copy/paste your data into it. You may have to add a little bit....but it's just "easy" it's not "totally automatic".

 

And you're plenty smart enough to handle it. :thumbsup:

 

Download the version that is titled "easy populate is EASY just start here first"...

[everyth5]

Thanks for your vote of confidence Mark ;) I know I can handle it. Its just that for some reason I don't find the documentation totally clear. Maybe its just me. lol

 

Anyway thanks for the tip. :D

 

Oh, BTW, would you happen to have a link to that version of EP?

[osCommerce4you.com]

http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contri...y/search,106404

[everyth5]

Thanks Ted. Much appreciated. :D