Easy Populate ?

[Guest]

I would like to install Easy Populate, but I am very confused about which one to pick. Any suggestions from others that are using this contrib??

[mtechama]

I would like to install Easy Populate, but I am very confused about which one to pick. Any suggestions from others that are using this contrib??

 

to me I would install the earliest then work your way up the line

[Guest]

to me I would install the earliest then work your way up the line

 

There are about 75 versions/fixes/upgrades of that contribution. That would take forever.

[abra123cadabra]

Use this contrib and choose the version by choosealogin (EP is easy, start here first): http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,500

 

abra

[Guest]

Use this contrib and choose the version by choosealogin (EP is easy, start here first): http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,500

 

abra

 

 

I have been looking at this contribution off and on all morning and this is the version I was considering using.

 

One quick question..

 

I am going to backup my files (again) and start installing EP. I already have about 200 products in my store that were put in the manual way. I'm assuming that EP has the capability to download these products into the excel file and then I can start adding more new products and upload the file and everything will be there (meaning the 200 products already there + the new ones I create with EP). Is that correct? Thanks!

[abra123cadabra]

Once you got EP installed and working as desired you can download the already uploaded products and you can add new products to the file.

 

I downloaded all products from my database like this, deleted all but one entry in this file and uploaded just the one product. I had a bit of a problem with the date of product added to be set to the equivalent of 0 because I'm using OpenOffice instead of Excel and the formatting for dates is not saved the way the database needs it to be. So just add only one product and throroughly check that all fields in the database for this product are updated in the expected way.

 

To add new products I first add the new attributes in the admin panel and then I download all my products with EP. Like this I already have the columns for the needed attributes in the spreadsheet. I add the new products and then I delete all rows with the already uploaded products. This makes the file to be uploaded smaller and reduces the risk to accidentally change the existing products.

 

Believe me, you got to concentrate on what you are doing or EP is a very easy way to mess up your products/categories/attributes and images.

 

abra

[Guest]

That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for those suggestions. As with all contributions, I am very careful to make sure that I am following everything to a T. Thanks for the help!

[abra123cadabra]

I meant to install EP for a long time but the contribution has so many versions that I didn't want to risk it until the above mentioned version was added. From all of the contribs I have installed, I would consider this the most "dangerous" one in relation to how a tiny error can mess up your whole store. During testing the installation I backed up my database many times and I had to restore it twice because I was not clear about how to use it.

 

abra

[Guest]

I am currently testing EP right now.

 

One thing that is interesting is that I have been doing all the coding changes for our store while my husband has been doing the product population. He has been doing it manually. I was concerned when I downloaded my first EP file and saw that with the attributes my excel file goes all the way to row "HP." I have come to find out that this is because he has defined 21 different product attributes. Yikes! I am starting to go back right now to see if all these attributes make sense.

[abra123cadabra]

Oops. Well, at least like this it's much easier to assign attributes to a product. The way I'm using osC is most likely not the straight way either - but it's working. I'll only change things if they slow down the page or if their is a much more elegant way. Otherwise I'll keep working with my master-slave products and attributes.

 

abra

[Guest]

Oops. Well, at least like this it's much easier to assign attributes to a product.

abra

 

Exactly. I think he has been about ready to kill himself. It's interesting when 2 people are working on different aspects of a project. Here I am making changes to the code and then he starts to complain about something on his end and I'm all like why didn't you say something earlier - theres a whole contribution to make that much easier, and he's all like - what's a contribution? Pretty fun stuff we got going on over here.

 

While you are around, maybe you can answer something else.

 

If I want to start a new attribute, can i just set it up in the excel file and then upload it. Will it create the new attribute for me? I'm going to try to test it to see if it works, but thought I might ask while I was at it.

 

Thanks!

 

Mandy

[abra123cadabra]

Yes, that works. You basically have to keep all the 21 other attributes in the columns before and then insert new columns (attribute id, attribute title language 1, attribute title language 2, attribute value).

 

I found it much easier to setup the new attributes in the admin panel and then download with EP and just add the new products. Main reason is that you need to keep an eye on this numbering thing EP uses for the attributes and most of all that most of the text is not visible when I open the spreadsheet. I even write down the html tagged product description in notepad and copy/paste it in EP.

 

You can also add new categories by just entering a new one in the categories column. If you have a typo in a category, it'll create a new one... one of the tricky parts.

 

abra

[Guest]

I was thinking that it probably did. That is good to know. Since I am already at column HP and you can only go to column I-something I might get in trouble soon. I plan on looking at his attributes to see if he really needs that many.

 

One other question - Have you used the Attribute Sort Order Contribution? I haven't used it yet, but do plan on using it. If you aren't familiar with it, it adds a sort_order field to your attributes so that they can all be sorted in a particular order. I plan using it because I have noticed that when my husband uses the attributes, he doesn't have the ability to say how he wants the attributes displayed in the drop-down menu. I am wondering if this contribution will affect EP in any way.

[abra123cadabra]

You are right. My OpenOffice goes to IV. That limits things. You can also use the other option in the EP menu. I think it's called model/attributes. Saves a few columns from the full list.

 

I'm only using one attribute per product and it's not really an attribute but rather a workaround. I had something like "Hanuta, 12 pack" as product name and no attributes. Then I modified the breadcrumb and page title to display the product name but without the ", 12 pack". I also have a few products with the same name but different unit sizes but I need a unique model number. So I used the attributes to be able to get the unit size recorded in the order. Kind of complicated but working fine.

 

abra

[emupaul]

in addition if u install and get any errors with mysql u have to add the table it complains about then it works like a charm, also learned the hardway when splitting and uploading a large inventory set (that took days to format) make sure in the name of the product there are no crazy things lie ' , ^ , * , ; etc... it breaks the push and some of ur inventory will be missing.

[Guest]

in addition if u install and get any errors with mysql u have to add the table it complains about then it works like a charm, also learned the hardway when splitting and uploading a large inventory set (that took days to format) make sure in the name of the product there are no crazy things lie ' , ^ , * , ; etc... it breaks the push and some of ur inventory will be missing.

 

Thanks for those pointers. We are currently at 248 products, but I suspect that by the time we are done we will have about 400-500 products in the store. Very soon we will have to splitting the file to do the uploads.