Newbie questions on data loading

[dpsims]

Hi Folks,

 

I have a catalog provided by a wholesaler on CD-ROM that has lots of data

(i.e., 25000 items or so).... I do not have much experience with OS Commerce

yet, but I have successfully installed it and done some customization on

Slackware Linux using MySQL and phpMyAdmin.... so.....

 

The first question is: Is there a data definition with detailed field descriptions

for the database that OS Commerce is expecting?? Or some guidelines on

database structure changes that can be made and will be tolerated by the web

store?? hopefully with tradeoffs noted?? Just sort of poking around in the dark,

I have written some perl scripts to read the data that I have off the CD and load

it into MySQL using the same fields as the demo store.... without having an exact

match.... but I do not have the requisite experince to know if this is going to bite

me.... Some data is truncated due to field width limitations for instance.... and

some unique column data does not start at 1..... Can I alter the MySQL

table structure moderately and still have OS Commerce be happy with it??

Are there any guidelines for doing this??

 

So far, I have only loaded my catalog data into:

 

categories

categories_description

products

products_description

products_to_categories

 

and things seem to be working (i.e., can browse the store using OS Commerce....

 

Any advice or encouragement??

 

Dave

[Bruce]

Question.. Do you have Easy Populate installed in your cart. In your computer.. do you have Access and Excel?

 

Get the patch to stop easy from rounding the prices.

 

If Yes, Delete all Items in your cart "online in Admin"

 

next..

 

In Easy Populate... Download Complete tab-delimited .txt file to edit. This is a text file.

 

Open the file in Excel. Save it to say easypopulate1.

 

Next..

 

Inport the file in Access. build querys and tables to store / move the info around faster.

Make sure that you put the Manufacturers in the the first Manufacturers callum ONLY.....

Export the file to say easypopulate2.

 

Open Both easypopulate. and / 2, in Excel. cut and paste from 2 to easy. then save the easypopulate file.. DO NOT CHANGE THE FORMAT. Save in SAME fromat.

 

Upload the file using easy back into your cart.

 

I run and food cart with around 800 items and this works well