Product Import is one of the most difficult procedures in Zen Cart. It call for some technical competence and knowledge. In this article we will chat about possible ways of Product Import in Zen Cart. There are few ways to have it accomplished: do it by hand or use some script, module, add-on. Although all of these methods are risky as they do not guarantee data security and there's risk of information damage, duplicate data entry and different mistakes.
A while ago I bumped into a solution which, as for me, resolve this problem better than all the rest. It's called Store Manager for Zen Cart. Let's talk about it in detail. Import/Export wizard of Store Manager for Zen Cart enables you to import your information from any .csv file into Store Manager. Import is very difficult procedure and it may be damaging if executed incorrectly. Therefore, you have to make database backup prior to products import, specially if you do it for the first time.
Before you launch Import/Export Wizard first thing you have to do is to prepare .csv file for import. You have to make sure it contains all the necessary fields and all information you are going to import is listed in tables. When your csv file is all set select Import from the options available in Import/Expord wizard. Next, indicate the .csv file path and name or use browse button to choose one. You can also load import settings to prevent configuring it each time you intend to import products from a .csv file.
If everything is correct you can go on to Source file preview which shows a fragment of .csv file chosen for import. Here you should pay special notice to delimiters and enclosure. It's enough to look through the first line of the file to see whether some words are enclosed in quotes (") and are separated by comma (,) symbol.
Select fields delimiter and quote character. Delimiter character is used to separate one column from another. If wrong delimiter is specified, file will not be parsed correctly and products will not be imported. Quote string values delimiter will be used to separate strings in .csv file. If none are used, it can be disabled. Category delimiter character is used to separate category names and identify full category tree path for certain category.
Link columns from .csv file to suitable database fields. Tick the check box if the first row of your .csv file contains not values but field names. Pick the suitable Products Identification Method. If the products is found it will be modified, if not - new product will be added. Please note that it is recommended to use Product Name + Model to identify your products. Here are two panes: "Database fields" and ".csv File Columns". "Database Fields" pane displays the list of fields in your database that can receive import information. It is necessary to assign .csv columns to key fields. To do that you should choose a field at the left pane and after that click a column at the right pane. You can set correspondence automatically for all fields making use of "Auto set..." option. But this option will work only if .csv column name is the matching database field name.
Next step - Base Formats and Separators. This step allows to convert text values from .csv file to numerical and date values. You can simply set default values using the related button. Import Preview allows you to see how .csv file was processed using import settings, which you specified at previous steps. Columns which were not assigned will not be imported due to the fact that empty values will overwrite existing.
Import Options settings may effect import results if not chosen precisely. It permits you to: select import method, save import settings for future reference, etc. When you've got everything set and ready - press Import to begin. When import process is over you may see database details and errors which took place during product import (if there were any).
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