OK, I’m kind of annoyed.
I had my site on 2.2.3 and I had problems exporting my products with the product features. When 2.2.4 came out, it was supposed to improve the product export, so I upgraded.
I’m just trying to export the product code and features, but I’m having a hell of a time.
When I export the product code and any other field(s), I’m able to export no problem, but as soon as I add the features field, it just takes forever.
In 2.2.3, the export would finally just stall out and I wouldn’t get my data. At least with 2.2.4, I’m able to actually get my export, but it takes forever to get it.
Basically I want to export my features so that I can add all of the Google Base stuff and then reimport it in so I don’t have to do it manually. Yes, I know there are other ways to do the Google Base export and I have them working on other sites, but for my main site, I want to try and get it to how CS-Cart has it.
Just a side question, how can you just add features instead of overwriting them?
If anyone has any ideas or suggestions to help me, I’d sure love to hear them.
Thanks,
Brandon
Not sure why you have been having problems with the feature import. I use this all of the time and I haven't had any problems.
What exactly do you mean “add features instead of overwriting them”?
Edit: Sorry, I had to re-read. Why do you want to export all of your features?
First, I do realize that I can add the Google Base stuff to the site and not need the new Google Base addon that CS-Cart did. I actually have it that way on 2 sites and it works really well. I did it slightly different that what you did, but the results are the same.
I might be over complicating this, I don't know.
Right now I have features assigned to a bunch of my products like this one http://www.saltwatertogo.com/aquarium-protein-skimmers/over-200-gallons-protein-skimmers/aqua-medic-turboflotor-5000-shorty-compact-protein-skimmer.html
{12}(Brand) Brand: S[Aqua Medic]; {5}(Brand) Manufacturer Info: E[Aqua Medic]; {11}(Aquarium Size) Aquarium Size: M[50 to 100 Gallons///100 to 150 Gallons///150 to 200 Gallons///200 to 250 Gallons///250 to 300 Gallons///Over 300 Gallons]; {26}(Skimmer Type) Skimmer Type: S[In Sump Only]; {19}(Flow (gph)) Flow (gph): M[300 - 599 gph]
I want to add the Google Base info as features:
{36}(Google export features) Availability: S[in stock]; {35}(Google export features) Brand: T[Aqua Medic]; {37}(Google export features) Condition: S[new]; {34}(Google export features) MPN: T[AB10074]
If I only put in just the Google Base features, it removes the other features so I think I need to do something like:
{36}(Google export features) Availability: S[in stock]; {35}(Google export features) Brand: T[Aqua Medic]; {37}(Google export features) Condition: S[new]; {34}(Google export features) MPN: T[AB10074]; {12}(Brand) Brand: S[Aqua Medic]; {5}(Brand) Manufacturer Info: E[Aqua Medic]; {11}(Aquarium Size) Aquarium Size: M[50 to 100 Gallons///100 to 150 Gallons///150 to 200 Gallons///200 to 250 Gallons///250 to 300 Gallons///Over 300 Gallons]; {26}(Skimmer Type) Skimmer Type: S[In Sump Only]; {19}(Flow (gph)) Flow (gph): M[300 - 599 gph]
Basically just combine the two feature sets. Of course I'd use Excel to generate the MPN and I can extract the brand from a Data Feed export.
In order to do this, I need to export my products so I can use Excel to make these features.
Besides changing the export around, is there a better way to do this? I just don't see why it needs to be so difficult to add features, but for some reason, I'm having problems.
Thanks,
Brandon
I kind of gave up trying to export and change any of the features via the manual method. Wow, that sure would have been nice to be able to do. I know some of you may be able to do it, but it was a nightmare for me. The whole “features” area just exports in a very strange way.
I finally ended up paying a couple of high school kids to manually edit about 1200 different items and adding the “features” to the items that I needed. What was bad was when I decided to try out a couple of other shopping comparison sites and I added to the features area and the students had to start over. We did it this way because the “bulk edit” didn't quite work right and it was very slow. Not to mention it allowed us to tweak a couple of other things.
I see what your saying Brandon. I'm not sure but I think if your features are in groups, you can import just the group without overwriting the other features/groups.?
Edit: If you're trying to do it this way, I don't see why you just don't use the new Google export add on.? It will input all of the feature names for you in a group.
Well I'm kind of wondering if there is more to this than what I'm thinking. Maybe Clips is onto something?
I tried importing in just a group, but when you do the import, it just overwrites all the features, not just the group.
What is weird is that when I try to import what I have posted above, it does away with the Brand and Manufacturer Info features and replaces them with brand new features. Of course these features have no info so they are completely useless.
I am using the Google Export addon to do this, but I think there might be a problem there as well.
When I set my Google category and then export the products, the category isn't exported. The rest of the data is there, but no category. Kind of weird.
I'm kind of starting to lean towards what I want to do isn't possible with the current system. Either there are bugs or I am doing something completely wrong.
For my site, I have like 500 products, so manually doing this isn't a giant deal, but another site I deal with has like 20,000 products so that is a whole different thing.
Maybe I'll see if ole' Mr. Birnseth can whip something together for me to make this work?
If you guys have any other ideas, I'd love to hear them.
Thanks,
Brandon
Let me know what you want to do (assuming import from CSV that will UPDATE features versus OVERWRITE).
The time comes in in parsing the strange format that csc uses…
“Ole Mr. Birnseth”? Is it that obvious? 