I just submitted a ticket to support about this, but I am wondering how to export products with ALL of the associated product data. The current import/export feature seems to be woefully underdeveloped and only about half of the fields are transferred. How do you guys move product data around?
I have two needs:
Move data between a DEV and LIVE stores
Move data between two LIVE stores
Manually edit a CSV file to import multiple versions of products or similar products to speed up product creation.
I suspect support will tell me it will require custom development. We’re already spending about $1000 in features now and don’t want to add more to this cost of we don’t have to. I saw some of you use Navicat, which I’ve downloaded, but there are so many tables, it looks like it will take quite some time to figure out the relationships between all of the tables and which data is required.
If it does turn out there needs to be custom development, is there anyone else out there that would be willing to split the costs for a FULL Import/Export feature. I mean one that transfers ALL product data.
I used the built-in product import/export and filled in the gaps with Navicat. There are some tables that are associated with others, so you really can’t deal with those in the mysql, like the tags, for instance.
Which fields are you most concerned with that the built-in product import/export leaves out?
[quote name=‘ogia’]I used the built-in product import/export and filled in the gaps with Navicat. There are some tables that are associated with others, so you really can’t deal with those in the mysql, like the tags, for instance.
Which fields are you most concerned with that the built-in product import/export leaves out?[/quote]
There are probably some fields I will never use, however to test the Import/Export I created a new product from scratch. I did this by entering an option for every available field. I then imported this exact file, however there is still a lot data that is not being properly imported. I have already updated the code for import/export that is being pushed out in the next release, but that has only fixed a few problems. The following problems still exist. I’ve also sent this to support.
The “Avail Since” field is not imported. It appears this data is not exported as it’s not in the CSV file.
The “Buy in Advance” field is not imported. It appears this data is not exported as it’s not in the CSV file.
Nothing from the Options tab is imported. I can see the data in the CSV file, however it’s not being imported.
Under the Files tab, there are the following problems:
a. The position is set to zero.
b. The Max downloads is set to zero.
c. The license agreement and readme text is not imported.
d. The “Name” specified is reverted to the file name.
Under the Addons tab, the “configurable” checkbox, the “Sales Amount”, all of the age verification fields, and Comments and Reviews selection is not exported or imported.
Under the Features tab, not all of my feature text are being imported. However I they are all in the CSV file, so the importer is failing.
Attachments are not being imported or exported.
Required Products are not exported or imported.
Under the Reward points tab the “price in points” field and the “amount” fields in the membership section are all reverted to zero.
Thorough testing! I noticed that some fields were missing but it didn’t concern me. I just imported and have been filling in the missing info. For me the missing info isn’t mission critical so I’ve been adding it as I go along. My store has been live for 2 weeks now. I’ve experimented with between 5-10 carts in the past few years and most of them do not have adequate import/export features. I think JSHOP was the only one that did. You could import every available option if I remember correctly.
#1 and #2… You can easily import those into mysql - cscart_products. #1 This is only important if you have a set of “new” products to import. #2 - buy in advance - you’re probably not going to have more than a handful of those at a time and probably not when you’re switching stores.
#3 - Checking the mysql, there are 6 tables that deal with options so it would be next to impossible to use Navicat. I have to set up my options as separate products since I can’t tie downloadable files to options so I didn’t look into this. I did notice that most carts can’t import/export these values.
#4 - This is easy to overcome via Navicat. cscart_product_files has all the values and it was easy to make mass changes to it.
#5 - cscart_prouducts - age verification and sales amount. I don’t have all the addons enabled, so I don’t know about the configurable option. Suppliers can be easily updated in cscart_products. Bestselling is found in cscart_product_sales. It’s not something you can import but I do use a cron job to reset my “free” products back to zero in that table so they are not in my list of bestsellers.
#6 - I don’t use this, but if it’s not being imported it needs to be reported as a bug.
#7 and #8 - I don’t use these either so I don’t know.
#9 - I also haven’t played around with reward points yet, but it looks like it could be fixed in cscart_reward_points.
I want to import tags so I put in a feature request for that. I think not being able to import options is a biggie that would prevent stores with options from being able to easily move to cs-cart. For many of the missing fields, though, you can work directly with mysql in the mean time.
I don't know for how many fields this works but I have successfully imported from spreadsheet into the products table just by using the exact column name in the import spreadsheet. For example I have been updating return_period by using return_period as the column name in the spreadsheet. Using something like Navicat or phpMyAdmin you can hunt down the column names and test if it works.