Hi, can you please clarify what is great idea?
And please describe the exact scenario of how you do import and why product_type is a problem for you. I would like to understand your workflow. We do have some thoughts on removing product_type - but not yet sure how it should be identified instead.
The Advanced Import is a great idea and will certainly help me with tracking my suppliers stock directly in my store.
I obtain several product feeds which are updated on a daily and sometimes hourly basis by my suppliers.
I have no control over the contents of the feed and have to work with the fields provided.
Usually the file will be a csv and will contact at least:
Manufacturers product code
Suppliers product code
Suppliers cost price
Suppliers stock quantity
This is the minimum information which I can work with to import into my store to update stock and pricing on a daily basis. It does not allow me to add any fields which are custom to my store as this information if provided by my supplier to many other suppliers.
I also have to bear in mind that I products may be available from more than one supplier. I've previously in Magento been able to get around this by adding a 'Supplier' and 'Supplier Code' Feature and mapped the product by 'Supplier code' and not 'Manufacturers product code'.
This is where a one to many solution would be invaluable which add up the stock available from all suppliers however, this I'm sure is beyond the scope of the advanced import at this stage!
Hopefully, I've explained this well enough, the key is that I have no control over the contents of the file with stock and pricing from my supplier.