Updating products using CSV file once the products are imported on the website.

[Dolke]

Hi to all,

 

I'm feeling really lost today as I continue to work on my new prestashop powered online store.

 

Its almost impossible for me to understand how I'm I going to manage 2000+ products on my PS.

Making import CSV file is not that complicated. As the matter of fact I have all attributes that one product can have in one CSV file and there I put all these data.

 

I did the same for my categories as you can see live on www.dekom.co.rs

 

Big issue comes after the products import.

 

Once on the website they are really hard to handle if I cant properly exort the entries in this case products and then edit that CSV file, update some quantities, descriptions, prizes, delete some products that are no longer sold and add some new and then all that import back to the website using that same CSV.

 

I know that PS doesn't have export functionality and that is really strange thing as this should be core thing. I found that there is SQL manager which is actually more powerful tool than some export function but it lacks simplicity and its not newbie friendly at all.

 

Nevertheless I found decent SQL query which allow me to export most of the product attributes but not all of them. Here is that SQL query:

 

SELECT p.id_product, p.active, pl.name, GROUP_CONCAT(DISTINCT(cl.name) SEPARATOR ",") as categories, p.price, p.id_tax_rules_group, p.wholesale_price, p.reference, p.supplier_reference, p.id_supplier, p.id_manufacturer, p.upc, p.ecotax, p.weight, p.quantity, pl.description_short, pl.description, pl.meta_title, pl.meta_keywords, pl.meta_description, pl.link_rewrite, pl.available_now, pl.available_later, p.available_for_order, p.date_add, p.show_price, p.online_only, p.condition, p.id_shop_default
FROM ps_product p
LEFT JOIN ps_product_lang pl ON (p.id_product = pl.id_product)
LEFT JOIN ps_category_product cp ON (p.id_product = cp.id_product)
LEFT JOIN ps_category_lang cl ON (cp.id_category = cl.id_category)
LEFT JOIN ps_category c ON (cp.id_category = c.id_category)
LEFT JOIN ps_product_tag pt ON (p.id_product = pt.id_product)
WHERE pl.id_lang = 1
AND cl.id_lang = 1
AND p.id_shop_default = 1 AND c.id_shop_default = 1
GROUP BY p.id_product

 

Still even when I export this CSV file and delete some products in it, add some new and update some attributes of other products Im not able to import these changes to the website.

 

It gives me all kinds of errors or in the case of deleting, I delete one product, with ID 4, save the CSV, import the file back to the website, its says that all is good, but that deleted article remain there on the DB.

 

Is there a decent way to update/manage once imported products without Store Manager and other similar solutions that cost quite some money?

 

Thank you all.

[Dolke]

I just noticed 2 new things with this SQL query.

 

1. It wont return quantity value. It always gives 0 when I do export.

 

2. This is more like a note rather then problem... I need to use . instead of , when I use decimal numbers like in prizes, weight or any other attribute containing decimal number.

[RCP90]

Hello,

 

this is a very good question, I will have between 15-30k products on our website once complete. I will need to bulk update cost prices and stock levels.

 

What information will you need to change?

 

I believe that the free version of Store Commander offers the facility to bulk change prices/descriptions of you products it may be worth checking that.

 

I also wonder if uploading a CSV with existing stock codes but different prices would replace the same product or amend it.

Edited May 13, 2013 by RCP90 (see edit history)

[Dolke]

Hello RCP90,

 

Thank you for the replay.

 

I just saw this Store Commander and the fact it has free version is really great.

Between this Store Commander and Store Manager which one would you recommend?

 

I believe that all this functionality that I want to achieve is going to be possible only with using some software like this.

 

I'm I right?

Edited May 14, 2013 by Dolke (see edit history)

[RCP90]

Hi Dolke,

 

I have been using PrestaShop for only 2 weeks, and am still learning the features. It seems that you need to have at least Store Commander 'Lite' (which is chargeable) in order to access the CSV update features, but the fact that they offer that 'feature' leads me to belive that it is possible to update existing data with new CSV if it is in correct format?

 

I wonder if once the initial product import has been completed simply importing a CSV file with product identifier and new prices etc will simply update existing product or replace existing product, i think maybe for it to work you would need original product ID's, although I am not sure, may need to test that.

 

i'm sure someone here can answer this.

[Dolke]

Well so far I learned that it is a quite task managing once imported products using only core PS features and free 3rd party modules.

Updating prices, descriptions and quantities is possible using SQL queries to export products and/or categories from the PS into CSV file. You can later edit that file and import it back to the shop.

 

This all is done manually, and SQL queries needed to make this CSV file are not simple at all. Not for me to be precise.

[stnadmin]

So has anyone been able to figure out a good process for updating just prices and quantities using the CSV import?

I have been playing with the importer and using the products Reference # as the key. I can get the product updated but it appears that if I do not include all of the fields then the fields like; short description, long description, category association, dimensions and weight are removed.

 

Surely there is some way to do this with PrestaShop's core features. How do people keep their inventory and prices up to date if they are also selling through other channels (i.e. brick & mortar, Amazon, ebay, etc..)?

Edited July 3, 2013 by stnadmin (see edit history)

[stnadmin]

Nothing on this topic?

[Whispar1]

I'll second that motion. Even trying to manually enter quantities in the database files does not reflect changes in the back office.

[Basix101]

Ouch! hopefully about two weeks away from going live.

 

Found this thread because I was trying to find a quick way to change about 10 prices, each with four or five combinations attached.

 

Anyone found a good way?