Question - Another way to add multiple items?

[chriskernaghan]

Hello everyone.

I've been working with Prestashop a lot of over the past few days and I feel a lot more confident when using it now.

The only issue that I have at the moment is one of uploading multiple items. Obviously, and most people would agree, if you have thousands of items to upload using the upload feature would be extremely slow.

So, I then moved onto .CSV files. This is a step in the right direction and is somewhat faster. I say somewhat because I'm using Notepad++ to add each product on a separate line, then import the .CSV file. This is unfortunitely prone to (my) mistakes which can be time consuming as you have to edit it, re-upload it, and then select the categories again.

I researched further and found the following interesting. I found this from these forums, and I'm just wondering how easy it is? How easy would it be to completely ruin your database? If I had a complete database in Excel, and imported it in with some amendments would it simply update the amended fields?

simplest way to import bulk of products i figured out by now is using phpmyadmin, with this I loaded 2000 products in 1 day.
needed tables:
ps_category_product
ps_feature_product
ps_feature_value
ps_feature_vale_lang
ps_product
ps_product_attribute
ps_product_attribute_conbination
ps_product_lang

Install the prestashop script with the default data, with phpmyadmin, export as CSV for MS excel each of these tables in separate files, and replace the default fields with yours, quite simple if you can concentrate. one small mistake might ruin your whole import

Many thanks for an explanation on how to do this.

Thanks,

Chris.

[first1]

i have thousands of products and i have more than one shop, and yet i use csv to import categories, products and images... no problem at all

I dont use excel (dont use MS office at all), i use calc (which is open office)
it is the same thing anyway, it is a csv file that i open chosing the ";" as separator and it displays it as spreadsheet,

there i have the ID, product name .... all the fields that are listed in the Tools->import->products, on the right side it tells you what fields you need.

and yes i can update what i have insearted using the same spreadsheet again... (i do a back up tho before import incase something goes wrong).
that is the easiest way that i found... and i dont think there is an easier way that csv import...
for more info, search the forum for csv import

[chriskernaghan]

Thanks for the reply first1.

I'll give "Calc" a go as I was having problems importing a .csv from Excel as it is.

Thanks.

[geiri]

I don't have lots of products and this is not an something that can be done now, but just and Idea perhaps a stupid one but never the less an Idea that needs a work.

We name an image after the product and the catID

Product_cat1_1, Product_cat1_1 and for next product Product_cat2 etc

All images are uploaded with a batch up-loader or FTP which then creates a category ID if not existing and product name.

Then you are taken to a upload page where you can insert further details for each product.

Just an idea that I decided to put up

[first1]

why would you do that if you have a "functional" csv import with images.

[geiri]

As I wrote

I don't have lots of products and this is not an something that can be done
now, but just and Idea perhaps a stupid one

[chriskernaghan]

An idea none the less, thanks for your input geiri.

[chriskernaghan]

Any particular idea why this is happening?

I'm using Calc to import my data and it's adding commas to the field, but I don't actually want them there. Is there anyway of removing them? Check out the printscreen below, thanks.

[first1]

When you double click your csv file to open with calc, you will have a dialog, asking what separator you want. By default it is comma ",", i usually uncheck that and check the ";"

if you do that from the beginning then you wont have commas.

you could always check your csv using notepad to see how it is written.

[chriskernaghan]

Once again thanks for your help first1.

[first1]

let me know if you need any more help on this. i use import nearly every second day lol

[chriskernaghan]

Okay, it's adding ' to everything. If this doesn't cause any major issues, I'm fine with that, but I've tried a few things to make sure that this doesn't happen. When opening in Calc I can choose my text delimiter as ' which actually makes it disappear. Once I upload it though, everything - except numbers - has a ' on either side.

Any ideas?

[first1]

search for ' in notepad and replace it with nothing. that will remove all the '

[chriskernaghan]

Lol, nice idea.

Hey first1 rather than sending Prestashop a donation, perhaps I should send you one instead?

Thanks.

[first1]

no send prestashop a donation, these guys deserve it, i have done nothing.

[broholm]

Hi,

This thread has solved several problems for me (Yes I also installed OpenOffice).

I still have the problem, that I am getting some errors, when importing a CSV-file. The problem is I don't know what the errors are. It just say 'Product ..... ' can't be saved. Is there any way I can see, what the actual problem is?

I can see, that suppliers and producers are created, but no products.

I am getting the same answer both at my hosting provider and when running my local test-setup.

Help would be very much appreciated.

[first1]

would you be able to send your csv? it is hard to troubleshoot without it.

[broholm]

Thank you very much for offering help on the iCSV-file !!!! But it is a little 'premature' and I will nok ask you to spend time on that.

I was more asking for help on how to trouble-shoot. I found out, that if there is only one row in the csv-file it seams like the import feature gives a little more information about errors. At least I found an error in my input and I am now progressing again.

[first1]

ok great

[MrsDesigns]

can I pick your brain first1? I need some info on adding attributes to the products that I did upload with csv. I can't quite figure the attributes into the mix without mucking the rest up.
TIA
mrsdesigns

[first1]

You mean features rather than attributes?

[MrsDesigns]

no attributes as I have many to add to each product which would require me to look at nearly 1000 pages...not very user friendly unless you don't mind going blind.

Ok, I guess what I am looking to do is add the product combination to the product csv. Attributes are listed within the BO, but the combination generator is going to take me days to use and add to each product as needed.

TIA
mrsdesigns