CRE Loaded Import products

This Wizard will help you to import products to CRE Loaded database to update it with modified products data by selecting appropriate action.

Pay attention to each Wizard's page when you import products to CRE Loaded. Import is rather complicated procedure and it may be destructive if performed incorrectly. Create CRE Loaded database backup before importing products especially if you do it first time.

To start CRE Loaded Import Products you need to click on button which starts the Import/Export Wizard. CRE Loaded Products Import/Export Wizard is a lot like CRE Loaded Categories Import/Export Wizard.

1. First of all prepare a .csv file for Import. Make sure it contains all necessary fields and all data you need.

2. Select "Import" in the Import/Export Wizard and click "Next >" button to continue.

   

3. Enter the .csv file you need to import or use browse button to select one.

   

   Also you can load Import Settings to use now.

4. Source file preview shows a part of .csv file selected to import. There are no options to set, but you should pay some attention to this page. What's so important to look for on this page is field delimiter and quote character, if some is used.

   

   If you carefully check the very first line of the example, you'll notice that some words enclosed in quotes (") and are separated by coma (,) symbol. That are two important options you have to pay attention to - you will have to setup these settings on next page. Usually it is enough to see a first line, no need to investigate an entire file.

   Also you can enable and set the row you want to start CRE Loaded Import from.

5. "Select fields delimiter and quote character" page contains some important settings. If you specify wrong values, CRE Loaded Import Products may not work.

   

   First option is delimiter character. Most popular delimiters are comma (,), semicolon (;) and tab character ( ) however other symbols can be used as well.
   Note: .csv file contains data in row - column format and delimiter character is used to separate one column from another. If you specify incorrect delimiter, file will not be parsed properly and categories will not be imported.

   On previous sample page we have noticed that comma symbol was used as delimiter and values were quoted with " symbol. Specify two first settings as shown above.

   Third setting is product delimiter. This is not native .csv setting, it is used only in Store Manager. As you know categories are organized in a form of tree, where parent category can contain one or more subcategories, and subcategory can contain one or more other categories. Category delimiter character is used to separate category names and specify full category tree path for given category. Category path is very similar to directory path used to specify full file name in Windows, where every directory separated by backslash (\) character like this one C:\Program Files\MagneticOne\Store Manager for CRE Loaded\.

   As for example category path for "Sample Subcategory" (see image below) will be Hardware|Graphics Cards|Sample Subcategory. Pipe (|) character was used as a separator.

   

   Images - Default images path is the place where Store Manager will look for images when importing products to CRE Loaded - image names specified in .csv file whereas image files stored here. When Store Manager is unable to find an image it will not import image information to a product and will remove existing image information.

6. The next page allows you to Link columns from .csv file to appropriate database fields.

   Link columns from .csv file to appropriate database fields. The left pane "Database Fields" shows the list of fields in your database that can receive import data.

   

   The topmost option on this page is "First row in .csv file contains field names but not values". Obviously it should be checked if first row of .csv file contains data, otherwise uncheck this option.

   Next option is Identify products by. Store Manager will search for a product using selected method of identification. The product will be modified if found, if not - a new product will be added. 

   Source .csv file can contain multiple records with identical Name values. All these products will be considered as one - currently imported to CRE Loaded product will overwrite previously imported with the same key field values. Note that sometimes one of key fields may be blank. Obviously blank fields contain the same value for all records. It is required to assign .csv columns to key fields.

   "Database Fields" shows the list of fields in your database that can receive import data.  Database Fields contains such columns:

   • Name - contains database field name. Some values in this column contain actual field name, whereas other are "translated". Anyway these names are clear enough to figure out how to use them.
   • # - the number of the column in .csv file corresponding to this field - the link between database field and .csv column.
   • Set Null - indicates that this field should not contain any data but should be set to Null. You can either specify column name or check this option, but not both of them at the same time.
   • Set Default - used to set some default value to a field, similar to Set Null, but in this case some value can be assigned to a field.
   • Default - enter the value assigned to a field.

   To assign .csv column to database field you should select a field at the left pane and then click a column at the right pane.

   [Auto Fill...] button - try to set correspondence automatically for all fields. Auto fill option will work only if .csv column name is the same as database field name ("translated").
   [Clear] button - clear all "csv col" values at the left pane.
   Click "Next" if you're done.

7. The next CRE Loaded Import Products Wizard page includes Base Formats and separators. They can be set by default.

   

8. Products were not imported to your database yet. On Import Preview page you can see how .csv file was processed using import settings, which you specified at previous steps. Check whether all columns that you want to be imported are filled with data: some of them may be blank. This means that either you haven't assigned .csv column or it is empty in source (.csv) file. Columns that were not assigned will not be imported whereas empty values will overwrite existing.

   

   Red blinking arrow  will be shown to draw your attention if any errors occurred.

9. Import options page settings may affect the results of CRE Loaded import products. Please read and check your selection carefully.

   

   Default category. If category name is specified in .csv file and column is assigned to database field, Store Manager will create entire category tree for a product. If there's no "category name" column (in .csv) or it is not assigned, all products will be imported to a category specified as Default. If default category is not specified and there's no other way to determine which category products should be imported into, program will create "Default category" and place all new products there.

   Default manufacturer is set almost the same as for category, except that product may not have manufacturer at all - it is not important. Also you can uncheck option in case you do not want to create new manufacturer if currently imported does not exist in database.

   Delete existing attributes when importing new - if checked, import will clear all current product attributes and then add new. If unchecked it will just add new - this may cause duplicate attributes.

   Mark unlisted products as "Out of Stock" ( in osCommerce and CRE Loaded this is "In Stock" property of a product) - all products that were not affected by import will be marked as unavailable, but will not be deleted.

   Cache import data - this option may speedup CRE Loaded Import process. How does it work?

   Store Manager does huge number of database operations while importing products to CRE Loaded database. There are many tables affected by import and lot data should be processed. With slow database connection it may take too long - several hours or even days - depending on number of records and connection speed. If cache option is checked, Store Manager will generate Database backup file - the same as you can do using Backup/Restore wizard with "Product related tables only" option. After the backup is generated, program restores this backup on local database. All further CRE Loaded Import operations will be made locally, much faster than through remote connection. After CRE Loaded Import Products is completed it will generate another backup - from local database and then restore this backup on your remote store.

   With "Cache import data" option import procedure will show several backup/restore progress dialogs - this is normal behavior.
   Note: Cache import data option wuill be ignored in case of connection to Embedded database.

   CRE Loaded Import Method

   Add and Modify - will add new product if it is not available in database yet and modify those products that were found

   Add Only - only add new products

   Modify Only - only update existing products and do not add new entries, even if current product was not found

   Just Add - this option may produce product duplicates, since Store Manager will not try to find existing products but will only add all products as new

   Save CRE Loaded Import Configuration

   All CRE Loaded Import settings can be stored under some configuration. You can load it next time you decide to import products to CRE Loaded from a file with similar formatting, column names etc.

   Attention! CRE Loaded Import Products process will start, when you press "Import" Button! Proceed only if all settings are made, otherwise press "Back" Button and check settings once more!

10. In the last window of CRE Loaded Import Products Wizard will be shown if any errors occurred during import process.

    

Most frequent CRE Loaded Import Products errors are date, time and number conversion issues, caused by invalid format settings (specified at previous pages) or improperly assigned column (i.e. if you assign column containing category ID to parent_category database field).

Date/time conversion errors might be ignored whereas other errors like this one (Could not find image: image_name.gif) has to be fixed.

Now CRE Loaded Import Products procedure is finished.

If you have any questions concerning CRE Loaded Import Products or suggestions on how to import products to CRE Loaded you're welcome to contact our support team.