Importing products from spreadsheet

[Clive.Aspen]

Hi Everyone,

We are building a v10 site on business plus.

All our products and details are on a spreadsheet.

Each product comes in lots of different sizes, each size has a different code and costs a different price.

I understand they will need to be listed as a master item and then the different sizes as componants, attributes and choices.

The thing is... how do I import my stock into Actinic, so that each size is listed as a choice of a master item.

I cant seem to work out how to do this.
Advice greatly appreciated.

[leehack]

You will need to create a hidden product for each option, have a read in the inbuilt help about permutations and the 'product options' wizard to understand that part. Then once you understand that, setup a product manually using the product options wizard and then do an export from the file menu. That will show you the format you need to do, you might be best to setup a few products to get an idea on the format.

Hierarchical imports/exports are what you will be using/learning about.

[Clive.Aspen]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply.

I have already done some reading and I exported a hierarchical file to see the format..

However, my spreadsheet is not hierarchical, its a bog-standard flat file, with over 500 products and over 6000 choices. This cant be easily converted to a hierarchical file. (if at all)

I want to import my products into actinic from my flat file, and have the choices imported as hidden files associated to their master product.
How do I do that?

[leehack]

I want to import my products into actinic from my flat file, and have the choices imported as hidden files associated to their master product.
How do I do that?

You can't, choices can only be setup via hierarchicals, you have that or doing it manually as your options. You will need to convert your excel sheet into a hierachical format.

[Clive.Aspen]

Thats a real problem then.

We were running a bespoke (but very simple) shop, that linked to our spreadsheet, and this handled product choices from that without a problem.

Converting our spreadsheet to a hierachical format is not an option, as it also contains all our business data.. suppliers, suppliers codes, purchase costs etc.

We wanted to 'plug' this into actinic and didnt foresee any problems with that.
(perhaps we were naive) but I was under the impression that most ecommerce carts could import and link to a spreadsheet. So this is a disappointment to say the least.

Apart from converting our spreadsheet to a hierachical format... you say I can do it manually. Do you mean within actinic, going through each product setting up componants and attribute manually and copy and pasting each choice into the correct place ? Thats not really feasible.. theres over 6000 choices.

Is there any other way?

[leehack]

You can external link to spreadsheets to maintain products but it won't work with RTSC and doesn't setup the hidden products for the stock control part.

Manual does not seem an option, so i guess your best course of action is to contact a professional who does know hierarchicals and can convert it for you, i'd suggest 'drounding' (forum name) as one of the best. Will cost you of course, but not doing them or doing them manually yourself are not options open to you.

You don't generally get 6000 products in a spreadsheet, have a little tinker and they will all be set up for you in a matter of minutes. I'd have thought it's about a days work off the top of my head, which is peanuts i am sure you will agree to get that many products live and working.

[Duncan Rounding]

You could for example create a new worksheet and have this in the correct hierarchical format. You then link the cells in this new worksheet to the source data in the existing cells in the other worksheets in the workbook. You can then save this worksheet as csv and use that to import into Actinic. I have done this in the past for a client to simplify data entry.

[Clive.Aspen]

You can external link to spreadsheets to maintain products but it won't work with RTSC and doesn't setup the hidden products for the stock control part.

I'm confused now.. as I have set up a sample store online, with hidden products as choices linked to a spreadsheet.. and this worked fine with stock control.. Stock numbers of choices were reduced on the store in real time.. and on download the (choice) items stock levels were updated on the spreadsheet... So why do you say it wouldnt work? Sorry maybe I misunderstood.

Manual does not seem an option, so i guess your best course of action is to contact a professional who does know hierarchicals and can convert it for you, i'd suggest 'drounding' (forum name) as one of the best. Will cost you of course, but not doing them or doing them manually yourself are not options open to you.

You don't generally get 6000 products in a spreadsheet, have a little tinker and they will all be set up for you in a matter of minutes. I'd have thought it's about a days work off the top of my head, which is peanuts i am sure you will agree to get that many products live and working.

Sending my spreadsheet to be converted to a hierarchical ?
I use my spreadsheet all the time..my stock levels change by the hour.
I would get a hierarchical file back that would be out of date.
Would I then have to manually update every items stock level ?
All sounds a bit of a pallava

[Clive.Aspen]

You could for example create a new worksheet and have this in the correct hierarchical format. You then link the cells in this new worksheet to the source data in the existing cells in the other worksheets in the workbook. You can then save this worksheet as csv and use that to import into Actinic. I have done this in the past for a client to simplify data entry.

I see.. (I think)

[leehack]

You can't combine external linking via a spreadsheet with the new real time stock control, it's one or the other (pretty sure that's what i have read). If you have the real time stock enabled, do you need to manually maintain the stock anyway?

You can maintain products via external linking once they are setup, that is not the issue though, i thought your issue was getting them setup?

[leehack]

In the help (been in there myself a few times about the problems with RTSC):

Note: Automatic Stock Synchronisation cannot be used if your catalogue is linked to an external database or spreadsheet. If you wish to use Online Stock Control with External Linking, you should disable Automatic Stock Synchronisation, and Publish to Web on a regular basis to synchronise stock between the web site and the desktop.

[Clive.Aspen]

yes, but thats just Automatic Stock Synchronisation.

I set up a test site with just a couple of products linked to a spreadsheet, and real time stock control worked fine. The spreadsheet was updated on download (manual) and changes in the spreadsheet were also copied to actinic and the live store on upload. So that does work ok.

[malbro]

I use my spreadsheet all the time..my stock levels change by the hour.
I would get a hierarchical file back that would be out of date.
Would I then have to manually update every items stock level ?
All sounds a bit of a pallava

Lee is correct, you can only use RTSC on its own or with Actinics EPOS via their EPOS link, I suspect the problem is with the way Actinic handle updating the two stock locations, one on your PC and one on site. If a third party is changing the PC stock locations and they do an update that involves a stock change from the live site it is quite possible for the stock level to lose one or other of the updates and then you have the recipe for chaos. The link to EPOS is designed with this in mind and thus works OK.

[leehack]

Ah ok cool, no probs, i'm lost, but as long as you know what you're talking about. Looks like i read and remembered it wrongly.

[Clive.Aspen]

Lee is correct, you can only use RTSC on its own or with Actinics EPOS via their EPOS link, I suspect the problem is with the way Actinic handle updating the two stock locations, one on your PC and one on site. If a third party is changing the PC stock locations and they do an update that involves a stock change from the live site it is quite possible for the stock level to lose one or other of the updates and then you have the recipe for chaos. The link to EPOS is designed with this in mind and thus works OK.

Am I going crazy then?

I created a sample product with hidden products that were choices.
I linked this to a spreadsheet.
I allowed realtime stock control
The stock figures are passed into actinic and uploaded.
Making orders online decreases the stock figures online ok
(I ordered too many products and was told out of stock)
I downloaded actinic and the stock figures in the spreadsheet were updated.
So it looks to me like RTSC linked to an exrenal spreadsheet does work.

Or have I gone crazy and am missing something obvious?