Flat file import & duplicate products.

[Owen Drumm]

I have imported products from excel into a site without any duplicate products showing. I now want to update the site to include all the products in the site as duplicate products in different sections. To explain clearer all products are listed under brand name. Duplicate products are then created listed under category name. An example can be seen at http://www.clfshop.com where on the left menu you have the products in brands which I want as the main products and the products also listed under categories as the duplicate products.

My question is when I am updating the site to populate with the duplicate products if I just have the section text, original product reference and product type fields in the spreadsheet will the other fields that are in the original product like image filename, shipping data etc be automatically added?

[Jan]

The duplicate will be created and the fields you have entered will be set for the product and the duplicate, action taken after this will depend on the settings you have in settings / duplicate field configuration, any field unticked in here will be automatically updated if the product changes, any that are ticked will not be.

Having reread you question, I am have to say that I am not sure if the imported products will have the original product details, you would have to try it and see, I would guess not though - although they probably should.

Regards,

[Owen Drumm]

I guess I shall try it and see then. As an aside Jan, I want to buy Groupmail from your website but am not sure whether to go for the pro one or the lower version. I would be doing monthly email marketing to a few thousand customers. Can you advise which is the best one as I am looking to get it this week.

[Jan]

I have just checked the infacta website and there are only two versions now, I would suggest buying the personal edition as this allows multiple sending, which you should configure if you have several 1000 people to email to. I don't bother with this and it takes around an hour to send an HTML email to 1500 people.

I think that you can get a good discount on groupmail if you are an Actinic cover customer, so if you have cover, check this out before buying.

Regards,

[Owen Drumm]

I have just tried importing a spreedsheet with only duplicates to update the site using only Section, Short Description, Original Product Reference & Product Type fields but it will not work as Actinic is aking for a Product Reference field having setup Actinic to not generate product references.

[Jan]

The product reference for a duplicate has this format <index>!<original reference>

Regards,

[eezytrade]

actinic create the product duplicate index

Sorry if this has already been answered, but I'm struggling

If the master product is already in the database.... before the import.

Is there any way for actinic to create the product reference itself - if I just import the duplicate with the 'original product reference'.

That is it picks up that it is a duplicate and assigns a new - but unique product ref by adding the prod dup index number itself?

Note: actinic isn't generating prod ref automatically in the business settings

Or do I have to assign the product duplicate index myself?

Many thanks

John

[Jan]

I think you are going to have to do it manually.

Regards,

[eezytrade]

Ok - it's not a problem - after posting.... I suddenly thought of using the 'sort data' function in excel to add this field.

Thanks for your reply.

John