Importing Data

[DigitalJohnBoy]

Hi

I am a complete novice to Actinic and have started my adventure with version 8.04.

One thing I can't get my head around at this stage is probably quite basic to many.

If I have a flat file csv file (exported from Excel) which has various fields such as shoe size and shoe colour etc, how do I successfully import this into Actinic so that new section is created and the products appear accordingly in the new fields?

Do I have to create new variables and insert them into the layout and then map the csv fields to them when I import?

Do I then delete all the sample sections (books, homeware, computers, etc) leaving just the shoes section?

My csv file has the following fields:

ShortDescription
LongDescription
SectionName
ProductReference
ProductImageFileName
BootColour
BootSize
SizeList

Any help as to how I need to prepare my Actinic layout to receive this data successfully would be most helpful.

Thanks in advance guys.

[kessock]

Welcome

Hi,
Welcome to the forum.
I ama novice too, and also have been working on this.
If you have not done so I think it is very worthwhile downloading the advanced users guide from the Actinic website, this has loads of great info in it.
Cheers.
Mark

[DigitalJohnBoy]

advanced users guide

Thanks Mark - I will download the guide now!

[DigitalJohnBoy]

New fields

I'll create new variables for the likes of BootColour, BootSize and SizeList, place them in the design and then map the appropriate csv fields to them and see what happens.

I have just experimented with the main descriptions and section names and everything seems to have worked.

Will try the new fields now.

[leehack]

Create one product in actinic and the export it to a spreadsheet and you will see how things are formed.

[pinbrook]

Actinic has 2 formats for importing data, both are documented in the Help files.

to import shoe sizes /colours etc you will need to use the "hierarcical" format