External Linking (again) - unlinking??

[Goz]

V8.5.2

I have linked a site to an external Excel spreadsheet and it worked well (despite being uber-slow!!). I updated prices etc and all was reflected in Actinic.


When I unlinked the spreadsheet, all the prices in Actinic reverted to the original prices.

Is this correct? I was hoping that the prices in Actinic remain as the updated price.

Anyone else come across this?

[leehack]

Hmmm linking is something i certainly want to brush up on, so can't comment with anything definite, but maybe when the link is not in place, it reads from the database and only reads from the spreadsheet when linked. In other words, the linked field is never actually written to the database, the link overwrites the database field when in existence.

[Goz]

That's what I'm thinking is happening - which is unfortunate as I was hoping it would be a better method of mass price updates than to export, update and reimport.

That method causes problems because you get all your line breaks converted into /n's!!!! - real bug bear of mine. Actinic's fix for it is to do a mass replace of /n with !!<<br />>!! Not good when you have to explain to a client why and how this happens and how to fix it - they shouldn't have to deal with HTML. Rant over

[leehack]

I think Fergus has a price changing tool, maybe that is a better proposition. I know what you mean about the /n's, a real pain in the derriere, i steer clear of hierarchicals as much as possible. The problem with them is that on small sites you don't need them, whereas on large sites you have a lot to lose. That a double edged sword with a serious 'shaft' factor.

I'd imagine that the database has a linked field, if that is empty then use database field, if not use linked field. I guess this is good in a way as the database could be seriously trashed by a numpty.

[Jan]

If you switch linking off, the field values will revert to the original ones. I think though that the first time you link the values might be copied into the database, so you might find that you can do it by switching linking off and then switching it off again. Also, try previewing a catalog detail report when linking is switched on, as in the distant past this used to force an update in the actinic db for linked fields.

If none of those work, we have a tool that will import prices here

http://www.mole-end.biz/acatalog/Profit_and_Price.html

or actually, the Actinic flat file import has quite a simple format, take a look at the sample files that are supplied with the product, you will probably be able to import the spreadsheet you are trying to link to without making too many changes.

Regards,

[markburley]

The link does not transfer data at all. If the link is on the prices will come from the linked data, if switched off the prices will be those held in Actinic.

We find that it works well for us, however we turn the link off when making changes to the Actinic data as this is much quicker. You do need to remember to link the data again before uploading or you will upload the wrong prices (we know from experience!).

[Mike Hughes]

The link does not transfer data at all.

Not quite right. As Jan says, when linked actinic copies the linked data into a linked storage area in the database. So the data is transferred into actinic and is used locally when needed.

When the link is disabled then actinic uses the data in the main database rather than that in the linked area.

What jan is suggesting is that there may be ways of forcing actinic into copying the linked data acros into the main database area. I haven't tried it but it would be handy to know if anything does this.

Mike

[Goz]

I've just tried Jan's suggestion of running a catalog detail report with linking enabled on 8.5.3 and got this......

 
There was a problem with the database
Operation: Executing the query 'UPDATE TemporaryProductTable INNER JOIN [ProductLinked] ON TemporaryProductTable.[Product reference] = [ProductLinked].[Product Reference] SET [TemporaryProductTable].[AttributeColumnCount] = [ProductLinked].[AttributeColumnCount],[TemporaryProductTable].[AttributeList] = [ProductLinked].[AttributeList],[TemporaryProductTable].[bAutoShip] = [ProductLinked].[Auto Ship],[TemporaryProductTable].[bDisplayByButton] = [ProductLinked].[Display By Button],[TemporaryProductTable].[bDisplayByImage] = [ProductLinked].[Display By Image],[TemporaryProductTable].[bDisplayByLink] = [ProductLinked].[Display By Link],[TemporaryProductTable].[bExcludeFromShippingCalc] = [ProductLinked].[Exclude From Shipping],[TemporaryProductTable].[bGeneratePopupPage] = [ProductLinked].[Generate Popup Page],[TemporaryProductTable].[bHandSupplAppliedOnce] = [ProductLinked].[Handling Supplement Applied Once],[TemporaryProductTable].[bShareWithEpos] = [ProductLinked].[Share with Actinic EPOS],[TemporaryProductTable].[bShipSeparately] = [ProductLinked].[Ship Separately],[TemporaryProductTable].[bShipSupplAppliedOnce] = [ProductLinked].[Shipping Supplement Applied Once],[TemporaryProductTable].[bStockEnabled] = [ProductLinked].[Stock Checks Enabled],[TemporaryProductTable].[Can be ordered online] = [ProductLinked].[Can be Ordered Online],[TemporaryProductTable].[ComponentList] = [ProductLinked].[ComponentList],[TemporaryProductTable].[Date prompt text] = [ProductLinked].[Date Prompt Text],[TemporaryProductTable].[dHandlingSupplement] = [ProductLinked].[Handling Supplement],[TemporaryProductTable].[dShippingSupplement] = [ProductLinked].[Shipping Supplement],[TemporaryProductTable].[ExtendedInfoPageDesign] = [ProductLinked].[ExtendedInfoPageDesign],[TemporaryProductTable].[ExtendedInformationLinks] = [ProductLinked].[ExtendedInformationLinks],[TemporaryProductTable].[ExtendedInformationType] = [ProductLinked].[ExtendedInformationType],[TemporaryProductTable].[ExtInfoWindowHeight] = [ProductLinked].[ExtInfoWindowHeight],[TemporaryProductTable].[ExtInfoWindowWidth] = [ProductLinked].[ExtInfoWindowWidth],[TemporaryProductTable].[Image FileName] = [ProductLinked].[Image Filename],[TemporaryProductTable].[Manufacturer] = [ProductLinked].[Manufacturer],[TemporaryProductTable].[Manufacturer_Part_No] = [ProductLinked].[Manufacturer_Part_No],[TemporaryProductTable].[Max quantity orderable] = [ProductLinked].[Max Quantity Orderable],[TemporaryProductTable].[Min quantity orderable] = [ProductLinked].[Min Quantity Orderable],[TemporaryProductTable].[nGroupID] = [ProductLinked].[Product Group ID],[TemporaryProductTable].[nMaxYearValue] = [ProductLinked].[Date Prompt Maximum Year],[TemporaryProductTable].[nMinYearValue] = [ProductLinked].[Date Prompt Minimum Year],[TemporaryProductTable].[nPricingModel] = [ProductLinked].[Pricing Model],[TemporaryProductTable].[nShippingQuantity] = [ProductLinked].[Shipping Quantity],[TemporaryProductTable].[nStockOnHand] = [ProductLinked].[Stock in Hand],[TemporaryProductTable].[nStockSuspend] = [ProductLinked].[Stock Suspend Level],[TemporaryProductTable].[nStockWarn] = [ProductLinked].[Stock Warning Level],[TemporaryProductTable].[NumberAttributesInPushButtonGrid] = [ProductLinked].[NumberAttributesInPushButtonGrid],[TemporaryProductTable].[OnlinePriceLayout] = [ProductLinked].[OnlinePriceLayout],[TemporaryProductTable].[Other info prompt] = [ProductLinked].[Other Info Prompt],[TemporaryProductTable].[Price] = [ProductLinked].[Price],[TemporaryProductTable].[PriceLayout] = [ProductLinked].[PriceLayout],[TemporaryProductTable].[Product reference] = [ProductLinked].[Product Reference],[TemporaryProductTable].[Product_Range] = [ProductLinked].[Product_Range],[TemporaryProductTable].[ProductImageLayout] = [ProductLinked].[ProductImageLayout],[TemporaryProductTable].[ProductLayout] = [ProductLinked].[ProductLayout],[TemporaryProductTable].[ProductPriceDescription] = [ProductLinked].[ProductPriceDescription],[TemporaryProductTable].[PushButtonGrid] = [ProductLinked].[PushButtonGrid],[TemporaryProductTable].[RetailPricePrefix] = [ProductLinked].[RetailPricePrefix],[TemporaryProductTable].[sAltWeight] = [ProductLinked].[Alternative Weight],[TemporaryProductTable].[sBarcode] = [ProductLinked].[Barcode],[TemporaryProductTable].[sDDFileName] = [ProductLinked].[Digital Download File Name],[TemporaryProductTable].[sDetailLinkText] = [ProductLinked].[Detail Link Text],[TemporaryProductTable].[sDetailUrlOrFile] = [ProductLinked].[Detail URL or File],[TemporaryProductTable].[sExtendedInfoImage] = [ProductLinked].[Extended Info Image],[TemporaryProductTable].[sExtendedInfoLinkText] = [ProductLinked].[Extended Info Link Text],[TemporaryProductTable].[sExtendedInfoPage] = [ProductLinked].[Extended Info Page Name],[TemporaryProductTable].[ShippingOpaqueData] = [ProductLinked].[Shipping Data],[TemporaryProductTable].[Short description] = [ProductLinked].[Short Description],[TemporaryProductTable].[Special_Offer] = [ProductLinked].[Special_Offer],[TemporaryProductTable].[sShippingCategory] = [ProductLinked].[Shipping Category],[TemporaryProductTable].[sTax1OpaqueData] = [ProductLinked].[V4 Tax 1 Data],[TemporaryProductTable].[sThumbnailImage] = [ProductLinked].[Thumbnail],[TemporaryProductTable].[Trend_Cutter_Range] = [ProductLinked].[Trend_Cutter_Range],[TemporaryProductTable].[Trend_Page_No] = [ProductLinked].[Trend_Page_No],[TemporaryProductTable].[YourPricePrefix] = [ProductLinked].[YourPricePrefix] WHERE [TemporaryProductTable].bUseExternalData = TRUE '
Database name: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents\Actinic v8\Sites\Site1\ActinicCatalog
Too few parameters. Expected 23.
Action: Contact your Actinic reseller or Actinic Support as appropriate

Looks like one for support in the morning. By the look of other recent threads, I'll be reporting back on this in a month of two....

[Jan]

The bad news is that you can't print a catalog detail report due to this error but the sort of good news is that you don't need to because it's not going to bring the data into the catalog - I can see from the error that it's using a temporary table to hold the data.

Did you try switching linking on and off?

Regards.

[Jan]

Actually I have just tried this and it doesn't work, I can't think of another way to do this, sorry.

Regards,

[Goz]

Thanks Jan.

I had tried linking and unlinking but, as you found, it didn't work.



It's not the pricing I'm trying to update, it's some UDV's such as Manufacturer and Part No. Looks like I shall have to risk importing!