Setting up products using Excel spreadsheets and/or database

[paulbeckett]

Hi

We are finding that using the Actinic front end GUI to set-up products is a timeconsuming task.

Therefore we would like to set-up products directly into the backend / database perhaps through imports of excel spreadsheets or the like.

We beleive we could set-up at least 10x the amount of products per person if we could avoid the front-end.

Likewise we would like to amend or update existing products (e.g. change prices or add additional custom properties) in the same manner.

Has anyone done this? Also can anyone recommend a developer who could offer this service?

Kind regards

Paul

[leehack]

Have a read up on 'flat file imports', they're a quick and easy way. Don't double post either, it pisses people off and can also dilute any possible help/conversation across threads. If people want to help they will.

[paulbeckett]

Thanks.

I will have a look up for the 'flat file imports' although I am still looking for a developer to assist us with this. I see amending databases behind the scenes comes with greater risk of error and therefore I am looking for an experienced person to manage this implementation. If anyone can recommend someone with this experience I would appreciate it.

The reason for the "doublepost" is that I am interested in understanding the issue from both a v7 and v9 perspective. The same question but in a different context. Are you indicating that there is no difference between doing this in v7 and v9? Therefore if I have a system developed in v7 it can be used following an upgrade to v9?

Paul

[leehack]

It is of course your shout on what you do, but often you will find no need for a developer on this, within an hour or two you can get the concept and how things work and always best to do this part yourself IMO. The help in the software is really good on these parts, you may also want to look into 'External Linking' and possibly even 'hierarchical imports'. These are all ways of maintaining and setting up products much quicker than manually. There is not a lot of difference between v7 and v9 on this kind of things IME. If i had to choose a preferred order to use these facilities, it would be - flat file imports, external linking, hierarchical imports, then direct database contact.

Set yourself up on a second PC with a copy of your site, setup a few small dummy spreadsheets and have a play, see which you prefer.

[paulbeckett]

Hi Lee

Thanks for your advice.

I have actually tried to contact you to see if you would be interested in giving me a quote. Hopefully I will talk to you soon.

My requirements are abit wider than I have listed in the notes below and I am keen to get an expert involved. My technical skills are basic at best!

Paul

[paulbeckett]

Hi

I have had a read up on Flat File and Hierarchical import. The Actinic help function is very good/readable.

However the I'm not sure the structure of the files mentioned above is suitable.

I don't think my data entry team would pick-up the format particularly easily and it would be really difficult to do repeatable products. I was hoping the structure of the files would be more like the import files used to sell on Amazon or upload to Froogle (e.g. new product on each row and properties for the products across the columns).

It looks like a direct database connection (some sort of writeable query) will be required. I am having a look at "Linking To An External File" but I definitely want to employ a developer to undertake this task. My skills and knowledge are lacking in this area and my focus is more on business operations.

Paul

[Guy Peeke-Vout]

Access / Excel product clients

Hi Paul,

We have been using an Access Database from day one (about 6 years) to arrange and organise our products. On the whole it makes creating new products and sections much quicker and allows easy changes to large swathes of product data in on go.

We import new products and sections into Actinic by exporting an Actinic report which is laid out according to the Actinic hierarchy data structure. The report has to be saved as a text file so that it can then be imported into an excel template for the final import into Actinic.

We use the "use external links" function of Actinic to link our products to an Excel table that the Access database populates with the required product data. We use this method rather than linking to the Actinic database itself as we use a lot of product duplicates.

Managaing your products by this method has distinct advantages but, as you can see from the above, is somewhat convoluted! It should also be noted that you still have to delete obsolete products from the Actinic client.

If you would like to know more I would be happy to elaborate.

[jacquiej]

Hi Paul,

We upload and maintain all of our products using hierachical uploads. It works well as long as you are careful. We started by doing a catalog export and looking at the structure. Reason for this it depends on how many attributes, components etc you are using. There are a few Actinic excenticities to get used to, like you cannot use this method to change a short description it will just add a new product. The image must already be in the image file or it will not upload it. It took us about three months to perfect our sheets but they work really well for us as you can obviusly cut and paste in excel and build extended descriptions etc really quick.

One important thing you must do is set up a test site for this as a stray 0 can cause some database grief.(If you are reading this Leehack you will smile about now you advice has been well heeded) We just have a fairly recent snapshot loaded on a test site and we run all new upload thru this first just to make sure they are OK.

Jacquie

www.musthave.co.uk
Luxury Natural & Organic Skincare, Cosmetics, Hair Care and Fragrance.

[outofthehat]

An Excel way

Hi,

Noticed in passing your discussions on importing catalogues from Excel. A while back I worked out a way of generating hierarchical import files for v7 with Excel, but haven't tried it for v9 (don't see why it shouldn't work, though). If you're interested, take a look here:
http://community.actinic.com/showthread.php?t=15040
I'd forgotten to copy the html and example files over when we changed hosts, but have done that now, so they are accessible again!

Frankly, though, I like the sound of external links from Actinic to Excel rather than this level of fiddling about....

Hope that helps.

Neil

------------------------------
Sorry, put the above on the wrong thread - and Jan at Mole End added more info as follows:

It is actually much easier to import custom properties into V9, you just add their name onto the end of the product line in the hierarchical import file and add the custom vars in the same order. They need to be created in the catalog prior to import though.

Regards,
_________________
Jan Strassen, Mole End Software - Plugins and Reports for Actinic V4 to V9

[NicNac]

I'm an Actinic newb and managed to create a hierachical import file using Excel by following the instructions in the knowledge base here.

Hope that helps a bit

Edit: Actually, in that article, it says to use a flat file import, but I received an error message when using that option. Using the hierachical import option works fine however.

[mediamole]

Paul been trying to get in touch with you for ages! send me an email and can send you a sample file that might help

[Chunkford]

This is something I am doing at the mo.
I have to do this every year and create over 5000 products on one of the sites (and getting more every year!) and update existing products, using the hierarchical import for the sections, products, attributes and multiple pricing using data from their suppliers.

It does require a bit of logical thinking (and out of the box thinking) and lots of time to find the best way to create imports.
It deserves time to read through the documentation, patience and test after test.