Mapping External File Fields

[paulbeckett]

Hi all

Further to my previous post, I am considering buy Actinic v7 Business (with cover for an upgrade to v9) to allow me to use the "Linking To An External File" facility.

To make sure it does what I want before I shell out... can anyone confirm if it is possible to map to CUSTOMVARS? This requirement is not essential but would help alot!

The other fields I want to map to are: PRODUCTREF, SHORT DESCRIPTION, QTY IN STOCK, PRODUCT HIDDEN - Y/N?

Also does anyone use an external file to SET-UP new products instead of using the Actinic GUI?

Paul

[Mark H]

Hi Paul

Cop this for starters:

http://community.actinic.com/showthr...934#post216934

Look towards the end of the post.

[Mark H]

Hi Paul

CUSTOMVARS - from memory these are added as new columns in the spreadsheet, then we had to use another home made spreadsheet with macros to create a differnet CSV file which was then imported using the "hierarchical" import. This is midblowingly complex and tedious. If you intend to use a lot of CUSTOMVARS (we are experimenting with about 15) you should really loook at V8/V9. My understanding is that "user defined variables" in these versions appear directly in the list of mappable fields, and so can be dynamically linked together with all the standard fiields, which is on a different planet in terms of usability. We will almost certainly move stright from V7 to V9 if this is the case.

[TraceyG]

Hi,

My understanding is that "user defined variables" in these versions appear directly in the list of mappable fields

They do for hierarchical imports but not for flat-file imports. You could create a flat-file import and then use the 'FlatFileConvertor.exe' utility to convert it to a hierarchical import file (found in c:\program files\actinic v8' folder).

[Mark H]

Hi Tracey

The list of mappable fileds I was referring to is in File | External Links, not in the import(s) sections.

In limited testing with V8, when we have defined our own product variables in the Design Library, these variables have appeared as mappable fields in the list of Actinic fields in File | External Links, so we have presumed that extra columns in the "dynamically linked" external spreadhseet could be mapped to them. We have not looked at the mappable fields in flat or hierarchical imports since, if the variables can be directly linked in File | Extenral Links, there would be no need for either flat or hiearchical imports. Is this right?

[Duncan Rounding]

You can map to CVs in v8 (not sure about scoping though) but not in v7.
The other fields you mention are available.
You can't set up new products with linking - but you can with an hierarchical import.

[Mark H]

"You can map to CVs in v8 (not sure about scoping though) but not in v7".

Yes, that's what I'm trying to say! You can map directly to CVs from the externally linked spreadsheet in V8 - nothing to do with importing.

We have created new products and products sections (one product per section) by flat file importing in V7, but you have to set up the main sections first in Actinic - take a look at the link to the other post, above.

[TraceyG]

You can map directly to CVs from the externally linked spreadsheet in V8 - nothing to do with importing.

Sorry Mark, I had misunderstood.

Tracey

[Mark H]

No problem Tracey - you got me worried then for a minute because we are moving to V8/V9 largely for this one feature!!