Question Regarding Hierarchical Imports

[David@MPL]

Hello all,

I am just creating a Hierarchical Import file for the first time (I have previously been building Flat Files) and as I'm examining an exported file from our site and what the Actinic Manual says, I've come across a bit of a confusing feature.

In the Header:Section fields, you have the following three options:

• Section product template
• Section template
• Section primary template

My question is, why is the three different templates options? Would one not suffice (especially seen as you have a Product template as well) or am I missing something important?

Thanks,

David

[Jan]

'Section product template' is the template that products will use by default in this section.

'Section template' is the template that section lines will use in this section

'Section primary template' is the template that the overall section page will use.

There are matching fields in the section details dialog.

Section product template : Product tab - Default Layout
Section template : Layout tab - Overall Layout
Section primary template : Layout tab - Section Link Layout

Regards,

[David@MPL]

Ahhh, I see. Thanks Jan.

I now have another question.

When creating a Hierarchical Import file which is only going to be adding products to existing sections, is it safe to leave out some header fields and then those fields will just go to they default value?

I figure I've got to include all the "Section Name" headers so I get the product in the right place, but can (for example) "Min quatity orderable" be left out of the file seen as I want the default setting of "1"?

Thanks in advance,

David

[cdicken]

When creating a Hierarchical Import file which is only going to be adding products to existing sections, is it safe to leave out some header fields and then those fields will just go to they default value?

I believe that Actinic will work in the way you describe so it should be save. You could always test on a small subset of products first.

[AndyMac]

Hierarchical Files:

Does anybody know how best to view/edit/create these files, I am having nightmares trying to view using Excel....

[David@MPL]

I'm finding it easiest to do as many mandatory/"simple" required fields in Excel and then leaving the fields that are going to have alot of data (i.e. product description) empty at the end of the row. . . good old excel doesn't like too many characters . . . then just copy and paste the whole thing into notepad to manually fill the last field from there. Mind you, I'm doing fairly simple stuff at the moment.

David

[David@MPL]

Hello All,

I was wondering if anyone knew of a way to make Hierarchal imports move existing products from section to section.

It can be done very easily using a Flat File import but I'd be interested to know if anyone has managed in in a Hierarchal file . . . it just wasn't working for me no matter how much info I provided (the Flat File only needs Section Name and Product Reference).

I know the answer is to use a Flat File import for moving products but I was just curious.

All the best

David

P.S. Chris - If a field has just double quotes in them ("") then yes, actinic sets the default value for that field . . . or at least it did for the fields I was using.

[cdicken]

I've never tried to use hierarchical imports for moving products from one section to another. I think as long as you are not auto-generating product references you can do an update using the following method.

Let's say your product was originally placed in the section with the following (highly-simplified) code:

Section,Toys
Product,HH1234,HungryHippos,2500
End,Section
Section,Special Offers
End,Section

You should be able to move it with the following import (although you do have to 'replace' rather than 'update')...

Section,Toys
End,Section
Section,Special Offers
Product,HH1234,HungryHippos,2500
End,Section

[David@MPL]

Ahhh, replace not update!

Thanks Chris