5. Import Products

fmProductImportExport

This Wizard will help you to update your database by selecting appropriate action.

Pay attention to each Wizard's page when you import products to Pinnacle Cart. Import is rather complicated procedure and it may be destructive if performed incorrectly. Create Database backup before importing products especially if you do it first time.

To start Import Products you need to click on button which starts the Import/Export Wizard. Products Import/Export Wizard is a lot like Categories Import/Export Wizard.

First of all prepare a .csv file for Import. Make sure it contains all necessary fields and all data you need.
Select "Import" in the Import/Export Wizard and click "Next >" button to continue.

Enter the .csv file you need to import or use browse button to select one.

Also you can Save Import Settings for future products import to Pinnacle Cart or load one to use now.

Source file preview shows a part of .csv file selected to import. There are no options to set, but you should pay some attention to this page. What's so important to look for on this page is field delimiter and quote character, if some is used.

If you carefully check the very first line of the example, you'll notice that some words enclosed in quotes (") and are separated by semicolon (;) symbol. That are two important options you have to pay attention to - you will have to setup these settings on next page. Usually it is enough to see first line, no need to investigate entire file.
Also you can enable and set the row # you want to start import from.

Select fields delimiter and quote character page contains some important settings. If you specify wrong values, Pinnacle Cart product import may not work.

First option is delimiter character. Most popular delimiters are comma (,), semicolon (;) and tab character ( ) however other symbols can be used as well.
Note: csv file contains data in row - column format and delimiter character is used to separate one column from another. If you specify incorrect delimiter, file will not be parsed properly and categories will not be imported.
On previous sample page we have noticed that semicolon symbol was used as delimiter and values were quoted with " symbol. Specify two first settings as shown above.
Category delimiter character is not native .csv setting, it is used only in Store Manager. As you know categories are organized in a form of tree, where parent category can contain one or more subcategories, and subcategory can contain one or more other categories.
Category delimiter character is used to separate category names and specify full category tree path for given category. Category path is very similar to directory path used to specify full file name in Windows, where every directory separated by backslash (\) character like this one C:\Program Files\eMagicOne\Store Manager for Pinnacle Cart\.
As for example category path for "Sample Subcategory" (see image below) will be Hardware|Graphics Cards|Sample Subcategory. Pipe (|) character was used as separator.

Images - Default images path is the place where store manager will look for images when importing products - image names specified in .csv file whereas image files stored here. When store manager is unable to find an image it will not import image information to a product and will remove existing image information if any.

The next Import Wizard page includes Base Formats and separators. They can be set by default.

Import options page settings may affect Import results. Please read and check your selection carefully.

Import Method

Add and Modify - will add new product if it is not available in database yet and modify those products that were found
Add Only - only add new products
Modify Only - only update existing products and do not add new entries, even if current product was not found
Just Add - this option may produce product duplicates, since Store Manager will not try to find existing products but will only add all products as new

Also you can:
Delete products that are not listed in .csv file
Disable products that are not listed in .csv file
Set product quantity to 0
Create Impore log file: Specify any file to replace or specify new file name to create new one.
Save Import Configuration. All import settings can be stored under some configuration. You can load it next time you decide to import products to Pinnacle Cart from a file with similar formatting, column names etc.

The next page allows you to Link columns from .csv file to appropriate database fields.
1. Link columns from .csv file to appropriate database fields. The left pane "Database Fields" shows the list of fields in your database that can receive import data.
2. The topmost option on this page is First row in .csv file contains field names but not values. Obviously it should be checked if first row of .csv file contains data, otherwise uncheck this option.
3. Next option is Identify products by. Import will search for a product using selected method of identification. The product will be modified if found, if not - new product will be added.
4. Source .csv file can contain multiple records with identical Name values. All these products will be considered as one - currently imported to Pinnacle Cart product will overwrite previously imported with the same key field values. Note that sometimes one of key fields may be blank. Obviously blank fields contain the same value for all records. It is required to assign .csv columns to key fields.

"Database Fields" shows the list of fields in your database that can receive import data.
Database Fields contains such columns:

Name - contains database field name. Some values in this column contain actual field name, whereas other are "translated". Anyway these names are clear enough to figure out how to use them.
# - the number of the column in .csv file corresponding to this field - the link between database field and .csv column.
Set Null - indicates that this field should not contain any data but should be set to Null. You can either specify column name or check this option, but not both of them at the same time.
Set Default - used to set some default value to a field, similar to Set Null, but in this case some value can be assigned to a field.
Default - enter the value assigned to a field.

To assign .csv column to database field you should select a field at the left pane and then click a column at the right pane.
[Auto Fill...] button - try to set correspondence automatically for all fields. Auto fill option will work only if .csv column name is the same as database field name ("translated").
[Clear] button - clear all "csv col" values at the left pane
Click "Next" if you're done.

Products were not imported to your database yet. On Import Preview page you can see how .csv file was processed using import settings, which you specified at previous steps. Check whether all columns that you want to be imported are filled with data: some of them may be blank. This means that either you haven't assigned .csv column or it is empty in source (.csv) file. Columns that were not assigned will not be imported whereas empty values will overwrite existing.

Red blinking arrow will be shown to draw your attention if any errors occurred.
Attention! Import process will start, when you press "Import" Button! Proceed only if all settings are made, otherwise press "Back" Button and check settings once more!

In the last window of Pinnacle Cart Import Products Wizard will be shown if any errors occurred during import process.

Most frequent import errors are date, time and number conversion issues, caused by invalid format settings (specified at previous pages) or improperly assigned column (i.e. if you assign column containing category ID to parent_category database field).
Date/time conversion errors might be ignored whereas other errors like this one (Could not find image: image_name.gif) has to be fixed.

Now products import to Pinnacle Cart is finished.