g2ktcf:
after pouring through the code....
it is clear all the processing for EP is done by products_model. I really do not understand this as products_model is not the primary key to the the products table. I have a modification to this file to change this so I can fix my model numbers. Any input on why a non key field is being used in EP? I see what to change but I am worried about really messing something up.
Products Model was essentially chosen since it is often a "neutral" identifier for products and very rarely duplicated in a products database. (I'm still not seeing a reason for a normal product without attributes needs to have a product model that matches.) Product Model was essentially chosen to make things easier to identify in a standard excel sheet rather than assigning a product ID number (which is the key identifier). If you want to remove the products model as being the identifier, you need something to go in its place as its identifier or else you won't have any way to update.
Think to MySQL terms. You can't just say "UPDATE products SET products_price='1.50'". If you do, MySQL will just update EVERY row in the products table with the price. You need to give it some identifier. Then just before that, you need to think in terms of EasyPopulate, EP needs some way of determining whether it is updating or inserting a new row to the appropriate databases. Without using products_model, you need a new field (or combination of fields) to identify the row that you want to update.
In short, a workaround can be done by inserting a column for "products_id" into the export/import functions of EP and then having EP see if it can find a record with that identifier. However, you need to then insert unique ID numbers for EVERY row in your EP CSV file to be imported or else, EP will then create new records each time. In addition, using this method, you need to keep the ID numbers the same way EACH time you plan on importing this file.
That is just my two cents on this.
