Easy Populate 1.2.5.4 support

Ok so im having problem with easy populate 1.2.5.4 i upload all my products and everything works perfect except for my categories...it only uploads my products into my last subdirectory it makes no sense

i uploaded an example of my .txt (tab delimited file)

everything is correct in it...i recently had the advanced version of easy populate installed but i unistalled it because the free version actually works better....

But what it is doing is if u look at my example....it will look at v_categories_name_3

and when its uploaded it will put all my products under my 3rd category....

v_categories_name_1 & 2 it just ignores those two categories like it doesnt exist

Like if u look at my file it will put the information under

Scanners/Readers and skip Computer Hardware the main category, and also skip the first subcategory and put all the information under the sub-sub-category

this makes no sense can someone please help me thanks

You can't use BACKSLASHES... Your category descriptions contain backslashes. These have a specific meaning in EP - namely, they indicate a DIRECTORY PATH.

You will have to re-name your categories to PLAIN ALPHA NUMERIC - don't use special characters or backslashes.

(See v_products_url for an example of when backslashes ARE used)

This restricted use of special characters is discussed here:-

http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Easy_Populate

rickiesdiscount:

Ok so im having problem with easy populate 1.2.5.4 i upload all my products and everything works perfect except for my categories...it only uploads my products into my last subdirectory it makes no sense

i uploaded an example of my .txt (tab delimited file)

ADDITIONALLY, in v_status you have the word "Active"

The correct term to insert here is a DIGIT...

v_status
0
1
9

Where:-

0 = PRODUCT IS INACTIVE
1 = PRODUCT IS ACTIVE
9 = DELETE THIS PRODUCT FROM THE DATABASE

(All this and more is at:-
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Easy_Populate )

Whilst it did run for something like 12 hours, it ran flawlessly through and created 310,000 items for me. Yah!! :bigups:

Now I've just got to figure how to get the product search down from 26 seconds for one item. :(

Oo err...

fairestcape:

This restricted use of special characters is discussed here:-

http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.php/Easy_Populate

fairestcape:

You can't use BACKSLASHES... Your category descriptions contain backslashes. These have a specific meaning in EP - namely, they indicate a DIRECTORY PATH.

You will have to re-name your categories to PLAIN ALPHA NUMERIC - don't use special characters or backslashes.

(See v_products_url for an example of when backslashes ARE used)

Yeah, but ive uploaded this exact file before i used the advanced version, but then i was having image problems...but that is fixed now and switched back and i had no problem at all the way the document is...i wonder if its because i had the advanced version installed and i did not delete everything...Anyway im not using backslashes under the category discription if u look its a foward slash...

As for the backslashes not sure what ur talking about ive had no problem with this before and that is the way the distributor gives me the information it cannot be changed i have 22,000 products from them it would take to long.

I really appreciate the help and advice though but im almost positive this isnt whats causing it.

rickiesdiscount:

Anyway im not using backslashes under the category discription if u look its a foward slash...

Forward Slash, Back Slash... term is irrelevant. These are restricted characters and are the cause of your categories problem.

rickiesdiscount:

that is the way the distributor gives me the information it cannot be changed i have 22,000 products from them it would take to long.

I get a similar list from my drop-shipper who ALSO describes the categories using slashes.

This is what I do:-

1. Open the list in excel.

2. Highlight the CATEGORIES COLUMN (where the backslashes/forwardslashes appear).

3. COPY to clipboard

4. Open MS Word

5. PASTE

6. (Now I have that column in a table in MS Word).

7. HIGHLIGHT THE WHOLE TABLE, then under MS Word menu "Table", select "Convert Table to Text.

8. Now I have the table as a list of "sentences" delimited by Paragraphs.

9. Use EDIT REPLACE - (tell MS Word to find / and relpace with ^t)

10. This replaces all slashes with a TAB.

11. Highlight all text, and go back to "Table" menu at the top, and now "Convert Text to table, using TABS to delimit columns.

12. I now have all my categories and sub-categories in their required columns

13. CTRL+A (select all) , the COPY

14. Go back to Excel and PASTE

15. Adjust excel columns and headers to suit EAsyPopulate...

For 22,000 products this will take about 20 minutes.

My list is routinely about 12,500 to 13,000 products and it takes me this amount of time to "repair" the layout.

rickiesdiscount:

I really appreciate the help and advice though but im almost positive this isnt whats causing it. I'm sure it is what's causing it... sorry to disagree!

Good Luck.

there is bugs to change or add subcategory? when i add a subcategory to existed products, these products be duplicated and move to new subcategory, but there is still products exist at parent category.

alvalong:

there is bugs to change or add subcategory? when i add a subcategory to existed products, these products be duplicated and move to new subcategory, but there is still products exist at parent category.

...and you will find that these are now LINKED products. This is a standard EP feature and Langer TELLS YOU THAT IT WILL HAPPEN !

Before you re-assign a product to a category, you must DELETE it from its old category (v_status for that product = 9), then run EP again to upload that product data to NEW category (v_status is then = 1).

You will have to re-upload the product image to its relevant images folder. This is the downside of v_status = 9 .

New questions...

I want to install the latest EP, but see reference to various versions and dates - some references to v1.2.5.4 look like they were in 2006. And a link to the "latest and greatest" would be very helpful.

Also, I see reference to EP Advanced Version 3.0.3 for $65. What if anything is different than the basic version? I don't mind paying for something that is markedly improved, though I am familiar with Excel, CSV and SQL so I am not scared of something basic so long as it works.

Thanks!
(New to EP)

Is there a way to include "dual pricing/wholesale" fields in this mod?

Tx
Veronika

Hi, I tried to find an answer to this but havent had any luck. What I'm wondering is if its possible to add a column to Easy Populate that will automatically bullet a list of "product specs" when entered.

The problem im having is that when I go to add products from manufacturers' web sites, the formatting varies so much that its a huge pain to enter into Easy Populate...plus Easy Populate adds a bunch of code that screws up the formatting anyway.

I just want to be able to insert a plain list and have the output in the Zen Cart description be this same list but bulletted.

Can anyone tell me if this exists or an easy way to accomplish this? I would be so grateful!!

Thanks,

Dave

can i use EP to add attributes to multiple items?

I used zen cart admin to add option name/value and add attributes to 1 product. I then download the attribute file through EP. Add attributes to other items by entering "0" in corresponding columns. I then upload the attribute file through EP.

It does not work. Am I missing something?

My EP just quit. Can you over load this software. I have around 12,000 products on my store using EP and now I can't even download one of the basic start up files to use. Every time I do anything in EP, I get a "500 Internal Server Error". I know my server isn't full and my bandwidth is hardly being touched. Everything else in the ZC Admin works fine. Its just the Easy Populate has crashed. Is there a way to uninstall it or reinstall it.

Like I said, it was working fine before. It had the occasional time out here and there. But it seems to be toast right now.

Here is the error I get:
The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request.
The script had an error or it did not produce any output. If there was an error, you should be able to see it in the error log.

Where can I find this error log. Maybe that will shed a bit of light. There isn't anything in my temp folder.

Please help

Matt

Sounds more like a problem with the Hosting account than the script. You should contact your Hoster for more information as they may have a Server protocol that kicked in and stopped the script. Could be the script took the Server load too high but only your Hoster knows for sure. :wink:

How can I uninstall EP and reinstall it? Or would it be the same as replacing all the .php files?

I think I found my error log. What does this mean?

PHP Warning: explode() [<a href='function.explode'>function.explode</a>]: Empty delimiter. in /hermes/bosweb/web055/b556/**************/admin/includes/functions/extra_functions/easypopulate_functions.php on line 241

MattS - Firstly are you using langer's version 1.2.5.4 if not you should be !

I was using 1.2.5.4 until about 5 minutes ago when I switched to the osc version.

MattS - Basically if you read this thread it seems there are several versions floating around but the two to use are Langers Free Version (From Modhole) or EPA.

I would say your issues are to do with bugs in versions you are using, I have installed EP 1.2.5.4 several times not without issue, if it was me remove all EP and OSC-EP files and start again.