Easy Populate 1.2.5.4 support

Joseph M:

Is there a way ... to fix the damage I've done to my catalog?
Things were looking great before I used EP. Now I have duplicate entries, missing images, and altered product types.

Restoring your database, or part of it, from backup is likely your best choice.
Did you do a database-backup before you started importing changes to your data?
Did you happen to test the EP tools on a test copy of your site before touching your live site?
Remember ... all addons are use-at-your-own-risk. They are typically built for one person's unique needs, and then shared for public consumption as models for other approaches people may want to take for their own unique needs.

DrByte:

Restoring your database, or part of it, from backup is likely your best choice.
Did you do a database-backup before you started importing changes to your data?
Did you happen to test the EP tools on a test copy of your site before touching your live site?
Remember ... all addons are use-at-your-own-risk. They are typically built for one person's unique needs, and then shared for public consumption as models for other approaches people may want to take for their own unique needs.

I recall doing a backup not too long ago, but have no idea where to find it. I thought the file I downloaded from EP would be adequate (but was certainly wrong about that).
All I have is the live site, no test site.
After messing with the data some, I managed to mess things up much more (I even managed to mess up the categories :lamo:)
So today was throw my catalog in the trash and start over day... which doesn't make for an especially great day.

edwardtilbury:

Easy Populate uploads folder not found

Your uploads folder is either missing, has incorrect permissions, .

EP is looking for a /temp folder in the root of your ZC site on your server, not on your local drive. This should be at the same level as admin, includes, cache, media, etc.

Jeff

I'm a new Zen Cart user but not new to ecommerce packages.

I just installed Zen Cart and set up about 31 categories. When I look at the Category_Description table in MySQL, they're all there.

When I download the Category file using Easy Populate, I get a blank file with column headings. The column names are all different than what I see in MySQL - is this supposed to be this way? They are all 'v_categories_name_1' etc. but in MySQL it's 'category_name' etc.

Am I expecting the wrong thing? I was thinking that Easy Populate would download the 31 categories and associated subcategories in a list for me. I'm not getting any errors, the install went fine.

Please tell me how to successfully view my categories so I can get started with adding products...

I hope somebody can help me out...

I started building a website and after the cosmetic adjustments (and adding language package, image handler and easypopulate and moving the site one folder up) I decided to delete all test-products and add a few new ones with easypopulate.

For some reason (don't know why) this has gone wrong: the products show on the site as they should, but they are not present in the admin - catalog so I cannot reach them for editting or anything else.
I can buy them to get rid of the products, but then the categories of course will stay.

My questions are the following:
what can I do to remove the categories? They are not present via admin - catalog - categories/products. Is there another way?

And does somebody have any idea what can be wrong? The txt file I used for uploading looks good...

kanjigirl,

There is no need to create your categories first. Just create the file with the products you have. Enter the categories for each one and EP will create the categories if they do not exist.

The multiple columns .._1, .._2, etc allow you to put products in subcategories. So you could have Mens (_1), Shirts (_2), Short Sleeve (_3), etc.

The big thing to watch for is mispelling category names. Be careful of creating something like "Men", "MEN" & "Mens". If you do you will have to move everything around and delete the incorrect cats. I could be wrong, but I don't think EP has a means to remove a category.

Jeff

fsas

I can buy them to get rid of the products, but then the categories of course will stay.
I think you are not really getting rid of them, you are just not showing items with no inventory.

Unless someone can suggest something else, you could emtpy the files through your sql admin. Use with caution. Make sure you are emptying the correct files.

I have used EP for thousands of products and have never seen a product not show up somewhere. While it should not matter, did you try to close/logoff the admin and then go back and check?

Jeff G:

fsas

I think you are not really getting rid of them, you are just not showing items with no inventory.

Unless someone can suggest something else, you could emtpy the files through your sql admin. Use with caution. Make sure you are emptying the correct files.

I don't have any experience with the SQL admin... (I just started up everything and I am learning through experience).
I found an entry called categories-name and deleted the name. No idea if I did the corect thing... but: the categories are gone in the zen-cart. unfortunately, I still have the
-> (3)
but now without a category preceeding. Any idea how to get rid of this?
I don't quite trust the database anymore... is there a way to clear it entirely to make a fresh start?

Sorry for the many questions but I don't know what do do anymore. I can reinstall everything again (the shop is not live yet) but, apart from a lot of work, as long as I don't know what caused it. it may happen again on the new install...

I have used EP for thousands of products and have never seen a product not show up somewhere. While it should not matter, did you try to close/logoff the admin and then go back and check?
yes, I did....
The only thing I can think of, is that there was a language problem. I can switch between english and dutch (native) language in the admin, and there is one column in the txt file for which the entries are different for the two languages (v_tax_class_title: --none-- versus --geen--).
If I download a txt file, the language of the admin of that moment makes a difference.
I will test this in near future (it is already late at this part of the globe),

fsas,

As I am new to sql myself, I can not offer much help in the control panel. I just look at each file that pertains to products or categories and hit the browse button. Empty the file if it contains the info I'm looking for. You need to check carefully. Categories is made up of 2 files, same with products. Once again - double check everything.

Language settings might be a problem. You might want to search this thread. I think I read somewhere that EP has problems when language is set to non-english.

As far as a new install, I have done this MANY times while learning ZC. It isn't that complex and only takes a few minutes.

Hope this helps.

Jeff

Jeff G:

fsas,

As I am new to sql myself, I can not offer much help in the control panel. I just look at each file that pertains to products or categories and hit the browse button. Empty the file if it contains the info I'm looking for. You need to check carefully. Categories is made up of 2 files, same with products. Once again - double check everything.
I think I messed things up...

Jeff G:

Language settings might be a problem. You might want to search this thread. I think I read somewhere that EP has problems when language is set to non-english.
I found some stuff concerning this... I might have to go so far as to only choose the english language and settings (no dutch) and make the necessary translations myself.
Thanks for the tip!
As far as a new install, I have done this MANY times while learning ZC. It isn't that complex and only takes a few minutes.
There was a threshold for me there because I am very new in the field and was glad it worked in the first place... but it would be a good learning traject to install it more than once.

but first I need to convince EP that I want to have the "product quantity max" set to 1. Default (in ZEN) it is zet to 0 but I only have unique products in the sense that there is only 1 of each. This feature is not exported from existing products by EP so I don't know what to change. Sorry for asking so much, but do you know by any change how I can achieve this? Without this entry (product qty max = 1), using EP does not help me since after adding the products with EP I still have to edit all products afterwards to change this from 0 to 1 in ZEN)

thanks, Anjo

Anjo,

To set every product qty look at http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=103496 You will need to find the actual field name in the sql admin, then see the first reply with the solution for you. You just need to modify it to the field you need to change.

Jeff

Jeff G:

Anjo,

To set every product qty look at http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=103496 You will need to find the actual field name in the sql admin, then see the first reply with the solution for you. You just need to modify it to the field you need to change.

Jeff

thanks! I think that will do it (haven't tried yet: just got up this morning). I even found the field (at least I think so):
products_quantity_order_max

Just wat I was searching for!

(And I reinstalled the whole thing, as you suggested. )

thanks, Anjo

I've been using EP very happily. A great product.
However, I'm having a problem dealing with Date Added.

My uploading task is a daily or weekly job when inventory changes or when new products are added.

A small problem makes me not able to use one of the Zen Cart's default functions - New Products.

When I upload updated data using EP, when a product already exists, it clearly shows the result as 'Updated', but the Date Added gets reset to uploaded time.

So the product that had been in my catalog for a long time also becomes a new; hence, New Products function shows all my old and new items.

Has anyone got a way to resolve this issue? Any workarounds??

Steve,

Do you have the v_date_added column in your upload file? If yes, you need to have the original date in there. If no, you need to add it and put the original date there.

In EP around line 1955 is this code that will default an null/empty date to "today"```php
$v_date_added = zen_not_null($v_date_added) ? $v_date_added : CURRENT_TIMESTAMP; // if updating, but date added is null, we use today's date

Jeff

As far as a new install, I have done this MANY times while learning ZC. It isn't that complex and only takes a few minutes.

Jeff, may I ask how I can save the admin settings and restore them for a future installation?

As a relative newcomer to ZC/php/sql, but with many years of programming in other environments, I can only tell you the kinda brute force method I use.

I don't know enough sql to know if all backups look like mine, but this works for me. This is all done on your host outside of ZC.

1. Make a complete backup of your sql database when you have it in a known good state. Your host should provide a utility to do this. On my host, it creates a .sql file that when used to restore will delete the existing tables and replace it with the ones from the backup.

2. If you want the restore to not include something in the backup, like products or categories, remove the "insert" lines in a copy of this file.

3. Restore the backup.

Good luck,
Jeff

Jeff G:

As a relative newcomer to ZC/php/sql, but with many years of programming in other environments, I can only tell you the kinda brute force method I use.

I don't know enough sql to know if all backups look like mine, but this works for me. This is all done on your host outside of ZC.

1. Make a complete backup of your sql database when you have it in a known good state. Your host should provide a utility to do this. On my host, it creates a .sql file that when used to restore will delete the existing tables and replace it with the ones from the backup.

2. If you want the restore to not include something in the backup, like products or categories, remove the "insert" lines in a copy of this file.

3. Restore the backup.

Good luck,
Jeff

Hi Jeff

I managed to make a backup of both my database and all the files of the site; that is not the problem...
But part of the previous zen setup of my site were the settings in the admin, e.g. admin - configuration - layout settings etc. I reinstalled the whole thing, but ended up with all default settings... is there some file in the zen-package (I still have all teh files of the old installation) where these settings are stored? Or do I have to change these values manually again?

thanks for all your trouble helping me!

fsas:

Hi Jeff

I managed to make a backup of both my database and all the files of the site; that is not the problem...
But part of the previous zen setup of my site were the settings in the admin, e.g. admin - configuration - layout settings etc. I reinstalled the whole thing, but ended up with all default settings... is there some file in the zen-package (I still have all teh files of the old installation) where these settings are stored? Or do I have to change these values manually again?

thanks for all your trouble helping me!

Hi Jeff

It suddenly occurs to me :oops: ...the info I am looking for is not in one of the files, but in the database! I wrongly assumed different and therefor I thougth your anser wasn't going to solve things for me. But it did (that is: in future...) and I think I
do onderstand it now. However: I didn't make a backup of the old database because it was corrupt. That's why I reinstalled the whole thing...
So I will have to do it manuall and I will remeber to backup things as soon as I am done (while the database is still in order...)

thanks for your help and patience!

Jeff G:

Steve,

Do you have the v_date_added column in your upload file? If yes, you need to have the original date in there. If no, you need to add it and put the original date there.

In EP around line 1955 is this code that will default an null/empty date to "today"```php
$v_date_added = zen_not_null($v_date_added) ? $v_date_added : CURRENT_TIMESTAMP; // if updating, but date added is null, we use today's date

>  
> Jeff
 
Thank you Jeff for your prompt reply. 
The fact that it defaults to today is the problem I was having.
Can it be left null (so that Zen Cart's DB keeps whatever existing date added data) and not update as the items are updated?
 
I could've tried modifying the code before asking you, but would like to find out little further what would Zen Cart + EP's behavior like.
 
Thank you,
 
Steve.

You would have to find the code in the update section, probably around the area from above, and change it to not update if null.

Not sure of exact code (or location) or I would quote it.

I typically leave it open in an editor, change what I think it should be, upload, test, repeat. And repeat. And repeat. And repeat. :D until I get it right.