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I figured I’d chime in on the topic, and maybe help some people out who are going through the same issues, and ask some questions while I’m at it!
I’m currently migrating a CRE Loaded (osCommerce) store with over 22,000 items - all with pictures, and manufacturers associated with them. All of these items were entered in manually over the course of about 2 years with the help of one full-time person and about 3 other people when we “had time” (yeah right!).
First, I exported all my products using Easy Populate that was included with CRE Loaded. Then, imported that text file into FileMaker Pro to edit and clean up the files. Excel can’t handle a “cell” with over so many characters, and often my descriptions go way above the limit, so I’m left with a bunch of descriptions that read and export as “#####.”
I uploaded one product to my Magento installation, then exported it. I imported that csv file into FileMaker Pro.
Then using my magento.csv file, I imported my edited CRE Loaded database, used FileMaker’s import tools to align the old tables with the new ones, and volia! I’ve got a nice file to import into Magento. Or so you would think....
For some reason, I had to export the file as an Excel XML file before I could get ANYWHERE at all. I don’t know why. I’m just satisfied I got something to work.
I split the file up by manufacturers, so the import would actually work. The problem with 22,000 items means I have about 1,000+ categories. Until the powers that be make the Category system more user friendly, I have to manually create the categories, and add the products. This is very undesirable, as we have over 100 manufactures.
Once imported, I had the same problem as everyone else. The products didn’t show up until they were opened from the backend and then saved again. I did however figure out that all you have to do is…
1) go to products > manage products
2) click “select all”
3) next to “Actions” pull down the box and select “Change Status”
4) pull down the new box that pops up, select “Enable”
5) click “Submit”
That’s it! It takes care of all your products, so for those if you in my situation with tons of products, it’s a huge time saver.
Next, I created the Category and was able to mass assign the imported products to that category. Wohooo I’m lovin this stuff.
Ok, so here’s my problems. Images don’t work! I zipped all the images from CRE Loaded, dropped them in the /media/import folder in magento and made sure that i had /image.jpg for all three images in my XML file. I learned this was how to get images to work from Anna’s post (http://www.magentocommerce.com/boards/viewthread/7018/). Anyone else find this dosen’t work for them? When I click on the products that have been imported through the product manager, then click “Images” I find that there are no images assigned. For some reason the Import is ignoring my instructions.. *grrrr*
Next thing I have issue with is Manufacturers. From what I understand I’m going to have to insert my manufacturers manually, then import the products. Talk about nightmare! I’ll need a serious supply of Starbucks and about 36 hours to get this done. I know it’s possible, but it somehow doesn’t seem worth it. Manufacturers is a pretty important deal to retailers.. I’m surprised its not an easier feature to deal with. Maybe in the next release… unless anyone has figured out a workaround.
So I’ve sort of halted my imports until I can get the issues I have fixed. It seems I may be putting in maaaaaany hours to get things up and going, and I’d rather just do it once! Any input on my issues are much appreciated!!
For now, I’m stuck with the unreliable, customers-get-pissed-off-and-call-freaking-out CRE Loaded!
Thanks!
Mark
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