Export questions prior to initial import

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   Hi, my customer (a friend I've done work for for years) just purchased ProductCart last Friday.  The goal is to finally have a website he can move from host to host (if necessary) without having to start from scratch with the new host's online shopping cart product.
Since I have all of the content (entered or calculated) in a huge spreadsheet, my goal is to match up what I have with the ProductCart fields and import (starting with about ten to test with, then the main chunk).

So, I exported all product fields from the Demo website and I'm noticing some weird field mapping where I occasionally get some "wrap-around" fields.  I've tried using tabs, a bar ("|") and then a tilde ("~") as a field delimiter, but I keep getting the same result as seen below:

*Image shows while creating post, but not in the forum.  Here's the link instead: http://www.nwcraig.com/ProductCart/ExportWrappedFields.jpg *

Needless to say, the next step is to map the fields I have to the ones required for the ProductCart import and, theoretically, you should be able to import and export while keeping the data the same.  As part of this process, I've read in two different support documents about the fields but neither matches the headers from the export and there are some fields in the export that are not mentioned (like the first field: Product ID#).  Also, I tried entering "Product ID#" on your main search page but it only comes back with "Loading" - no results...

Is there a document somewhere that I haven't found that details all of the import/export fields with matching names?

Thanks,

Edited by NWClips Craig - 18-March-2015 at 9:09pm

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NWClips Craig Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 18-March-2015 Location: Vancouver, WA Status: Offline Points: 38	Post Options Post Reply Quote NWClips Craig Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Export questions prior to initial import Posted: 18-March-2015 at 9:06pm
	Hi, my customer (a friend I've done work for for years) just purchased ProductCart last Friday. The goal is to finally have a website he can move from host to host (if necessary) without having to start from scratch with the new host's online shopping cart product. Since I have all of the content (entered or calculated) in a huge spreadsheet, my goal is to match up what I have with the ProductCart fields and import (starting with about ten to test with, then the main chunk). So, I exported all product fields from the Demo website and I'm noticing some weird field mapping where I occasionally get some "wrap-around" fields. I've tried using tabs, a bar ("\|") and then a tilde ("~") as a field delimiter, but I keep getting the same result as seen below: *Image shows while creating post, but not in the forum. Here's the link instead: http://www.nwcraig.com/ProductCart/ExportWrappedFields.jpg * Needless to say, the next step is to map the fields I have to the ones required for the ProductCart import and, theoretically, you should be able to import and export while keeping the data the same. As part of this process, I've read in two different support documents about the fields but neither matches the headers from the export and there are some fields in the export that are not mentioned (like the first field: Product ID#). Also, I tried entering "Product ID#" on your main search page but it only comes back with "Loading" - no results... Is there a document somewhere that I haven't found that details all of the import/export fields with matching names? Thanks, Edited by NWClips Craig - 18-March-2015 at 9:09pm
	~ Craig B.

Greg Dinger Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 23-September-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 238	Post Options Post Reply Quote Greg Dinger Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 18-March-2015 at 9:22pm
	I see this occasionally. Last week we exported some data manually to a CSV, and it wrapped, making the file difficult to use. I have friend in your area (Port Ludlow) who specializes in Word macros. She assisted me with a macro that went in and fixed the CSV. What you are dealing with might not be an issue so much as problems with Excel. Contact me via my e-mail greg at greybearddesign dot com and I'll introduce you to Ellen. She can probably prepare something that resolves this that you use now and in the future.

NWClips Craig Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 18-March-2015 Location: Vancouver, WA Status: Offline Points: 38	Post Options Post Reply Quote NWClips Craig Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 18-March-2015 at 10:12pm
	Thanks for the reply and offer, I'll keep it in mind, but I haven't even tried importing/exporting with our data yet. The wrapping I'm seeing is coming from exporting the information on the PC Demo website. I think I'll try entering a few products using the PC online tool, then export that to see if there's an issue for us. I've done work before using some pretty good sized macros, so I'll keep that in mind if I need to manipulate the data more than expected. I just was a bit surprised to see that result.
	~ Craig B.

NWClips Craig Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 18-March-2015 Location: Vancouver, WA Status: Offline Points: 38	Post Options Post Reply Quote NWClips Craig Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 19-March-2015 at 12:07am
	After a little investigation, and using a Google search with ProductCart's website, I'm going to guess that the demo store has the Apparel add-on which we will not need and that is where the Product ID# is coming from (and, perhaps, some of the other fields that don't map). So, I will have to try my own I guess and go from there...
	~ Craig B.

NWClips Craig Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 18-March-2015 Location: Vancouver, WA Status: Offline Points: 38	Post Options Post Reply Quote NWClips Craig Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27-March-2015 at 12:18am
	New question - more curious than anything, why are the category descriptions and images exported with the products? That seems like a lot of repetitious overkill... Also, it appears that part of the problem mentioned in the first post above seems to occur with the CUSTOMHTML tag in the Product Layout area. I've tried to export one product about a dozen different ways without success. Once I can determine exactly how to format the custom HTML I'll try to import a product and see how that goes but, obviously, there shouldn't be any changes between what's exported and what's imported.
	~ Craig B.

NWClips Craig Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 18-March-2015 Location: Vancouver, WA Status: Offline Points: 38	Post Options Post Reply Quote NWClips Craig Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 31-March-2015 at 6:47am
	Ok, I've figured out what fields cause the export issue. All of the Long Category Descriptions. Even if you wipe out ALL of the HTML (from the Advanced tab), it will still cause the export to loop to a new line. If I select ALL of the fields except the "Categories Information" box, then everything exports correctly. If I only select the SKU and the "Categories Information" fields, then I get the wrap-around issue. Going cell by cell, it became apparent that every Long Category Description causes the problem. Unfortunately you can't select just the category field(s) that you need, it's all or nothing and I still don't understand why the category images and descriptions are exported with the products to begin with! Anyway, since I spent too much time on this, I figured I'd post my findings in case it helps someone else.
	~ Craig B.