Mapping Fields How To

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   I am trying to import some categories and at the stage were we are to map fields...The directions given at wiki are not that clear as to what is meant buy this.. What is mapping? 
The following is the instructions on the admin page...
"Use the drop-down menus below to map existing fields in your Category database, located on the left side of the page under
	'From' to ProductCart database fields, which are located on the right side of the page under
	'To'."

'To' what?

As far as I can tell all of these fields exist in both the xsl file and the store database
so we entered in the same names
ex From: category Name To: category name
But we get a error when we 'Map Fields'
error---Some of the mapping instructions are overlapping. Please make sure that the database fields are mapped uniquely.

Whats up can someone explain this mapping step? 

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fire Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 29-December-2008 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote fire Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Mapping Fields How To Posted: 29-December-2008 at 7:28pm
	I am trying to import some categories and at the stage were we are to map fields...The directions given at wiki are not that clear as to what is meant buy this.. What is mapping? The following is the instructions on the admin page... "Use the drop-down menus below to map existing fields in your Category database, located on the left side of the page under 'From' to ProductCart database fields, which are located on the right side of the page under 'To'." 'To' what? As far as I can tell all of these fields exist in both the xsl file and the store database so we entered in the same names ex From: category Name To: category name But we get a error when we 'Map Fields' error---Some of the mapping instructions are overlapping. Please make sure that the database fields are mapped uniquely. Whats up can someone explain this mapping step?

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: 29-December-2008 at 7:37pm
	If you run the wizard, there will be dropdown boxes on the screen which allow you to associate spreadsheet column titles to database columns. In other words, if you have columns for SKU, Description and Price - you "map" those columns to the appropriate product table fields. Does that help?

fire Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 29-December-2008 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote fire Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 29-December-2008 at 7:44pm
	So if I have a column called 'category name' I map that name to 'category name'?

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: 29-December-2008 at 7:47pm
	yes, map the category name in the worksheet to category name in the category table.

fire Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 29-December-2008 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote fire Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 29-December-2008 at 7:48pm
	all of my names can match up to other names... I used the example excel file as a guide when I made my excel file

fire Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 29-December-2008 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote fire Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 29-December-2008 at 7:52pm
	Thanks. It works

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: 29-December-2008 at 8:04pm
	That's great. We're actually working on a project where we are instructing a client on how to do this. In that process, we may be developing some revised instructions which we'll share with EI for the wiki. Our hope is to make the instructions a bit easier, and that they will include some screenshots.

fire Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 29-December-2008 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote fire Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 29-December-2008 at 11:24pm
	Ya that would be great if there was better instructions with pictures. Question: How do you import products to the right subcatagories? What is the difference between the field called 'Category name' and 'Parent Category'. I thought that 'category name' was the category the products was to be found in. I tried to enter the products under the 'category name' but found that there was a bunch of new categories created instead of the products being under the sub-categories. Bit hard to explain I guess. ---Thought I would add this in hopes that it may help others... If you are having trouble importing into different levels but do have your categories in place...add a few products manually to the location up want then use the re-import (below import tool) tool to see the how the products are placed... This helped me a lot! Edited by fire - 30-December-2008 at 1:09pm

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: 30-December-2008 at 3:32am
	If you haven't done so, read the WIKI articles. If you have already done so, read them once more, slowly. Then take 2-3 products and experiment. Understand the limitations as to how may categories can be assigned to a product during the upload. Someone may correct me on this, but I believe it is useful to have your category structure in place before importing products so you have the subcategories to point to while importing products. Parent can be root, or it can be the category above a subcategory. It's actually fairly easy if you take a small sampling as I mention above and practice until you have it down. If you are working with a fresh databse, there is a procedure in the WIKI that allows you to purge all products - and there is also an "undo last import" procedure. This allows you to play around - loading and subsequently clearing product data until you are satisfied with the results. Just be patient, mess with it, and it eventually falls in place.