Thinking of Building an Import Tool for Suivant Mega Menu

[William Davis]

Bill,

I think you're missing the key here. Its not getting the data out of MM4 that is the issue. Your issue is that there is no automatic (i.e., import) feature for the ReadyTheme "nav" sets. You can either do it manually. Get someone handy with XML formats to build you a one time import, or wait until someone (like us) has a more store-owner based tool.

Actually, the problem is on both ends.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Bill,

I think you're missing the key here. Its not getting the data out of MM4 that is the issue. Your issue is that there is no automatic (i.e., import) feature for the ReadyTheme "nav" sets. You can either do it manually. Get someone handy with XML formats to build you a one time import, or wait until someone (like us) has a more store-owner based tool.

[William Davis]

Ah, well if that is the case...we are on it (to a degree...got several irons heating up). But yea, we've been doing "dynamic" menu builds (using our own Mega Menu) for a while precisely cause manually maintaining a Category Tree is, well, trying at best.

That being said, it will be hard to justify putting a lot of time into a finished module so this might be a rather crude tool.

So what am I to do for now? I thought Maybe I can use my old copy of StoreMan (but no longer works when I upgraded to Windows 8) to export the category data from MM4.24c, reformat as necessary and import it to Mv9 Levels ReadyTheme.

Wieland had a module "Category Import and Export of Flat Files" (#1AA00039, catsimpt.zip), that could possibly minimize this migration obstacle, but the module is no longer available -frustrating.

[William Davis]

The ability to build customized Navigation Sets with the ReadyTheme tools is awesome but currently you have to manually assign every link you want to include in the Navigation Set. Well let me rephrase that, for the Mega menu used in the Levels ReadyTheme you do. If you haven't played with this particular Navigation Set, give it a whirl. It's cool but extremely tedious if you have lots of links to include in the menu.

Percisely!

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Ah, well if that is the case...we are on it (to a degree...got several irons heating up). But yea, we've been doing "dynamic" menu builds (using our own Mega Menu) for a while precisely cause manually maintaining a Category Tree is, well, trying at best.

That being said, it will be hard to justify putting a lot of time into a finished module so this might be a rather crude tool.

[lesliekirk]

Maybe we are using different words here. What do you mean by 'Category Tree'? To me, the category tree is basically just the information stored in the Category database. If you export categories from MM4, you should be able to just import them into MM5 using Category Import.

The ability to build customized Navigation Sets with the ReadyTheme tools is awesome but currently you have to manually assign every link you want to include in the Navigation Set. Well let me rephrase that, for the Mega menu used in the Levels ReadyTheme you do. If you haven't played with this particular Navigation Set, give it a whirl. It's cool but extremely tedious if you have lots of links to include in the menu.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Maybe we are using different words here. What do you mean by 'Category Tree'? To me, the category tree is basically just the information stored in the Category database. If you export categories from MM4, you should be able to just import them into MM5 using Category Import.

[William Davis]

Its trivial to get categories out of mm4 and into mm5. Just use the standard export tools.

Loading those categories into the Navigation set of a ReadyTheme, is either currently a manual process or can be done via an XML file (http://www.miva.com/forums/forum/des...late-mega-menu).

However, there is nothing to directly get the info out of an MM4 site and into a Navigation Set. If we where to build a front end to the XML format, it would still require loading in the categories from MM4 to MM5, which again, can be done with the simple export and import tools in Merchant.

Bruce, could you please elaborate on your suggestion. MIVA were note able to successfully export category tree data from my production store MM4.24c, much less import it to Mv9.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Its trivial to get categories out of mm4 and into mm5. Just use the standard export tools.

Loading those categories into the Navigation set of a ReadyTheme, is either currently a manual process or can be done via an XML file (http://www.miva.com/forums/forum/des...late-mega-menu).

However, there is nothing to directly get the info out of an MM4 site and into a Navigation Set. If we where to build a front end to the XML format, it would still require loading in the categories from MM4 to MM5, which again, can be done with the simple export and import tools in Merchant.

[lesliekirk]

I agree, it's pretty tough.

[William Davis]

Bruce, I need to use my old copy of StoreMan to see if I can export my category tree data from my production MM4.24c store to Mv9 Levels ReadyTheme Mega Menu dev site, but its does not work on Windows 8.1, any suggestions? MIVA has no solution to transfer my (300) category tree other than manually entering each category data field one by one -Frustrating to put it mildly.

[William Davis]

Looks promising...should be able to build something that at least can be called from within the Admin to regenerate the list...didn't see a delete statement, so it might require rebuilding from scratch every time

[Ouote]
I had PM you earlier to possibly use StoreMan to export cat tree data from production site and using Excel to convert it to xml file, to then import it to Levels ReadyTheme mega menu.

Not sure PM'ing is working (at least for me) in the new forum. Haven't bothered to ask as the last five items I asked about still haven't been responded too. Best to always use support tools (inside the module/product if possible) or at least through the site if you want to be sure we see it.
[/QUOTE]

Can't request support from within product, as StoreMan is currently not working, so I just sent you a message through your web site.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Good idea, I need to import my cat tree data from my production MM4.24c store to Levels ReadyTheme mega menu. Brennan posted a possible suggestion here. But I have not been able to export the data from my store.

Looks promising...should be able to build something that at least can be called from within the Admin to regenerate the list...didn't see a delete statement, so it might require rebuilding from scratch every time

[Ouote]
I had PM you earlier to possibly use StoreMan to export cat tree data from production site and using Excel to convert it to xml file, to then import it to Levels ReadyTheme mega menu.
[/Quote]

Not sure PM'ing is working (at least for me) in the new forum. Haven't bothered to ask as the last five items I asked about still haven't been responded too. Best to always use support tools (inside the module/product if possible) or at least through the site if you want to be sure we see it.

[William Davis]

Good idea, I need to import my cat tree data from my production MM4.24c store to Levels ReadyTheme mega menu. Brennan posted a possible suggestion here. But I have not been able to export the data from my store.

I had PM you earlier to possibly use StoreMan to export cat tree data from production site and using Excel to convert it to xml file, to then import it to Levels ReadyTheme mega menu.

I ideally the solution would be to not only be able to import/export category tree data, but to dynamically update menu each time a category is; added, edited, and/or deleted -similarly to Viking Coder's Category Page Templates worked.

Please let get back to me as soon as possible, I have about 300 categories I need to import.

Update:

I forgot to mention, in my PM I also mentioned that I was not able to install StoreMan on my Windows 8.1 PC, I tried installing it as Administrator and using Windows Program Compatibility Troubleshooter, but it did not work. It installs everything but exe file, and I have both the original and the update version of StoreMan.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

So, i assume:

U = URL
C = Category
G = Page
N = none


What is a product page's code?