Product Import - Update Product Category Assignments

[jmizrahi]

Re: Product Import - Update Product Category Assignments

Is there a "revised" projected target date for V9? It seem to me that it is a "bug" rather than an enhancement.

[Rick Wilson]

Re: Product Import - Update Product Category Assignments

V9 is our next release, so there won't be any bug fix or releases otherwise between now and then, unless something completely unexpected and severe happens (to push out a V8 update right now would be near impossible).

We don't do dates since we're so far off on them usually, but knowing it's our next update that means reasonably soon. We're aiming at late Q2.

[jmizrahi]

Re: Product Import - Update Product Category Assignments

Rick, with all due respect, unless I am reading the date on your post incorrectly, it has been 16 months and 5 updates since Burch's post "Update 7 to be the last update to PR8. " "Miva Merchant 5.5 PR8 Updates 11 & 12 are available now." I am sure that you can make something happen quicker. Please help, sooner!!!
Thanks,
Jack


10-06-12 10:17 AM #6

Rick Wilson
Master Mivite Array


Join DateAug 2007Posts7,187


Re: Product Import - Update Product Category Assignments

We don't provide dates for that as we're always wrong.

10-05-12 01:06 PM #4
burch
Administrator Array


Join DateMar 2009Posts489


Re: Product Import - Update Product Category Assignments

PR9 is the most likely candidate. It will certainly not make PR8 Update 7, as we are in the final stages of our release process already. We expect to start working on PR9 shortly after the release of PR8 Update 7, and for PR8 Update 7 to be the last update to PR8.

[Rick Wilson]

Re: Product Import - Update Product Category Assignments

Jack,

There won't be another release barring a major failure of some system (say Auth.net needing to be recoded) or a security issue. At this point we had to draw a line, and as you pointed out it took us 5 updates to actually stop putting out releases.

There may be a way via our XML import to solve your problem pre V9, but we're definitely not putting out a patch for this issue broadly before V9.

[jmizrahi]

Re: Product Import - Update Product Category Assignments

Rick,
I apologize for being so persistent and would greatly appreciate an interim solution - if there is a way via an XML import. Thank you for your prompt replies to my posts.
Regards,
Jack

[Brennan]

Re: Product Import - Update Product Category Assignments

Hey Jack -

When you update your products do you update all your products or just some? Here is my thought for a temporary work around until we get this fixed.

We have the ability in our XML provisioning system to remove a product from a category. We could create you a page which goes though all your products and and generates the XML to unassign them form all categories. You could then import that XML file and right after your CSV file to re-assign to the correct categories.

This would only work if the file you import contains all products and all category assignments.

[jmizrahi]

Re: Product Import - Update Product Category Assignments

Brennan,
We typically filter products within a given vendor category. We unassign each product that has been discontinued (approx 10 to 250 per vendor) from its primary vendor category, as well as any other classification categories that they may be assigned to, and reassign each product to a single vendor archive category for each vendor. We have over 100 categories and 20,000 products. We need to be able to import a small group of products at a time which would all be assigned to the same category for the respective import.

Please call me at 904-262-6001 and I can explain it better, as well as better understand the solution you are proposing.
Thank you,
Jack

[lesliekirk]

Re: Product Import - Update Product Category Assignments

So...there is still no way to mass unassign products from categories? I have a couple thousand products that need to be removed from categories and assigned to one new category but I'm thinking the products will still remain in the other categories?

Leslie

[Brennan]

Re: Product Import - Update Product Category Assignments

Hey Leslie -

We ended up writing a page template which outputs the XML to unassign a product from a category. Here is the XML tag you would need:

<CategoryProduct_Unassign category_code="cat_code" product_code="prod_code" />

[lesliekirk]

Re: Product Import - Update Product Category Assignments

Hey Leslie -

We ended up writing a page template which outputs the XML to unassign a product from a category. Here is the XML tag you would need:

<CategoryProduct_Unassign category_code="cat_code" product_code="prod_code" />

LOL - thanks Brennan but the last time I tried using something like this it took support weeks to fix what I broke.

[ocpxc02]

Just circling back on this one to see if the feature was added. I'm really looking to move away from our current process and potentially take advantage of the scheduled import functionality.

Thanks,
Paul

[burch]

We added an option to the Product Import module that should cover your issue in v9.0000:

Categories: Append To Existing Categories, Replace Existing Categories Except When Field Is Empty, or Replace Existing Categories Including When Field Is Empty

You should be able to find the controls in the import settings.

[ocpxc02]

We added an option to the Product Import module that should cover your issue in v9.0000:

Categories: Append To Existing Categories, Replace Existing Categories Except When Field Is Empty, or Replace Existing Categories Including When Field Is Empty

You should be able to find the controls in the import settings.

Awesome! I'll give it a whirl. Thanks, Paul

[ocpxc02]

One more question. How will the flat file import handle permitted shipping methods? Right now, I do this separately via an XML import, but it would be simpler if I could just include it in this flat file feed.

[rguisewite]

Hey Paul,

Including the shipping rules into the product import is pretty straightforward. Posting an example of how it would be done below. Another option you could do (this is just in case you wanted to mess around with what fields are available for importing, etc) is go to Data Management > Import/Export and click the "Export Products to Flat File" button. There, you can select all the fields and data you want to export, then export however many of your products you want (make sure you have the export format set to "Product Import") and when you view the file, it will give you an example, using your own data, as to how the product import module will read it back.

Anyway, here is the example of a generic import (I filtered out a lot of the product fields just so it is easier to read):

PRODUCT_CODE,PRODUCT_NAME,SHIPPING_WIDTH,SHIPPING_LENGTH,SHIPPING_HEIGHT,SEPARATE_PACKAGE,LIMIT_SHIPPING_METHODS,SHIPPING_METHODS
my_product_code,my_product_name,10,5,12,1,1,"flatrate:shippingmethod_1,minunit:minunit_1"

If you didn't care about the shipping package dimensions (ie, you're just interested in the permitted shipping methods), you'd just remove them, like so:

PRODUCT_CODE,PRODUCT_NAME,LIMIT_SHIPPING_METHODS,SHIPPING_METHODS
my_product_code,my_product_name,1,"flatrate:shippingmethod_1,minunit:minunit_1"

where "flatrate" is the module code ":" is the separator between module code and method code, and "shippingmethod_1" is the method code. This can be a comma separated list of all the [module_code]:[method_code] formatted permitted shipping methods for the product.

Let me know if anything above isn't quite clear or the exact info you were looking for is absent :)

Ryan