The Global Upload/Update feature is a fast way to bulk upload or update your items, via a tab delimited text file but you have to be very careful as it directly effects your database and can overwrite all that you have in there.
Warning: This process can completely modify your current product listing, so create a system back up first!
Attached is a sample file that can be used as a guideline for creating your upload file.
Below is a list of some guidelines and requirements, and possible reasons an upload/upgrade may fail
- The Date Field has to be filled in.
- There should not be a $ in your prices.
- Do not use any special characters in the item name/description/meta title, especially single quotes (')
- The file needs to be opened with Excel and saved as a tab delimited .txt file
- It is recommended that you load only a hundred or so items at one time if possible - possibly only one main category at a time - to decrease the possibility of error. That way, if you make a mistake, it is easy to delete products in that category and begin again.
- The "Catalog" field, which contains the catalog number or part number, is the row identifier. This means that if a product in your text file has the same catalog number as another item already in your database, that item will be updated. If there is no item already in the database with that catalog number, the product will be added.
- Choose whether you wish to update options for these products. Checking this box will create options for each product you upload that are exactly like the options that the default product has. For instance, if the default product has an option "Size", with choices "Small, Medium, Large", and a second option "Color", with choices "Red, Blue, Yellow", if you check this box, all items that you upload will also have these exact same options added.
Inventory
A field for inventory is not in the default headers, and not recommended to add via the global update feature, as it is kind of tricky because it counts the option inventory as well. The recommended option for entering your inventory is to use the new Inventory Update in the 'Products' area to modify counts. That will adjust option counts as well.
Updating items via Global Update
To use this feature to upgrade existing items they must have catalog numbers assigned to them. The trigger is the catalog number field - it must match to update. The updates will not work on items that do not have catalog numbers, or if more than one item shares the same catalog number.
Working with Subcategories
Using the category name in the upload sheet's Category 1,2,3,4,5 fields will only work for parent categories. If you have subcategories you'll need to do those a little differently. After your categories and subcategories are all set up go into Backup ( in storeadmin ) under "CSV Export" choose opc_categories and create a backup. This will tell you the ID number of each category/subcategory - you can then use the correct ID number ( instead of actual text name ) in the Category1, Category2,Category3, Category4, Category5 columns of your global upload sheet.
