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toolsup
#1 Posted : Monday, September 30, 2013 7:54:31 AM(UTC)
toolsup

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I noticed the categories are not part of the product export.
Is there a reason?
Can that be part of the import/export process?

Thanks Matt
Thanks Matt
Aaron
#2 Posted : Monday, September 30, 2013 9:59:47 AM(UTC)
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This was left out due to the complexity that it would introduce to users. If we were to include it in the product import/export it would probably be implemented as a single field containing a delimited list of category IDs (GUID bvin values). While this would probably be fine for power users, our feeling was that this would be too complicated/confusing for the average merchant. What do you think?
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toolsup
#3 Posted : Monday, September 30, 2013 5:14:10 PM(UTC)
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I think it's an important part of the product import. It would be a time saver assigning product to there categories in the import tool. It's much faster working with the products in a spreadsheet than doing in a browser. Particularly if you have multiple products I the same category.
And assigning the category id's isn't any different that asigning the manufacture id's.

Just my thoughts...
Thanks Matt
Aaron
#4 Posted : Monday, September 30, 2013 7:06:03 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: toolsup Go to Quoted Post
And assigning the category id's isn't any different that asigning the manufacture id's.

Good point.

Do you think it's important to be able to set the order of the products within the category via the import/export?
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toolsup
#5 Posted : Monday, September 30, 2013 7:33:21 PM(UTC)
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I don't see an advantage to setting the sort order in the product template. If there was a category import/export, it would be nice there.
Thanks Matt
MarcoM
#6 Posted : Sunday, October 6, 2013 9:17:34 AM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: toolsup Go to Quoted Post
I don't see an advantage to setting the sort order in the product template. If there was a category import/export, it would be nice there.


AGREE 100%! Category is VERY important to be in the Product import tool.
No use for setting the sort order. Leave as default.
MarcoM
Kyle
#7 Posted : Tuesday, October 15, 2013 8:06:01 AM(UTC)
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Any idea when this feature might be added? I used it all the time back when the import/export tool from Marcus worked. I was disappointed to find it had been removed. I was so excited to import my first group of new items last night only to find out that I have to go into each one individually and mark the category.

Thanks
Aaron
#8 Posted : Tuesday, October 15, 2013 12:01:50 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: Kyle Go to Quoted Post
Any idea when this feature might be added?

We'll see if we can get this in the next release. There's no timetable on that at this point, though.
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matt
#9 Posted : Tuesday, October 15, 2013 1:57:35 PM(UTC)
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We had a customized version of the BVC5 Import Tool that would allow us to map products to categories. This was helpful for mapping a single product to 100's of categories, if needed, in seconds. I've tried it on BVC2013 but it didn't work - although the Import Tool still works for products and categories, just not our custom version. Attached is the template we would use to map the products.
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SampleProductCategoryImport.xls (23kb) downloaded 8 time(s).

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Aaron
#10 Posted : Tuesday, October 15, 2013 2:33:17 PM(UTC)
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Thanks for sharing your import, Matt. I have a couple questions about it.

  1. Is the bvin value for the product? If so, why is there a SKU field? Just for easier reference?
  2. What is the significance of RootCategory vs. SubCategory1-5?
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matt
#11 Posted : Tuesday, October 15, 2013 2:42:46 PM(UTC)
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Aaron

The bvin is for the main or first (root) category. I'll use the bike shop as an example.

bvin: 189404f3-0768-4bbf-9420-ea37c457b0d7 (whatever the main / root category is).
RootCategory: BMX (name of the main / root category)
SubCategory1: BMX Pedals (first SubCategory under BMX)
SubCategory2: N/A
SubCategory3: N/A
SubCategory4: N/A
SubCategory5: N/A
SKU: ABC39 (product SKU - Diamondback Sound Pedal)

Obviously for the example I skipped SubCategory2-5 but depending of the SubCategory count these could be used.

Matt

Edited by user Tuesday, October 15, 2013 9:21:23 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Aaron
#12 Posted : Tuesday, October 15, 2013 3:08:06 PM(UTC)
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Sorry, Matt; I'm still confused. What would be the result of running this row of data through your importer? Which category or categories would the product be assigned to?
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jacobk
#13 Posted : Tuesday, October 15, 2013 5:00:39 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: Aaron Go to Quoted Post
This was left out due to the complexity that it would introduce to users. If we were to include it in the product import/export it would probably be implemented as a single field containing a delimited list of category IDs (GUID bvin values). While this would probably be fine for power users, our feeling was that this would be too complicated/confusing for the average merchant. What do you think?


I agree that having a field for specifying category bvins probably won't be very useful for most users. I ended up writing my own custom import scripts to migrate a catalog from another ecommerce database (using Catalog.Category.AddProduct() to add the products to the categories), so I haven't had a chance to use the new import/export tool much yet, but here are my thoughts:

I think the most user friendly way would be to have a column in the spreadsheet to specify categories using a delimiter, and using an additional character to specify hierarchy.

For example, the pipe character "|" could separate categories while the greater than sign ">" could show hierarchy.

It may be useful to assume that all categories specified are top-level categories unless hierarchy has been noted.

Example:

"Top Category A|Top Category B"

or

"Top Category A > Sub-Category 1|Top Category B > Sub-Category 2"

These would search categories based on the name, which could introduce some problems, but if there are two categories with the same name, we could just put the product in the first category found (or specify hierarchy if we need to be more specific).
matt
#14 Posted : Tuesday, October 15, 2013 9:25:50 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: Aaron Go to Quoted Post
Sorry, Matt; I'm still confused. What would be the result of running this row of data through your importer? Which category or categories would the product be assigned to?


It would assign the SKU to the last Subcategory in the row. In this case product ABC39 was assigned to BMX Pedals.

The idea of this was to assign products to specific vehicles where a product would fit multiple makes, models, years and engine sizes. The categories and subcategories have to exist in order for the import to work.
Aaron
#15 Posted : Wednesday, October 16, 2013 1:27:16 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: matt Go to Quoted Post
It would assign the SKU to the last Subcategory in the row. In this case product ABC39 was assigned to BMX Pedals.

Got it. This seems like an overly verbose way to assign category mappings. All you really need to assign the mapping is the product and category id (bvin). The problem, of course, is that the bvin value isn't particularly user-friendly. We could use the SKU and the category bvin; that would be concise and a little easier.

The other question is whether the category mapping should be part of the main product import/export or if it should be a separate import/export like with your approach. Depending on the size of the catalog putting it all together could pose a performance problem, but it probably makes the most sense to a user.
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Aaron
#16 Posted : Wednesday, October 16, 2013 1:36:59 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: jacobk Go to Quoted Post
Example:

"Top Category A|Top Category B"

or

"Top Category A > Sub-Category 1|Top Category B > Sub-Category 2"

This seems like a better approach than what Matt is doing because there's no limit to the category depth, and it also doesn't mix the root category bvin with sub-category names (i.e. it maintains a consistent use of category names).

That said, it still seems just as verbose. It's also very error-prone. One typo in any category name in the trail and it will fail. Also, if a merchant develops a data entry template and then changes a category name, it will break. These reasons make me reconsider the use of bvins. It's unlikely that someone would ever type a bvin but rather copy/paste them; this should reduce errors (once you get past the learning curve). Also, changing a category name will have no bearing since we're using the bvin.
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matt
#17 Posted : Wednesday, October 16, 2013 1:39:02 PM(UTC)
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This was used when the bvin was only 6 numerical characters - it has changed quite a bit.
matt
#18 Posted : Wednesday, October 16, 2013 1:46:18 PM(UTC)
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Originally Posted by: Aaron Go to Quoted Post
Originally Posted by: jacobk Go to Quoted Post
Example:

"Top Category A|Top Category B"

or

"Top Category A > Sub-Category 1|Top Category B > Sub-Category 2"

This seems like a better approach than what Matt is doing because there's no limit to the category depth, and it also doesn't mix the root category bvin with sub-category names (i.e. it maintains a consistent use of category names).

That said, it still seems just as verbose. It's also very error-prone. One typo in any category name in the trail and it will fail. Also, if a merchant develops a data entry template and then changes a category name, it will break. These reasons make me reconsider the use of bvins. It's unlikely that someone would ever type a bvin but rather copy/paste them; this should reduce errors (once you get past the learning curve). Also, changing a category name will have no bearing since we're using the bvin.


My issue was having categories with the same name. I had to list the bvin for the root (which would be something like "Car"). My last subcategory was the engine size or year (V6 or 2005). I had 100's of the same subcategory name.

Attached is an example I came across (with the old bvin).

File Attachment(s):
MC-Buell-PC-Import.xls (41kb) downloaded 3 time(s).

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Aaron
#19 Posted : Wednesday, October 16, 2013 2:13:58 PM(UTC)
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Buell! You're speaking my language, Matt. Where's the Ducati section? :)
Aaron Sherrick
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toolsup
#20 Posted : Tuesday, October 22, 2013 9:34:27 AM(UTC)
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I vote for keeping it part of the product import and using the "Un-User Friendly" bvin's
Thanks Matt
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