Resolved Identical category names, different higher level category names

Hello,
Please post the import debug log and sample of import file to check. To get the debug log see How to collect debug information? document.

Here is the log file.

Hello,
Thank you for the debug log. Can you tell us one example category to look at? I see categories are updated in the debug log. Also send us sample of import file to check.

I add 2 import files. First: 01 Gevelstenen en Huisnamen Almenseweg.xls, second: 01 Boerderijnamen Almenseweg.xls
The duplication is in the category_path: both Almenseweg (for VM: articles), the difference the product_parent_sku (for VM: categories)

Hello,
Thank you for the files. I still don't understand the problem here.

I have identical category names be it in different higher level categories.

You said category is in different levels but in both of import XLS files category_path Almenseweg is only one level.

Now I noticed that I cannot update such category. Importing via an Excel file shows no errors, however it does not appear in Virtuemart. Just gone.

What is gone after import? Can you post screenshots to understand the issue? I first imported file 01 Gevelstenen en Huisnamen Almenseweg.xls and see 5 products added. I did another round of import using file 01 Boerderijnamen Almenseweg.xls and see 18 products added. There is no problem I see with all these products added. Let me know if I am missing something.

Gradually my explanations becomes clearer.
The reason you did not see a problem was a (temprorarily fix) by renaming one category name from Almenseweg into Almenseweg. (so a full stop (dot) was added).
As next step in the investigation I removed in the related Excel import file from one Article in the category_path the full stop. Importing again moves this Article now to the other category with the same name, ignoring the difference in product_parent_sku!

Hello,

Almenseweg into Almenseweg.

These two categories are not the same. When you import with a dot RO CSVI looks for this as a new category and if it does not exists it adds it as a new category and links the product to this new category.

As next step in the investigation I removed in the related Excel import file from one Article in the category_path the full stop. Importing again moves this Article now to the other category with the same name, ignoring the difference in product_parent_sku!

When we check for category_path we do not look for product_parent_sku field. RO CSVI on import checks if category exists with the given name if not creates a new category or adds product to existing category. This behaviour has not changed in years.

So far it went without a problem on our Historical Society website. It happens rather often, as the category-path concerns Streets and the product_parent_sku the Field of interest types: Farmer houses, Photo's etc.
This is the first time I notice this problem.
Give you 2 examples where there is no problem related to the Street called: Het Hoge
For Farmer houses: https://www.oudvorden.nl/boerderijen/straatnaam-boerderijnaam/het-hoge-15
For Photo's: https://www.oudvorden.nl/beeld/foto-s/dorp-zuid-15/het-hoge-16

Hello,

I have identical category names be it in different higher level categories.

Can you give me a concrete example? In the 2 example files I see no distinction. What do you expect to see in VirtueMart and what are you seeing?

As Tharuna said, the product_parent_sku is not used to construct the category path, that is what the category_path field is for. Only exception here is if you have setup a combine rule to combines them both to for example BOERDERIJNAMEN/Almenseweg.

The import fails.

What exactly fails? Can you limit this to 1 or 2 products so we can see what is happening with those?

So far it went without a problem on our Historical Society website. It happens rather often, as the category-path concerns Streets and the product_parent_sku the Field of interest types: Farmer houses, Photo's etc.

Looking at this I am thinking some things are mixed up here. It is not a matter of the category path but rather of the parent and child products. Since all your houses have a product_parent_sku they are considered a child product. This would result in a top level category named Almenseeweg which has 1 parent product with the SKU BOERDERIJNAMEN and linked to that all the child products from the example file you posted.

Looking at the debug log you posted, RO CSVI is looking for a product with SKU GEVELSTENEN but does not find one. So the building Almenseweg 2 (SKU: G000065) is not linked to this parent product. However there is a category path Almenseweg specified in the import file and that is found, so the building is linked to this category.

I am going to need some more background information to fully understand what you are trying to achieve with the import and so we can help.

What I try to accomplish is:
1. Farmhouses, located at the street Almenseweg, to be found under Boerderijen/Straatnaam-Boerderijnaam/Almenseweg with the Excel import file 01 Boerderijnamen Almenseweg.xls
2. Gevelstenen, located in houses at the Street Almenseweg, to be found under Gevelstenen/Almenseweg (so without .) with the Excel import file 01 Gevelstenen en Huisnamen Almenseweg.xls

Hello,

I think a light bulb just went on Somehow it did not register with me that both those files have the same category path of Almenseweg. Anyway, RO CSVI cannot use a single category name to determine which category you mean.

If you have these 2 category paths you would like:
- Boerderijen/Straatnaam-Boerderijnaam/Almenseweg
- Gevelstenen/Almenseweg

There is no way that RO CSVI knows if Almenseweg is the first one or the last one you want. That is why the field is called the category_path as it needs the full path to what you want.

As I mentioned before, with the combine rule in RO CSVI you can combine the product_parent_sku field and the category_path field into 1 field so that category_path will read as Gevelstenen/Almenseweg. If you have this category_path, then RO CSVI will know you want to link the products to the second of the above paths. Since these values seem to be fixed, there is an easier way as well and that is to just prefix the category_path with the parent categories. You would need a different import template for each type of import then.

Since I am not sure if these example XLS files are representative of what you need to import, would it not be easier to just specify the correct full category_path in the import file?

Are you using parent/child products?

No, I don't use parent/child products. That might be an option, I have no experience.
Your proposal about the extended category_path works basically. In our situation the category_path is shown as the VM Category. Hence I had to rename the categories Boerderijnamen/Almenseweg into Almenseweg and Gevelstenen/Almenseweg into Almenseweg.
For me there is still a question mark why the examples of
For Farmer houses: https://www.oudvorden.nl/boerderijen/straatnaam-boerderijnaam/het-hoge-15
For Photo's: https://www.oudvorden.nl/beeld/foto-s/dorp-zuid-15/het-hoge-16
do not cause this problem. Anyhow in this case, I have a solution.