Import Product Description for Virtuemart #9178

Hello kim,

Is there an any way to import product descriptions into Virtuemart? Both long and short would be great.

You need to use product_desc and product_s_desc fields to import long and short descriptions.

I'm not sure weather I need to use a seperate template for this or can I add to my current one which is...
product_sku : product_name : manufacturer_name : product_price : category_name : category_path : published : product_in_stock : shopper_group_name

If I need a new template then where can I find one?

You don't need a new template, you can use your descriptions fields in current import template like below provided that you are using VirtueMart product import template.

product_sku : product_name : manufacturer_name : product_price : category_name : category_path : published : product_in_stock : shopper_group_name :product_desc:product_s_desc

Hello Kim,

It worked a treat! Thanks very much, saved me a few headaches. :)

Happy to hear that it worked :)

I take it you can't use commas in the description as it throws out the CSV. ...a minor detail.
Any way around that you know of?

You can use text enclosure around your content in your import file or use HTML symbol for comma in your description which would be

,

I also meant to ask, is there a similar process to export the same CSV structure?
All I can find on the support pages are 'Advanced custom table export' and 'Creating own HTML export file'.

Have a look at VirtueMart product export document to know on how to export the product details.

Hello Kim,

In addition to what Tharuna has said, if you use the text enclosure and field delimiter, you can use whatever characters you want. The default are comma as a field separator and double quotes as text enclosure, these are fine to use and there is no real reason to deviate from that.

Hello Kim,
To import multiple product prices and shopper groups use VirtueMart price import template instead of VirtueMart Product import. You can use the same file for both the imports but make sure that you add only the needed fields for the corresponding import templates.

Hello Kim,
Which export type did you use? Can you post the debug log of your export to check?

Hello Kim,

Have a look at the Use of Group by and Sort by fields to manage your output of only one line.

If your product has 3 different prices, there will be 3 different lines. That is because they are simply different. The price is different but probably quantities are different as well.

It is not possible to get the multiple prices on one line because there are a number of fields that determine the price, that is also why they are exported as individual lines.

Hello Kim,
In the screenshots you attached, Shoppers List Sample Pic.jpg is not clear to see the contents in it. You did not mention any details of your import, Which import you are using? Can you post your import debug log and sample import file to check? To get the debug log check How to get debug information? document.

Hello kim,

The Product Info Import template, which I've made, uses the CSVIpro fields.
Does not load the Guest Shopper Group price. Everything else does. This template was working fine, now it doesn't

Can you also attach the debug log of this import to check?

The Shoppers Info import template, which I've also made, uses the CSVIpro fields (also see Shopper Import Test.csv attatched).
This is the first time I've used it.
Does not load passwords, phone numbers or any address info.
Also will not load any info for a Wholesaler (only loads Default Shopper Group)
This list has roughy 2500 entries but will only load about 250. (not the first 250 either).

Are you sure that CSVI imports only Default shopper group and not Wholesaler? Because there is an error in the debug log which says "Shopper group name Default Shopper Group not found" and shows user has been imported but not linked to any shopper group. With Wholesale shopper group, user has been imported and linked to shopper group too.

Hello Kim,

The Product Info Import template:
I've attached the CSV file in case you need to see it. The real file has about 600 products with 3 prices each.

From the file i can see that you have multiple rows with different prices for one product and for different shopper groups. If you have used VirtueMart Product import template then same product will be updated for price. So to import multiple prices for a product you need to use VirtueMart Price import instead of VirtueMart Product import. Debug log would have given us more information on what has happened during import.

It says 'No debug log found' after import.

Take a look at How to get debug information? document to get the debug log.

I tried the import of the sample again and this time it worked, showing the Default Shopper and the Wholesaler. However, If I try the real file (with 2500 shoppers) I get an Error 500 message.
I've split that file into lots of 200 shoppers (only imported 2 so far)

You don't need to do that. You can set the Number of lines to import in each batch to 200 in your import template and on Limit tab. You can check Manage Timeout document to check on setting this lines per import.

it seems to import them but lists all the shoppers as Default (whether they are a Default or Wholesaler). It also doesn't import their phone numbers or addresses consistently (sometime it does and some times it doesn't). Neither the sample or real file of 200 shopper brings in their passwords. I've attached the debugs for the 2 x 200 shopper files (77 & 78).

Yes with your debug log i can see details of few users have been imported and most of them are not. Can you send me the import file named Members list 1.csv to check?

Hello Kim,
Please send the import file as requested. I will run the import the file on my local server and check.

Hello Kim,
Do you have Wholesalers user group created from Users >> Groups page? That is the reason your users are not imported. Can you confirm you have this user group created?

Hello Kim,

Yes, I have a Wholesalers user group in Joomla.
In Joomla Users there are 2 groups, Wholesalers and Registered.
In Virtuemart they correspond to Wholesale and Default Shoppers (COM_VIRTUEMART_SHOPPERGROUP_DEFAULT). I had to change Default Shopper Group to COM_VIRTUEMART_SHOPPERGROUP_DEFAULT in the csv file so the tag in Virtuemart would show.
All the shoppers have imported just not all the info.
The weird thing is that the template imports address info into some and not others, (Wholesale or Default Shoppers). It seems random, though none of them have the phone numbers or passwords imported.

I tried importing your file on my local server and could see all users imported. Can you send me a private message of your site administrator login details? I will take a look at your site.

I've split the shopper list for import into 13 seperate files (200 each) as the full 2500 file will not import (500 error message).
I actually only need to do this once as an initial import (transferring info from old site to new Joomla site) as shoppers will register individually after that on the new site.

Did you try batch import as explained in Manage timeout document? I sent link to this document in my previous post. Didn't that work for you?

Hello Kim,

I've sent you login details via your contact page.

Will take a look at your site and give an update on what i find.

Yes, I tried the batch import but that didn't work either. Hopefully you can find the gremlin. :)

2500 lines to import is not a huge one but since that is not working for you, you can try setting your import as a cron job and see how it goes.

Hello Kim,
I had a look at your site and could see the all Joomla users created but i am not able to check the VirtueMart shopper groups as i don't have access to that page. Is it possible that i get access to that page?

Also for batch imports, I wanted to know what was the limit you had set in Lines per import on Limit tab? Did you try setting it to 100 or 50 and you see the same 500 error?

Hello Kim,
I picked few random users from your import file, checked address details at VirtueMart shoppers page and see the address details added. Can you give emails of few users for whom address and phone numbers are not added? That will help me to track the issue.

Hello Kim,
Also i wanted to tell you that address and phone numbers of few users are not there in your import file. I am talking about Members list 1.csv file which you sent us earlier. I hope you are not talking about those users.

Hello Kim,

Seems your right about the addresses (my apologies), it's phone numbers and passwords that aren't loading.
This is for both Default Shopper Group and Wholesale.

Passwords are added for all users you are just not seeing them. That is not an issue because by default password fields don't show the value in the fields.

On the file Members list 1.csv (a few examples)
anthony.cowie@gmail.com: Imported Address but not Phone (file contains only 1 ph. number)
antony@rsq.com.au: Imported Address but not Phone (file contains only 1 ph. number)
ajm@audaxlegal.com: Imported Address but not Phone (file contains 2 ph. numbers)

On the file Members list 3.csv (attached)
dalli@iprimus.com.au: Imported Address but not Country, State or Phone (file contains only 1 ph. number)
This could just be a one off though.

I found a strange issue on your site. I wanted to check if user details were added in your site database so i created a CSVI custom table export template on your server and exported all the users details saved. To my surprise i see that each user has been duplicated several times in the database and the first record of these users don't have phone numbers added. This first record is the one selected by default and shown in VirtueMart Shoppers page. That explains why you don't see phone numbers for these users. I need to find out why you have so many duplicates in your database. Can you send me a private message of your database access details? I will clean the table and run the import again to see how these duplicates happens.

Hello Kim,
Have sent a reply to your email with screenshot of issues i see in your VirtueMart userinfo table. Take a look and let me know.

Hello Kim,

Currently we are using category_path rather than just category_name. e.g: Scotland/Speyside
So should I add the second category as a path also? e.g: Scotland/Speyside|Scotland/Old & Rare

Yes thats right, in category_path field you can add your second category as a path separated by |.

And once the file is uploaded and 2nd category is in do I still leave the template as Append Categories : Yes?

If you have no more categories to add then you can set Append categories to No.

Hello Kim,
Can you please post us your latest debug log and sample import file to check?

Hello Kim,

BTW, should a '0' mean unpublished and a '1' mean published?

Thats correct. 0 is for unpublished and 1 is for published.

Any clues?

published field in your file is empty. if you need to unpublished set this field value to 0 or no or N or n and then try the import. If you still have any problem post the import debug log to check.

Hello Kim,
Would like to see what is going on with your import along with your debug log issue. Can you post the template XML file to check? To get your template XML file, in RO CSVI maintenance menu select CSVI Pro on first option, backup templates on second option, select your import template and download the XML file. Post the XML file.

Hello Kim,
The debug log posted is empty so there is nothing i could check. Can you run the import and post the debug log of that latest import? Also if possible send the template XML file as requested in my previous reply.

Hello Kim,

I attached the XML following your instructions ...it must not have attached properly. So here it is again attached. (com_csvi.log.211.zip)

That was not XML file but again an incomplete debug log. Please try to post template XML again or you can mail it to tharuna@rolandd.com.

BTW, there was no CSVI Pro in the first choice, only RO CSVI ...so I used that one.

Thats correct. It is RO CSVI and not CSVI Pro.

The debug file is com_csvi.log.215.zip

Debug log shows that first product has been set to unpublished and last two products are set to published. Where do you have value of the published field set? Can you post the latest import file too? You can mail it to me at the above given email if you have difficulty in posting it here.