Usergroup: Customer
Joined: Feb 05, 2008
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1 of 1 people found this post helpful Posted 03/03/08 - 08:55 PM:
#1
Hello,
Most of my business has to do with bulk updates of links and categories. I regret to admit that I do not understand the help KB at all, not to mention that I don't have this path in my AdminPC: Admin Panel -> Customizations -> Templates -> Admin CP Templates -> Import
I have Admin Panel -> Templates -> Manage Templates, but no Import templates to temper with.
In short, can someone help me to set up a category import template for flat files (per my specifications)?
Usergroup: Administrator
Joined: Dec 21, 2001
Location: Northern California
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Total Posts: 5539
Posted 03/04/08 - 06:44 PM:
#2
That was the path in older versions, now it's Admin -> Templates -> Manage Templates -> Admin CP Templates -> Import.
The flat-file database import, however, has nothing whatsoever to do with bulk updating items. Bulk updates are either done manually on the bulk edit pages or by submitting a feed instead of a link.
Usergroup: Customer
Joined: Feb 05, 2008
Total Topics: 8
Total Posts: 34
Posted 03/04/08 - 08:25 PM:
#3
Thanks for your reply, Paul.
How should I put it?... I still need your help very much. Apparently, I'm not skillful or intuitive enough to handle the design of import templates from flat file, for both categories and links, and I still cannot figure out what information I should enter on the Import form in order to make it work.
I will pay for your time in order to get the following:
1. A flat-file import template for categories. I'm sure that once I'll figure out the structure of the PHP file, I'll be able to add or subtract columns, change their order, and save different variations into different template files.
2. Same for links.
3. A step-by-step user instructions for the import process. For one reason or the other I didn't understand a thing of what should be done on the Import page.
Usergroup: Customer
Joined: Aug 19, 2005
Location: England
Total Topics: 258
Total Posts: 819
Posted 03/04/08 - 09:29 PM:
#4
shlomot wrote:
Most of my business has to do with bulk updates of links and categories. I regret to admit that I do not understand the help KB at all, not to mention that I don't have this path in my AdminPC: Admin Panel -> Customizations -> Templates -> Admin CP Templates -> Import.
The import table has nothing to do with bulk update, so I am confused as to what you actually want to do - update or import. Update is editing links/categories that are already in your database. Import is just that - importing new links/categories.
shlomot wrote: I'm not skillful or intuitive enough to handle the design of import templates from flat file, for both categories and links, and I still cannot figure out what information I should enter on the Import form in order to make it work.
I am confused as to what you are actually trying to do - simply import categories or change the import template. Perhaps if you could explain exactly what you are trying to do then we can help you :-)
If you are trying to simply import categories with name and description then there is no need to change the import table.
If you do not know how to fill in the default form.... I have used a .csv file to import, which I first made/edited in MS Excel. If you have simply two columns of data - name and description, with name is your first column you would enter 0 and description as your second column you would enter 1
Usergroup: Customer
Joined: Feb 05, 2008
Total Topics: 8
Total Posts: 34
Posted 03/04/08 - 10:36 PM:
#5
babrees wrote: The import table has nothing to do with bulk update, so I am confused as to what you actually want to do - update or import.
Thanks for trying to help out, babrees. I should be more careful with my words. I'm talking about importing links and categories only.
babrees wrote: I am confused as to what you are actually trying to do - simply import categories or change the import template. Perhaps if you could explain exactly what you are trying to do then we can help you :-)
Category import: I need to import my current ~3,500 categories (each celebrity has a category), and I expect to import another 17,000 categories within the next two years. These celebrity categories should be top categories on one hand but also second categories to an A-to-Z index. For each category, I need to import the following values:
Subcategory of (because some celebrities will have sub-categories such as blogs, galleries, music, etc.)
Secondary Categories (to associate with the correct A-to-Z category)
Name
Description
Header Insertion (for meta title, keywords, and description)
Link Import: The way we exchange links in the celebrities world is by importing thousands of links from .txt or .csv files that we exchange with our page-to-page link partners. Each file contains tens, hundreds, and even thousands of links.
The data in these exchanges consists of the following:
Category
Link Title
URL
Description
Reciprocal Link URL
Reciprocated With
E-Mail
Type of Link
Owner name or id#
General note: Both category and link imports will be based on output files from my backoffice database and applications. It is done so in order to maintain consistancy, trap errors, normalize data, and maintain synchronization between us and the databases of our partners.
Hence, I can set up the output (for the WSN import procedure) in any way that you'd recommend. It can be in a flat file format, XML feeds format, or any other format that you may recommend. In phpLD I output a SQL dump file. In the hosted Links Manager it is done with .csv file.
Thanks again for your helping hand for instucting me (probably in minute details for dummies) how to perform these procedures.
Usergroup: Customer
Joined: Aug 19, 2005
Location: England
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Posted 03/05/08 - 02:52 AM:
#8
Unfortunately I am really really busy this week. It's Crufts and I show dogs, so although I am always busy, this week is manic <G> sorry
If you go to admin > additions > import and select Flat-file Links Import you will see a question mark next to "To import from a flatfile database, customize the schema as desired and specify the data file." Click on that question mark and it opens the correct page you require from Paul's Knowledge Base. It tells you there exactly how to modify the template by locating a specific line and how to copy and change it to add extra fields to the form. You will need to add four of the fields you listed.
Usergroup: Customer
Joined: Feb 05, 2008
Total Topics: 8
Total Posts: 34
Posted 03/05/08 - 04:18 AM:
#9
Thanks, barbees, for your guidance. The same Import panel and KB article that didn't make sense to me before are much clearer to me now. I think that I can manage it from here on.
By the way, can you recommend a maximum number of rows in each batch that are safe from server timeout?
And last but not least - have a blust and numerous trophies at the show.
Print
Category import - Help needed
That's an awful lot of categories!