12/1 - AbleCommerce Data Client Utility 7.0

[Naveed]

Yes, you can use the top menus to use data port. or can use home screen navigation links as well.

I am not sure but you can try to run the DataPort using the compatibility mode for windows XP. Please let me know if it works.

[Naveed]

Is there any possibility that you will include better support for variants in the CSV export? I ask because at the moment, you export products in CSV, but not a line per variant.

Where this would be useful is inventory management - a client could download a csv file with one line for each varaint, update the inventory level for that variant in Excel and then reupload the csv file.

CSV import and export have its limitations, you can export / import the basic product data only when using CSV options. However I can recommend you a good free xml editing tool, that you can use to edit product variants in xml. The tool shows the Selected XML nodes in tabular format so, when you will select Product->Varients node all the variants will be shown in tabular format. And you can edit those easily.

You can download this XMLMarker tool from:
http://xmlmarker.com/
or
http://symbolclick.com/download.htm

[eggheaddesign]

CSV import and export have its limitations, you can export / import the basic product data only when using CSV options. However I can recommend you a good free xml editing tool, that you can use to edit product variants in xml. The tool shows the Selected XML nodes in tabular format so, when you will select Product->Varients node all the variants will be shown in tabular format. And you can edit those easily.

Whilst I appreciate the answer, it misses the point somewhat. The data import utility has two uses: initial store setup and ongoing inventory management.

It's the last one where stronger CSV import is needed and the reason I say this is that for many companies, they will have some offline tool such as a stock management system or an accounting system to manage the stock. This type off software does not export hierarchical XML (remember, stock management systems do not understand variants, they are all distinct SKUs as far as they are concerned), but it does export CSV. Expecting a customer who can get an inventory list in CSV format for his 5000 product lines out of his stock management solution and then expecting him/her to manually enter data into an XML editor once a day is just not sensible.

If however your CSV export produced one line per variant, it would be a trivial matter of cut and paste in Excel and nobody would complain about it.

All the Best

Tony

[Naveed]

Hi Tony,

Regarding your product variants CSV import / export request I had put a feature request on bugzilla. But at first it will be discussed in details...

[eggheaddesign]

Regarding your product variants CSV import / export request I had put a feature request on bugzilla. But at first it will be discussed in details...

Thanks, Naveed, much appreciated. If you want my input during your discussion, just let me know

Thanks
Tony

[jmestep]

If possible, that .csv import for variants would be helpful to others. I've got a client who really wanted it.

[Smurf]

Here too! I would love to see CSV support for variants. Our back-end system keeps all variants as separate SKUs (as do most other systems I have seen). It is fairly straight forward to create a CSV file for updating our website. I have had a difficult time getting this into an XML file. I think that more businesses would be inclined to purchase Ablecommerce if it was simple to integrate with existing inventory and accounting systems.

[Robbie@FireFold]

Finally got all my products imported. Interface was very simple, but I had some hickups by not putting products into a category. This is very different from where I come from - as even if an item wasn't in a category I could still search. I found the items hanging out in orphanged items - just deleted everything - assigned a test category and the process worked.

Now I am trying to backup this data via the export fuction. When I attempt a full store data export I get the error:

Code: Select all

There is an error in XML document (215928, 28).
   at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.Deserialize(XmlReader xmlReader, String encodingStyle, XmlDeserializationEvents events)
   at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.Deserialize(XmlReader xmlReader, String encodingStyle)
   at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.Deserialize(TextReader textReader)
   at CommerceBuilder.DataClient.Api.EncodeHelper.Deserialize(String Xml, Type ThisType, Boolean defaultNull)
   at CommerceBuilder.DataClient.Api.EncodeHelper.Deserialize(String Xml, Type ThisType)
   at CommerceBuilder.DataClient.Client.Controls.StandardExportPanel.doExport()

It did not create a xml file. I am using AC7 Data Port(lastest update), final release of Able, and Vista.

Thoughts? I wanna backup before I mess something else up and go do this again.

[jmestep]

I don't think it was Vista- I just tried it and it worked OK.
Since you had trouble getting your data in, do some experimenting with it. Try manually adding a category, a product, options, etc. I had to hack around to get some data into one site where it was messed up to start with and I hadn't re-set some table options, like identity fields, and trying some operations manually showed some problems. You might be able to find a problem that way, if another export doesn't work- maybe the first one was a fluke and some data got corrupted in the process.

[Naveed]

Now I am trying to backup this data via the export fuction. When I attempt a full store data export I get the error:

Code: Select all

There is an error in XML document (215928, 28).
   at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.Deserialize(XmlReader xmlReader, String 

This seems to be some encoding issue, or there might be some special characters in your data which are not valid in xml, causing this issue. Hopefully it can be resolved with a little research. Try to export your data in parts. First try to export categories only and see if this happen...
then products... and then narrow down to decrease the count of products by limiting it to some specific category products ( by using the customized product export feature)..
Once we are able to identify which product or category data is causing this issue, we will be able to analyse the data and will be able to find a fix....

[Robbie@FireFold]

Now I am trying to backup this data via the export fuction. When I attempt a full store data export I get the error:

Code: Select all

There is an error in XML document (215928, 28).
   at System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer.Deserialize(XmlReader xmlReader, String 

This seems to be some encoding issue, or there might be some special characters in your data which are not valid in xml, causing this issue. Hopefully it can be resolved with a little research. Try to export your data in parts. First try to export categories only and see if this happen...
then products... and then narrow down to decrease the count of products by limiting it to some specific category products ( by using the customized product export feature)..
Once we are able to identify which product or category data is causing this issue, we will be able to analyse the data and will be able to find a fix....

We do have some issues with characters. Quite a few of our items have trade mark and reserved symbols. After the input they are showing as just your standard box character.. which means they had a problem.

Gonna have to go thru and fix all of those shortly. I will come back with what happened.

[mkeith1]

I've got a bunch of duplicate records. Is there any way to move products to a specific category and delete the category, which would delete the products? Or do i have do search for them 1 at a time and remove them that way.

Also i have products which were imported accidentally with no name, or category, and they are not assigned to a manufacturer, but they show up on the customer side when you use "product finder" as empty records. How do i find them and remove them from the database?

[Naveed]

I've got a bunch of duplicate records. Is there any way to move products to a specific category and delete the category, which would delete the products? Or do i have do search for them 1 at a time and remove them that way.

You can use admin catalog search feature to identify duplicate products. You can find it under:
Admin -> Catalog -> Search

Also i have products which were imported accidentally with no name, or category, and they are not assigned to a manufacturer, but they show up on the customer side when you use "product finder" as empty records. How do i find them and remove them from the database?

The Products which have no category assigned can be found in Orphaned Catalog Items report. Can be located at:
Admin -> Catalog -> Orphaned Items

[mfreeze]

Any progress on the ESD import yet? My client is at a standstill until we can import them with the dataport, there's no way we want to re-enter 1100 of them manually.

This is becoming a critical issue with the site. We have a large amount of customization to do and everything is on hold because we need the esd's for most of the coding and testing.

[Naveed]

Any progress on the ESD import yet?

ESD import is done for AC55 import. Next release of DataPort will contain the ESD import feature. Currently under QA...

[solgraphix]

Vista display problem.

dataport_appearance.JPG

Yea i am getting that too in vista...im also getting this auth. error...i only have an IP address to access my site will that not work??

[AbleBody]

Hi,
Is there a size limit to the XML file it can import to the 7.0 store? I have a 5.5 store XML file that is around 88MB and when I checked all store data and import, it failed within a few seconds with no error message :

####################################################
Store Import(Upload) Log Dated:8/18/2008 12:26:09 PM
User Name:- admin@store7.net
Store:- Able7Store
Service Start Time:- 8/18/2008 12:26:07 PM End Time:- 8/18/2008 12:26:09 PM
Import(Upload) Items:- Affiliates,BannedIPs,Currencies,Readmes,LicenseAgreements,ErrorMessages,StoreSettings,PaymentGateways,ShipGateways,TaxGateways,Manufacturers,TaxCodes,Roles,EmailTemplates,PersonalizationPaths,Countries,Groups,Warehouses,TaxRules,VolumeDiscounts,Vendors,WrapGroups,ProductTemplates,Categories,Links,Webpages,PaymentMethods,OrderStatuses,ShipZones,ShipMethods,DigitalGoods,Users,EmailLists,AuditEvents,Products,KitComponents,Coupons,CustomFields,PageViews,Orders,GiftCertificates
Imported File:- D:\Able7\StoreData08142008.xml
*****************************************
Server Log:-

###########################################

There is no other error beyond this. Any ideas where to check? App log and others are empty as well.

Thanks.
-sri

[AbleBody]

Nevermind... I was doing a "AC 7.x Data Upload" and putting a 5.5 XML file... realized the mistake and went with a "AC 5.x Data Upload" and it worked..
the error message could have been a little more descriptive if the file was wrong version.

Thanks.
-sri

Hi,
Is there a size limit to the XML file it can import to the 7.0 store? I have a 5.5 store XML file that is around 88MB and when I checked all store data and import, it failed within a few seconds with no error message :

####################################################
Store Import(Upload) Log Dated:8/18/2008 12:26:09 PM
User Name:- admin@store7.net
Store:- Able7Store
Service Start Time:- 8/18/2008 12:26:07 PM End Time:- 8/18/2008 12:26:09 PM
Import(Upload) Items:- Affiliates,BannedIPs,Currencies,Readmes,LicenseAgreements,ErrorMessages,StoreSettingsGiftCertificates
Imported File:- D:\Able7\StoreData08142008.xml
*****************************************
Server Log:-

###########################################

There is no other error beyond this. Any ideas where to check? App log and others are empty as well.

Thanks.
-sri

[TTMedia]

Hi,

So after repeated attempts to upload the product file, I got it to work but now I have repeating products and some where they should not be. I want to wipe out all products and then restartd the data upload. Is there a simple way to remove the products while keeping the category structure in place? Would I have to do this from the database?

Thanks

[jmestep]

The only way you can do it from the admin is to delete them one at a time. You might be able to do it from the database, but there might be more than one table involved and you might not get everything deleted correctly, so it's chancy.

[Naveed]

Hi,
Is there a simple way to remove the products while keeping the category structure in place? Would I have to do this from the database?
Thanks

Why do you want to keep the category structure in place? Anyhow you can do this using the DataPort. Use the Category export / download feature and download all your store categories in an xml file. Now I hope you have taken a database backup as mentioned in the first post of this thread (i.e. alwasy take a database backup before using the DataPort tool.). So, re-store to your previous database state using that backup. Now you can import / upload that categories xml data back to your server and your category structure will be there.

[bluecherry]

In the process of playing with the dataport utility I've created about 200 duplicate categories. How can I delete all the categories and start from scratch? I tried uploading a .csv file with one category hoping I could delete them all but it's not working.

[Naveed]

In the process of playing with the dataport utility I've created about 200 duplicate categories. How can I delete all the categories and start from scratch? I tried uploading a .csv file with one category hoping I could delete them all but it's not working.

You must have taken a database backup before playing/experimenting with the DataPort utility. If you have taken the database backup simply re-store from the backup. Otherwise you have to delete all duplicates one by one...

[bluecherry]

Few bugs below,

* csv upload: The text is "please select xml file" however it only allows you to select a CSV file.
* the radio buttons are too far over to the right, i lose about 3 pixels of them to the group box.

* Cant upload customer passwords
* Cant upload customer addresses
* Cant upload customer date of birth
* Cant upload customer telephone, fax

pretty major: cannot import what products on the order. This software is therefore pretty useless if you want to transfer data from an old store to this one.


Can we get the source code for this application?

I'm needing to import our ~3000 customer list from another website. Any suggestions on how to do this would be excellent

[mfreeze]

Any word on when the next version will be out of QA? I really need the ESD import.