R12 product variants import format

[AbleMods]

We're trying to import a product variants file exported from Able. Basically we did an export, updated one column and now we're trying to bring it back in.

We've identified two issues that are preventing this from working for us:

* Choice names that include a comma or quotation mark seem to break the import and we get formatting errors

* New choices that were added to the product AFTER the original export file was created get deleted during import, presumably because that choice isn't a part of the file we are importing. There's no flag to say 'retain existing choices not found in import'

Are there solutions around these issues? We're sort of stuck at this point, probably have to build a manual import. Thoughts?

[Naveed]

* Choice names that include a comma or quotation mark seem to break the import and we get formatting errors

If you are using the comma as text delimiter then you need to double quote the choice name data if it contains the comma in value. e.g.

"Choice name having , in middle"

* New choices that were added to the product AFTER the original export file was created get deleted during import, presumably because that choice isn't a part of the file we are importing. There's no flag to say 'retain existing choices not found in import'

As far I remember you need to keep the choices data with import for the choices you want to retain otherwise the import handler will assume that you want to remove other choices. The best way is to export the data for product(s) and after updating the data for desired fields re-import.

[AbleMods]

If you are using the comma as text delimiter then you need to double quote the choice name data if it contains the comma in value. e.g.

"Choice name having , in middle"

The export should be doing the double-quote of existing values that contain a comma if that is required during a subsequent import. I do not think it is but I could be wrong.

The import does not allow you to choose what delimiter is being used. So we could not use a tab-delimited format which (I suspect) would have eliminated both issues.

[AbleMods]

I see what you're thinking of Naveed.

The products import does support the ability to specify the delimiter and text qualifier. But variants import does not have that....