Uploading products with CSV uploader
November 22nd, 2010Instructions for uploading products with CSV uploader.
If you have many products you can add them more easily by using the CSV uploader utility that comes with your Boss Cart Premium application.
You can get an example CSV file from here. You can use this file to get the correct format for the CSV file to make sure that the Boss Cart application will import the file without errors.
The advantage of using the CSV uploader is that you can manage your products more easily, you can edit the CSV file using either any version of Microsoft Excel or any version of the OpenOffice.
Please note that some columns are mandatory and the application will not import the rows in which the mandatory fields are missing. These fields include code, quantity, category, tax inclusion, vat inclusion, free shipping, meta description, meta keywords, name, original price, description, promo line. Also you should add at least one image.
The first column must only be filled if you want to use the CSV file to edit your products. If you add products the id field must be left empty.
A description and advices for every column is found below:
- Fill the id column ( first column ) only if the product with that id needs to be edited. New product does not need id.
- Code ( second column ) is mandatory. It is code of the product being added or edited. Duplicate value is not accepted. It will show error and the row and the rows after it wont be uploaded
- Quantity ( third column ) is mandatry. Please enter a numeric value . It means the no of products in the stock
- Master Category ( fourth column ) is mandatory . Enter the main category name here. If checkbox with label ‘ Insert New Categories form CSV ?? ‘ is checked new category will be created in database if the category with same name does not exist.
- Category , Sub Category ( fifth, sixth and seventh column ) is not mandatory. Enter the category in the hierarchy that the products rests on.
- Master category2 to Sub Sub category3( Eighth Column to Fifteenth Column ) is for second and third category. They can be left blank or can be filled as for the first category structure
- tax inclusion ( sixteenth column ) is mandatory. Insert ‘ No ‘ if the product is not taxable . ‘ Yes ‘ if it is taxable
- vat inclusion ( seventeenth column ) is mandatory. Insert ‘ No ‘ if the product is not vat applicable ‘ Yes ‘ if it is vat applicable
- free shipping ( eighteenth column ) is mandatory. Insert ‘ Yes ‘ if it is the products ships for free . No if the shipping charge is required
- meta description ( nineteenth column ) ( mandatory ) enter the meta description for the product
- meta keyword ( twentieth column ) ( mandatory ) enter the meta keyword for the product
- name ( Twenty First column ) ( mandatory ) enter the name for the product .
- Original Price ( Twenty second column ) ( mandatory ) enter the price of the product
- Discounted Price ( Twenty third column ) ( optional ) enter the discounted price of the product (this price will be applicable as price of product if entered )
- Product Weight ( Twenty fourth column ) ( optional ) enter the numeric value of the product weight. Do not include unit. unit will be the default unit that is applicable in the shop
- Description ( Twenty Fifth column ) ( mandatory ) Enter the product description.
- Promoline ( Twenty Sixth column ) ( mandatory ) Enter the promo line for the product.
- Manufacturer ( Twenty Seventh column ) ( mandatory ) Enter the product manufacturer name. If the manufacturer name is not present in the database new manufacturer will be added.
- attribute 1, Value 1 , Unit 1 , Price1 , Stock1 , Weight1 and so on ( optional ) . Enter the product specific attribute name , its value , its unit,Its additional prices ,its stock and its weight. Maximum 10 such attributes can be added.
- image 1 to image 7 ( optional ) . Enter the product image names .
- The names should not contain special characters.
- The images with the same name should be uploaded to
- images/products directory (size should be 800 X 600 )
- images/products/productdetail directory ( size should be 300 X 296)
- images/products/thumbnails directory ( size should be 80 X 80 )
- images/products/thumbnail2 directory ( size should be 120 X 120 )
- images/products/thumbnail3 directory ( size should be 250 X 240 )
There are some things you should make sure before you import the file. You must not have “,” in your fields. If you need to have a comma in any of your fields you need to replace it with [comma]. On importing these will be converted to commas so your text will look as you want it.
You should not have any empty rows in the CSV file, these will make the rows below the empty row to be left out when importing.
Please make sure that you save the file in CSV format. XLS, ODS, XLSX or any other format is not recognized by the CSV uploader.
