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This guide assumes that you have already added a few products to your shop through the GT admin system.
If not then please add some using the admin system now, the CSV files will make
more sense once that has been done.
The Shop Structure and Product
Database is made up of three CSV files, these are outlined below:
| products.csv |
Contains the information
about your products. |
| pagenodes.csv |
Contains the page structure
of your shop. |
| pageproducts.csv |
Puts the products into
the Categories. (This file seems to cause the most confusion but isn't as difficult
as you might think). |
- Open up your FTP client
and login to your site.
- Browse to your /trolleyed_admin
directory.
- Download the three files,
products.csv, pagenodes.csv & pageproducts.csv (NB: We suggest you keep
a copy of these safe as you may need them again, if you make a mistake).
Open up the products.csv file
in your preferred spreadsheet/database program. Once open you will
find the following fields:
| prodid |
Product ID
- Should only contain letters and numbers. Also this should all be in UPPER CASE. |
| product_name |
Product Name. |
| unitprice |
Unit Price
- Don't enter a currency symbol here otherwise your unit price won't be picked
up. |
| weight |
Weight - If
using the weight options (see Shop Setup for details how to set this up) then
enter the weight of your product here. |
| taxcode |
Tax Code -
Enter the id of the Tax Code that you are using here or leave
blank for the default. Tax Codes are set-up in the GT admin
system through the "VAT" menu item. |
| displayoff |
Product Display
- This is used to select the various states that a product can have, these are
as follows:
- 1 - product out of stock (will be shown in shop as out of stock)
- 2 - product is inactive (won't appear in shop)
- blank - product is available
|
| options |
Product Options
- Enter your product options here. You can add as many options as you want. I've
put full details of Product Options below. |
| description |
Description
of the Product - If you want to put text on a new line then use "\n" (without
quotes). |
| image |
Image Name
- Leave this blank, the image name will be filled in by GT. |
| offerid |
Offer ID -
Leave this blank, this will be set-up by GT when you add Special Offers. |
To set-up an option Type it's name followed by and equals sign. After this type
each option separated by the pipe "|" (no quotes) symbol. For example:
OptionName=Value1|Value2|Value3 would create the following option:
If you require more than one option box then this is possible, you can separate
sets of options by using two stars "**" (no quotes). For example: Option1Name=Value1|Value2|Value3**Option2Name=Value1|Value2
If you want your
options to have an effect on the actual price of the product then this can be
done by putting the following rules in brackets next to the option name:
- (+5) - Would add 5 to the unit price
- (-3) - Would subtract 3 from the unit price
- (20) - Would change the unit price to 20
For example:
Option1Name=Value1|Value2(+1.00)|Value3(+2.00)**Option2Name=Value1(-2.00)|Value2
Open up the pagenodes.csv file
in your preferred spreadsheet/database program. Once open you will
find the following fields:
| node_id |
Unique ID
of the page. |
| parent |
ID of the
parent page - see below for an example. |
| name |
Name of the
Page - for listing in admin system, it will be used in the shop if the title is
left blank. |
| description |
Description. |
| title |
Title of the
Page - this is seen by the customer when browsing the shop. (If left blank then
the name will be used instead). |
| meta_description |
Meta Description
for Search Engines. |
| meta_keywords |
Meta Keywords
for search Engines. |
For example:
In the following example, you will see how the page nodes table works into
the shop pages structure. In my example of the tree below, I have
included the node id's in brackets next to the name. (NB: In the
example I have only include the first three columns to save space,
you should have all seven columns in your file).
The other thing to remember is that the first item in the table should always
have a node_id of 1 and a parent of 1, otherwise the shop structure will not display
correctly. The reason for this is that each shop must have a main page for all
the categories.
| node_id |
parent |
name |
| 1 |
1 |
Merchandise |
| 2 |
1 |
Plastic Boxes |
| 3 |
2 |
Tupperware |
| 4 |
2 |
Dayglo |
| 5 |
1 |
Cardboard Boxes |
- Merchandise (1)
- Plastic Boxes (2)
- Tupperware (3)
- Dayglo (4)
- Cardboard Boxes (5)
If you are struggling to sort out the structure that you require then it is best
to try and do the following:
- Draw a tree showing the page structure you want.
- Assign a number to each page.
- Work out the node_id/parent elements of each page.
- Create the data file using the tree as a reference.
Open up the pageproducts.csv file in your preferred spreadsheet/database program.
Once open you will find the following fields:
| nodeid |
Node ID of
a Shop Page |
| prodid |
Product ID |
| ranking |
Product Ranking
- Controls the order that the products appear on the page. |
For example:
Here is an example of a pageproducts.csv file. (NB: It uses the page structure
from my previous example).
| nodeid |
prodid |
ranking |
| 3 |
TUPPER01 |
0 |
| 3 |
TUPPER02 |
1 |
| 3 |
TUPPER03 |
2 |
| 3 |
TUPPER04 |
3 |
| 4 |
DAYGLO01 |
0 |
| 4 |
DAYGLO02 |
1 |
| 5 |
CARDBOX01 |
0 |
| 5 |
CARDBOX02 |
1 |
Using this the pages Tupperware (4 products), Dayglo (2 products) and Cardboard
Boxes (2 products) would all contain products. While the Merchandise and Plastic
Boxes pages do not contain any products.
NB: The first page in your pagenodes.csv file can NOT contain any
products.
Once you have finished editing your three files, you will want to upload them
back to your site. Again this is done through FTP and the following steps:
- Open up your FTP client and login to your site.
- Browse to your /trolleyed_admin directory.
- Upload the three files; products.csv, pagenodes.csv & pageproducts.csv. (NB:
You may be asked to overwrite the files that are currently in the trolleyed_admin
folder, please check that you are overwriting the correct files and proceed when
ready).
Now that you've got your page structure and products on the site. Its time
to open up a web browser and check the details in your shop admin. Once you've
checked things in there and it seems fine then do a Shop Rebuild and you'll be
able to see how your shop looks.
If you find a problem with your shop after you've uploaded the three files then
open the up again and check that you have followed all the rules above. The most
commonly made mistakes are:
- Non-Letters or Numbers in your Product IDs
- Incorrect Parent IDs in pagenodes.csv
- Products not matched to the right Node in pageproducts.csv
- Unique Product IDs
If you want to take a look at the products.csv, pagenodes.csv and pageproducts.csv
files that I've created in my examples then please click
here to download them (1.2KB Zipped).
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