Rather than hand keying in your product catalog, you can import a standard CSV file that defines everything about your product. You can also update existing products with imports. You dont have do define all the data for each product, but could, and this is a good way to update available quantities and pricing.
The product import / export uses files contained within a defined site downloads file system area. The main toolbar on the top contains a dropdown shown a list of defined site download file systems. You may want to upload product CSV files into a secured file system, but any one will do.
The selected file system’s directories are shown in the tree grid on the left. The files contained within that directory are shown in the file grid on the right. This is a similar view to that of windows explorer.
You can select multiple files in the file list and use the delete selected button to delete those files. NOTE: There is no recycle bin for the file system, so the files are truly deleted and cannot be recovered unless there is a backup to upload again.
New files can be uploaded into the file system using the upload files tab, which contains a list of file select fields to pick files from the browser’s local file system. The files are uploaded into the selected directory.
Doing An Import
Select a properly formatted product CSV file in the file list grid in the Directory Files tab. You can also upload a zip file that contains the CSV and images that are used by the products defined in the CSV. The images will be added to the default public media library using the directory structure presented in the zip. There should be only one CSV contained in the root folder in the zip.
Select a product from the Import Into field, which is a smart list dropdown. You need to start typing the first few characters to get the list to start showing. This would typically be “retail products”, but could be some other area that you want to do the import into.
An import happens relative to the selected product. You can define a simple set of products in a CSV, and then import it into a deep branch within the products tree. This is good for times when you want to export a branch of products from one site and import it into a different branch on another site.
The Auto Generate Product Unique Titles checkbox is used to decide if product unique titles should be generated that include not only the product title but also the part number.
To start the import, use the Import Selected File button. The import process happens during the ajax process of the button press and the button will appear unavailable until the process is complete.
Doing An Export
The export will create a csv with a generated file name based on the root product selected in the “Import Into Field”. The field is not named well for an export, but it is used in export to pick the products to be exported. The newly created csv will be located in the selected directory.
The auto generate product unique titles checkbox is not used for exports.
CSV File Format
The CSV used for Import / Export follows the standard comma delimited format used by Excel. The first line of the file is a comma delimited list of field names defining the columns. The follow column names are used, all of which are optional and can be presented in any order:
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partId
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sellPrice
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listPrice
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title
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_parentUniqueTitle
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_keywords
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primaryPicture.name
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summary
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body
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manufacturerPartId
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shippingBoxOption
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dimensions.width.amount
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dimensions.length.amount
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dimensions.depth.amount
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_dimensionUnit
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weight.amount weight.unit
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_taxes
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quantityAvailable
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_manufacturerName
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_delete - if true, the product is expected to be defined in the system and should be deleted from the site.
An empty CSV that you can start from is included in the Start Site zip.
If you have an external inventory management systme, it can be much easier to maintain your product list in Excel, and update quantity available through a spreadsheet, and then do a product import of a CSV that has just partId and quantityAvailable. Sometimes the external inventory system can be configured to deploy such a CSV.
If can also be easier to hand populate an Excel spreadsheet of product info from external sources (copy paste, export to CSV, etc) and build up a master product spreadsheet than it is to hand enter all the products into the site using the product management admin page.