5. Import Categories

When you import categories to X-Cart pay attention to each Wizard's page. Import is a rather complicated procedure and it may be destructive if performed incorrectly. Create database backup before importing X-Cart categories especially if you do it first time.

    1. First of all prepare a .csv file for Import. Make sure it contains all necessary fields and all data you are going to import is listed in the table.
    2. Select X-Cart "Import" in the Categories Import/Export Wizard and click "Next >" button to continue.
    1. Enter the .csv file you need to import or browse button to select one.
    1. Source file preview shows a part of .csv file selected to import. There are no options to set, but you should pay some attention to this page. What's so important to look for on this page is fields delimiter and quote character, if some is used.
      1. If you carefully check the very first line of the example, you'll notice that some words enclosed in quotes (") and are separated by coma (,) symbol. That are two important options you have to pay attention to - you will have to setup these settings on next page. Usually it is enough to see first line, no need to investigate entire file.
    1. Select fields delimiter and quote character page contains some important settings. If you specify wrong values, X-Cart category import may not work.
      1. First option is delimiter character. Most popular delimiters are comma (,), semicolon (;) and tab character ( ) however other symbols can be used as well.
      2. Note: CSV file contains data in row-column format and delimiter character is used to separate one column from another. If you specify incorrect delimiter, file will not be parsed properly and categories will not be imported.
      3. Quote string values delimiter will be used to separate strings in .csv file. This delimiter can be disabled if none are used. On previous sample page we have noticed that comma symbol was used as delimiter and values were quoted with " symbol.
      4. Specify two first settings as shown above.
      5. Third setting is category delimiter. This is not native .csv setting, it is used only in Store Manager. As you know X-Cart categories are organized in a form of tree, where parent category can contain one or more subcategories, and subcategory can contain one or more other categories. Category delimiter character is used to separate category names and specify full category tree path for given category. Category path is very similar to directory path used to specify full file name in Windows, where every directory separated by backslash (\) character like this one C:\Program Files\eMagicOne\Store Manager for X-Cart\.
      6. As for example X-Cart category path for "Sample Subcategory" (see image below) will be Hardware|Graphics Cards|Sample Subcategory. Pipe (|) character was used as separator.
      1. Images - Default images path is the place where store manager will look for images when importing X-Cart categories - image names specified in .csv file whereas image files stored here. When store manager is unable to find an image it will not import image information to a category and will remove existing image information if any.
    1. Parameters on the Base Formats and Separators page are used to convert text values from .csv file to numerical and date values. You can just set default formats with appropriate button.
    1. The next page allows you to Link columns from .csv file to appropriate database fields.
      1. Link columns from .csv file to appropriate database fields. The left pane "Database Fields" shows the list of fields in your database that can receive import data.
      1. The topmost option on this page is First row in .csv file contains field names but not values. Obviously it should be unchecked if first row of .csv file contains data, otherwise check this option.
      2. Next option is Identify categories by. Import will search for X-Cart category using selected identify method. The category will be modified if found, if not - new category will be added.
      3. Source .csv file can contain multiple records with identical Name values. All these categories will be considered as one - currently imported to X-Cart categories will overwrite previously imported with the same key field values. Note that sometimes one of key fields may be blank. Obviously blank fields contain the same value for all records. It is required to assign .csv columns to key fields.
      4. Database Fields contains such columns:
        • Name - contains database field name. Some values in this column contain actual field name, whereas other are "translated". Anyway these names are clear enough to figure out how to use them.
        • # - the number of the column in .csv file corresponding to this field - the link between database field and .csv column.
        • Set Null - indicates that this field should not contain any data but should be set to Null. You can either specify column name or check this option, but not both of them at the same time.
        • Set Default - used to set some default value to a field, similar to Set Null, but in this case some value can be assigned to a field.
        • Default - enter the value assigned to a field.
        1. To assign .csv column to database field you should select a field at the left pane and then click a column at the right pane.
        2. [Auto Fill...] button - try to set correspondence automatically for all fields. Will work only if .csv column name is the same as database field name ("translated").
        3. [Clear] button - clear all "csv col" values at the left pane
        4. Click "Next" if you're done.
    1. X-Cart Categories were not imported to your X-Cart database yet. On Import Preview page you can see how .csv file was processed using import settings, which you specified at previous steps. Check whether all columns that you want to be imported are filled with data: some of them may be blank. This means that either you haven't assigned .csv column or it is empty in source (.csv) file. Columns that were not assigned will not be imported whereas empty values will overwrite existing.
      1. Attention! Import process will start, when you press "Import" Button! If all settings are made correct then continue the procedure, otherwise press "Back" Button and check settings once more!
    1. In the last window of X-Cart Import Categories Wizard will be shown if any errors occurred during import process.
      1. Most frequent import errors are date, time and number conversion issues, caused by improper format settings (specified at previous page) or improperly assigned column (i.e. if you assign column containing category ID to parent_category database field). Date/time conversion errors might be ignored whereas other errors like this one (Could not find image:image_name.gif) better to be fixed.

By eMagicOne Inc.