3. Import Product Options
When you import options 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 options especially if you do it first time.
To start Import Options procedure you need to click on "Import/Export Options" button which starts the Import/Export Wizard.
Options Import/Export Wizard is a lot like Categories Import/Export Wizard.
- 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.
- On the first page of Import/Export Wizard you may select the operation you want to perform. Select "Options import" and click "Next >" button to continue.
- Enter the .csv file you need to import or use browse button to select one.
- Source file previewshows 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.
- 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. You will have to setup these settings on next page. Usually it is enough to see first line, no need to investigate entire file.
- Import file delimiters and quote separators page contains some important settings. If you specify wrong values, X-Cart options import may not work.
- Delimiter character. Most popular delimiters are comma (,), semicolon (;) and tab character ( ) however other symbols can be used as well.
- 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.
- On previous sample page we have noticed that comma symbol was used as delimiter and values were quoted with " symbol. Specify two first settings as shown above.
- Select target products to options import.
- If you wish to import only selected product(s) options, enable the appropriate check-box. If you wish to import to X-Cart product(s) options in current category, select "Current category". But, you'll need to make sure that category is open before you run the Wizard. All products - is used if you want to import all products options at current store.
- Products options 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 it is empty in source (.csv) file.
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!
Close the Wizard when export process completes.
Most frequent import errors are date, time and number conversion issues, caused by improper format settings (specified at previous pages). Date/time conversion errors might be ignored.
Now X-Cart product options import is finished.