CHAPTER 18 Product Batching

The Product Batch feature can be used by stores with large product catalogs or where updates occur frequently. You can upload multiple products at once with a text file or customize a multiple product editing form.

 

The Batch Edit page allows you to edit multiple products at once. Products are filtered with search criteria and presented with editable fields of your choosing.

 

The Batch Insert page allows you to add multiple products at once. Product listings are provided as delimited data.

 

The Batch Update page allows you to update multiple products at once. Product listings are provided as delimited data. Products are updated based on the field of your choosing.

Batch Edit

When you click Batch Edit you will come to a page similar to the one shown below. The Batch Edit page enables you to search for and edit a particular part of a product (price, sku, brief description, etc.).

 

 

Enter in the search criteria and click Search. Multiple fields can be searched by holding the Ctrl key on the keyboard while selecting the fields you want to search on. Product Teaser is the brief description entered on the Less Detail Product page.

 

 

The image above shows an example of the results of a Batch Edit search. The field(s) specified at the search page are shown in the results and are available for editing. You can use the results list to update many products on a single screen. Once you are finished with your updates, click the Update button to save. Clicking the search button will return you to the search form so you can conduct another search.

 

In the search results list you can also click on the Product_ID to open the Less Detail Product page for the product. This is useful if you want to make advanced edits to the product (e.g. options) that are not accessible from batch edit. Note that before clicking a Product_ID link you should click Update to save any changes you have made to any field in the search results.

Batch Insert

When you click Batch Insert you will come to a page similar to the one shown below. The Batch Insert page enables you to upload multiple new products with a single text based file.

 

 

Select the category or categories where the products will be inserted.

 

Enter or paste the delimited product data in the space below. Each product must be on a separate line with a carriage return between them. You can specifiy your field delimiter and text qualifier if they are different from the default.

 

The first line of the product data must be the delimited list of field names included in the data. You can use any field name from the PRODUCTS table as shown below. Some field names accept synonyms and are noted in parenthesis:

Delimiter

The delimiter is the single character used to separate the data for each product field. Select from a comma, semicolon, tab, or pipe character.

Text Qualifier

The text qualifier may be a single or double quote used to define the text fields.

 

When you have finished entering your data, click "Update" to update the products.

Batch Update

When you click Batch Update you will come to a page similar to the one shown below. The Batch Update page enables you to configure your product batch file upload.

 

Select Match Field

Select the field(s) that will be used to match the updated data with existing products. The fields selected must be included in the provided product data for the update to be successful. If multiple existing products match a given criteria, they will ALL be updated.

Additional Options

Batch update is intended to be used primarily to update existing products. If data is included that does not match any row, it will by default be ignored. However, some merchants have data that includes both new products and updates. If you check this option, any record that does not have a match in the database will automatically be added as if you were using batch insert. This allows merchants to have a single update perform updates and inserts.

Categories

You can select one or more categories to upload your products to. By default, the selected categories apply to the new products only, if applicable. You can apply new and existing products to the selected categories if you include the Product ID as a match field.

Enter product data

Enter or paste the delimited product data in the field provided. Each product must be on a separate line with a carriage return between them. You can specify your field delimiter and text qualifier if they are different from the default.

 

The first line of the product data must be the delimited list of field names included in the data. You can use any field name from the PRODUCTS table as shown below. Some field names accept synonyms and are noted in parenthesis.

Delimiter

The delimiter is the single character used to separate the data for each product field. Select from a comma, semicolon, tab, or pipe character.

Text Qualifier

The text qualifier may be a single or double quote used to define the text fields.

 

When you have finished entering your data, click "Update" to update the products.

 

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