by Deborah Carney, based on many frequent q/a from the forums.
Includes patch by Ian Corner, w3it.com for SQL UPDATE not functioning correctly 2003-08-10
These instructions are also in the Easy Populate manual, but people tend to not open that apparently :) There is more extensive documentation available in the manual, included in a variety of formats. Please read them!
IMPORTANT NOTES:
EasyPopulate requires the use of the product_model field (model number). This is the FIRST column. IT WON'T WORK without the model number. It will create duplicate products if you do not use the model number. The model numbers you assign must be unique, i.e. you can't give all your products a product_model of "test". HINT: In your spreadsheet program, put a number in the first cell and autofill the column.
Each row MUST end with EOREOR, see the example.txt file. If the row doesn't end in EOREOR you will have one product and only one. HINT: After you add all your products, copy and autofill the last column.
Each EP file must have the header row in place. If you upload a file without the headers, EP will throw out your first row of data.
HINT: After you install make sure you have at least on test product in your catalog and download the ep file to edit.
Installation and Configuration Instructions
1. The files in the EasyPopulate contribution are:
easypopulate.php - the code
easypopulate_functions.php - some functions that Pre-Nov-01-2002 2.2 OSC snapshots will need
easypopulate_functions-oldersnaps.php - if you get failed functions and have a MS1 2.2 version that is pre-May 2003 or is the Loaded 5 from phesis.co.uk, then reanme this file to easypopulate_functions.php
license.txt - the GPL license text that EasyPopulate (EP) is released under.
readmeFIRTS.txt - you are reading this now :)
and the instruction manual in various formats.
2. Copy file easypopulate.php and easypopulate_functions into admin/.
3. For adding link to the Admin, edit file admin/includes/boxes/catalog.php by adding this line:
4. Create a directory called catalog/temp, (see below if your catalog isn't in a 'catalog' directory) and that it's permissions are set to allow writes to that directory, that would be 777 or rwxrwxrwx (in shell access - while you're in the catalog directory, execute "chmod 777 temp").
If you have changed the directory structure of your OSC install (i.e. you don't have /catalog/temp/ in your document root anymore), then you'll need to go into easypopulate.php and change the setting of "$tempdir". It is located right after the version history.
5. Open easypopulate.php and read the section marked "Configuration Variables". It will allow you to adjust EP's operation for your store. I meant what I said, Please, Pretty please, do read the entire configuration stuff. Really. You'll be glad you did. You'll find all kinds of neat configurable stuff there. The instructions for using the various image mods and other supported contribtion variables are in there.
Support is available at http://forums.oscommerce.com in the Contribs section or at http://phesis.co.uk (separate forum for EP to be created by August 10, 2003)
Remember that this was written by volunteers, if you have questions, post in the forums, don't email any of the authors involved, since they may not be supporting the script any longer! Lives change and people contribute and move on :)
EP does a lot, but it doesn't do everything! If you update or add to the code, please email changes to dc@loxly.com so they can be included in the next version for everyone to enjoy.
Thanks to Tim Wasson and those before him that made EP what it is today.
