CMS Product Import
From NewHaven Software Wiki
CMS has the ability to import product definitions using pre-defined CSV files (Comma Separated Values).
For importing basic product information like product code, size/color, and related product details, there are two files that are required:
CMS-Products.CSV
CMS-SKU.CSV
CMS-Products.CSV
This file will contain information that defines the high-level product information like product code, invoice description, etc. The data in this file would pertain to all size/color combinations of the product (if any existed).
CMS-SKU.CSV
This file will contain information that defines a secondary level of detail for the product, such as size/color, UPC, length, width, etc. It is important to understand that even when a product in CMS has no defined size/color combinations, it still uses a "hidden" SKU record to store this data. That is why this spreadsheet would also be used to import products without sizes and colors.
Both of the files contain different "types" of fields, including text, numbers, and true/false (boolean). We will use each of these types in the example below.
Example:
To import a new product into CMS we need to add a new record in CMS-Products.CSV to define the product.
--show a clip of CMS-Products with MyNewProduct defined.
Here we have defined a new product called "MyNewProduct" with an "InvoiceDescription" of "This is a new product". The "AllowDecimal" field, a boolean-typed field, corresponds to the product setting checkbox in CMS called "Allow Decimal Quantities". As you can see, boolean values are designated with a '0' for false and a '1' for true. This record is enough to create a non-sized, non-colored product with no other predefined settings, and could be imported completely on its own, but we will add some more details with the CMS-SKU file.
--show a clip of CMS-SKU with some more details
As you can see, both of the files contain the field "ProductCode", which is what CMS will use to join the two files for import. In our new "SKU" record, we have again specified "MyNewProduct" as the product code as required. Additionally, we have configured more details for the new product including Weight, UPC, Length, Width and Height. Now that we have our definition, we can import the product into CMS.
The Product Import can be found in the CMS menu under Settings | Inventory | Products | Product Import.
--show product import window
The product import consists of three steps:
1) "Specify or browse to the folder containing CMS import files"
Instead of pointing at each file directly, CMS only needs to know the folder in which the required files can be found.
2) "Preprocess Import Files"
This step allows CMS to parse the data, check for any issues, and present the pending import to the user for any corrections. If any errors are found during preprocessing, CMS will notify the user with a list of the issues. In the case where errors are found, the user must go back into the CSV files and correct the errors prior to repeating Step 2 to reprocess the newly-edited CSV.
3) "Import Into CMS"
The final step in the process brings the data directly into the CMS product list. This step will only be available if step 2 completed without errors.
This is what the Product Import looks like after doing steps 1 and 2 against our import files for "MyNewProduct": --screenshot of loaded/processed
At this point, the user can look at the various settings that are about to go into CMS. It is a good chance to see if there are any special issues with the data that wouldn't be caught by the preprocessing step (such as spelling mistakes, incorrect number values, etc). If an issue is found, it is possible to edit the data directly on this screen, and it will be imported instead of what was initially brought in by the import files. Although it is possible to make edits this way, we advice against it and suggest editing the original CSV files and reprocessing them, just so you have an external paper trail of what you actually imported. After we are satisfied with the data, it is time to import into CMS by clicking the "Import Into CMS" button. Depending on the number of products you are importing, this could take a little time. For a simple import like our example, it will hardly take any time at all.
