Lesson 32. Products — CSV Export & Import. Part 1

CSV-files are perfect for a large-scale editing operations. They can be created and edited in third-party applications that support this format, like Google Spreadsheets, Microsoft Office Excel, and others.

In CS-Cart software for online store there are two ways to export product data. A straightforward way lies through the Export data page of the Administration section. This way you will export all products at ones. A more selected way lies within the Products section. This way only selected products get exported. The content of an export file is controlled by two list boxes: Exported fields — the fields that will be included in the export file; Available fields — the fields that you can add to the export file. Product code and Language fields are required and can not be deleted. Use arrows to change positions of fields, and move them between boxes.

Below you’ll find the export options. We briefly describe them in this text.

The language selection is provided so it is possible to edit products in different languages of your software for e-commerce.

Category delimiter. Category path delimiter for product main category (e.g. "Computers///Desktops").

Feature variants delimiter. Delimiter between variant values of a product feature.

Images directory. Directory where images are located. This will be used if an image file is specified without a path.

Files directory. Directory where product files are located. This will be used if the "File" field is specified without a path.

Price decimal separator. Decimal separator for product prices.

CSV delimiter. The general CSV formatting setting.

Output. Choose an action on the file: "Direct download" - to save the file on the local computer, "Screen" - to display the file's contents, "Server" - to save the file on the server file system.

File name. Simply specify the name of the file.

To download the file the Export button is used. Also, the exported file appears at the Exported files page of the website shopping cart, so you can download files from there at any time.

There are multiple things that you can do with product data in CSV-file, we are going to list only the most important ones.

First, you can change product values including names, prices, quantity, and so on. Second, you can sort out the products. For example, products can be sorted out by highest quantity of by highest price. Third, use the Status field to activate or deactivate products. Drag the frame to change all values in the column at once. This is actually one of the reasons why CSV-file are perfect for large-scale editing. Forth, apply formula to calculate prices automatically. For example, you have supplier prices, you need to turn them into your own prices with profit included, instead of entering new prices manually one by one, you simply apply the formula, and drag it to empty boxes. New prices are set automatically in a correct way. Fifth, place products that are out of stock or disabled into a separate category to deal with them later in the store. For example, you can place products with zero quantity to Restock category. This category will be created in the store automatically after the CSV-file is uploaded. After making edits you can upload your CSV-file back to the web shop platform via Import data section of the Admin Panel.

And that’s how CSV export and import works.

There are many other things that you can do with CSV-files in CS-Cart e-commerce software solution, so in this text we covered only most important actions.