CSV File Import

CSV file import tool allows to import products and categories from a CSV file. CSV (comma-separated values) is a common and simple file format for storing tabular data and can be exported from most spreadsheet programs, like Excel, for example. In addition to importing new products, it is possible to update existing products from CSV file as well.

Starting the import

First you have to select a file. You can either upload it from your computer (1) or select a file at server (2). PHP limits the file size that can be uploaded (the exact maximum size depends on PHP configuration), so if your CSV file is large, it might be necessary to upload it to server before importing.

The next (optional) step is to select the target category for the import (3). In most cases it will be the root super-category. It is possible to automatically create the necessary sub-categories, so you don't need to worry if the products need to go into different categories. If all the imported products need to go into any particular category, then you can select a new target category by clicking on the name of the current category.

When the file is uploaded, the next step is to select the field delimiter character. It is usually detected automatically, so in most cases you won't need to change anything. If the table in the Preview section looks right, you can continue to the next step.

The next step is the most important one. Here you have to match the columns from your CSV file to LiveCart data fields. LiveCart allows to set almost every product parameter, including the custom attribute values. You can also specify the target category names (the categories would be created automatically) and even import product images.

After selecting a matching column, it is automatically colored green, so you can instantly see which data haven't yet been mapped to LiveCart fields.

This is the last step before the actual import, so when all the applicable data have been assigned to LiveCart fields, click the Continue button to proceed with the import.

Just sit back and wait for the import to complete :) It might take a while to process large files, but you will always see how many records are already processed.

Should you need to, you can cancel the import process at any time and it will roll back the changes that were made (with the exception of imported images). Please note that you cannot cancel the import after it has been completed.

Usual import scenario

The common situation - you have just started to use LiveCart and do not have any product or categories created yet. However you have the product data in tabular format, which needs to be imported into LiveCart. Of course, the category structure needs to be created automatically as well. So, where do we start?

Let's say the first record of the CSV file looks like that:

So, it looks like a few fields of some basic product data. To be able to import the data, you need to tell LiveCart, which field contains which data. Let's try to dissect this record:

So, the field mapping would look like that:

Notice the Category Name 1 and Category Name 2 fields. Category Name 1 means the first level category name (the top category). Category Name 2 is the second level category name (the subcategory of Category Name 1). So, Computers is the main category and Notebooks is the subcategory of this category. In case these categories won't exist, LiveCart will create them automatically.

Importing category structure only

As mentioned above, the CSV importer tool creates product categories automatically, if they do not exist. If you need to create the category structure only, you simply need to only map the Category Name X fields. For example, your CSV file could look like this:

The first column would be mapped to Category Name 1, the second to Category name 2 and so forth.

Updating existing products

In addition to importing new products, the CSV import tool can also apply mass updates to existing products.

It works pretty much the same way as creating new products. To tell LiveCart which products to update, your CSV file must have a column for either product ID or SKU.

Importing product images

There are two ways for importing images. The image files can be located on the same server (so they would be referenced by file names) or they can be located on a remote server and are referenced by their URL (it is common when acquiring a product CSV file from a distributor).

If an image file or URL is not valid, the image is skipped.

Matching LiveCart fields

You can import the main product image and up to 3 additional images.

One difference that has to be noted is that if a product has a main image already, it will be replaced with the new image and the old one will be deleted. However when importing additional images, none of the old additional images will be deleted.

Importing images from external server via URL

When importing images from an external server you have to specify the full path to the image file as the CSV field value, for example: http://example.com/example.jpg.

Importing locally stored images

Images can be located in various directories of your server. LiveCart will be looking in the following directories:

• /tmp/import
• /public/import subdirectory of your LiveCart installation directory (you'll have to create this directory yourself)

If your image files are located within any of the standard directories mentioned, it is enough to only specify the file name in the CSV file, for example, product1234.jpg.

You can also specify:

• the complete path to image file, for example: /tmp/new-import/product1234.jpg
• the relative path to LiveCart installation directory, for example: new-import/product1234.jpg