Navigation:  Importing > Category & Product Assignments

Importing a list of category assignments or product assignments into the locator is a simple process.

 

Understanding Category & Product Assignments:

If you are wondering exactly what this tool is used for, here is an explanation...  Let's assume you have 100 locations in your database.  And you have already setup 10 different categories with the 'Categories & Products' tool.  It's now time to assign a location to a category or product.

1. You can edit each record in your database individually with the Edit tool, and you will see a list of the available categories & products, of which you can place a check-mark on for any assignment, then save your changes.  Not bad, if you only have a few locations to assign.

2. Do you really want to do this for 50, 100 or 1000 locations?  Probably not.  Well, you can import a master list, that contains a record ID and the  category ID.  The import will allow you to perform the assignments in bulk.  Therefore, if you have 5,000 locations and each one should belong to a specific category or product, or should belong to multiple categories or products, then importing a master list is the way to go.

 

In order to import your list into the locator, you'll need to create a comma separated values (CSV) file.  A CSV file is a simple text files with one record per line, and each field is separated by a comma.  Much like this...

1,1
2,2:3
3,1:2:3

See how each record above is on it's own line and each field is separated by a comma.

 

Question: Can I import my list from a MS Excel file?

Answer: No.  Not your Excel (xls) file.  But, you can save your Excel file as a .csv file that will import just fine.  Use 'File' - 'Save As' to export into a CSV file.

 

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Fields:
Each record in your import file must contain 2 fields.  Here are the names of each field...

 

 

A record can be assigned to multiple categories or products.  In this event, you need to separate each category or product with a colon character.  Like this:  1:2:3:4

 

You can download a sample MS Excel and CSV file.  You can use these sample files to start your own list correctly!

 

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Steps to Importing

 

On the Admin Panel navigation menu, click on the link under 'Records' that says "Import Categories'.  Once you get to the Import Categories screen, you'll see a few options.  They are...

1.  Select File
       You have the option to selecting a file that is already on the server inside the /dbackup/category directory

or

2.  Upload a New File
       Click the 'browse' button to select a file that is on your computer

 

If you have a large import file (over 2MB) then you should FTP your file to your server, in the /locator/dbackup/category folder, give it any name, then select it from this list.

 

 

 

Once you have chosen your csv file that you wish to import, you can choose which action you want to perform while importing.  Your choices are.

Append - which will add all locations on the import list to the current list in the database. Nothing gets erased.

Overwrite - which will erase all current locations in the database first (deleting all records), then import the locations from your list into the database as a new/fresh database of locations.

 

 

After the Import Routine has completed,  you'll get a confirmation screen that will inform you on how many records successfully imported and how many records were invalid and didn't import.

 

 

 

TIP: A Quick Way to build your Category Assignment Import File:

Ok, so your thinking that you have way to many locations to assign categories and products by hand manually, and you can't even think about creating this file from scratch.  It's hard enough to type in the category ID, plus the location id.  So, what is the fastest way to build this file?

 

1. Import or type in all your locations into your locator.

2. Export your locations into a csv file with the 'Export Locations' tool.

3. Download and Open the exported csv file in MS Excel.

4. Notice that every record has a record ID field in the very first column (column A)  (think about it, you now have a full list of record IDs)

5. Insert a new column between the existing column A and column B (id field and name field)

6. Use this new column to hold your category/product IDs.

7. Print off your list of categories and product from your admin panel.  (this list will show you the IDs)

8. Start typing in the category/product IDs for each location that you want to assign

9. Each location can belong to one category/product or multiple categories/products.  If multiple, the separate each one with  colon character.

TIP: Right click on the letter 'B' (column B), click on 'Format', and choose 'TEXT'.  Otherwise Excel may try to change your category IDs into time.

 

10. Once you've completed typing all category/product IDs, then you can safely remove all the other fields. Column C and beyond.

11. Now, your file has two columns,  Column A and Column B.  Column A holds location record id and Column B holds category IDs.  And there are now no other fields (columns) on your spreadsheet.

12. Done!  Click on 'File- Save AS' from the file menu, and save the file as a .csv format file.

13. Your file is now ready to import.

 

 

Attn: MAC Users:

If you are using a MAC computer, and are planning on importing your category assignments from a file, there is one step you must do before your import will work correctly.  If you have a list of locations/categories in MS excel and then save the file as a CSV file, you must also choose the "Windows Text" option.  Your text file must be saved with Windows ANSI file formatting.  Choosing the Windows Text option should do this for you.

 

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