how to add multpiple products

Hi
I have a shop set up at www.acrossthetracksrecords.com

My client has used ebay until now, and has used turbo lister. I would like to create a spreadshhet for him, that can be uploaded with the new items for sale in a similar way to turbo lister. He tends to put about 50 itms on at a time. Each item is individual, so needs to be added seperately.

Before I installed hika shop, and asked advice and was told how to edit a csv file from turbo lister to make it compatible. Well, I could not make it work, so I think we will build up the invantory from scratch. Therefore what I would like is some sort of template csv file, that has all the correct headings, that we can use. Can anyone advise?

Whilst I think Hika shop is really fantastic, I am finding the instructions quite hard to follow. Is there any sort of manual that I can just work through?

THanks for your help.

Hi,

You have two things to help you in that:
1. The documentation page about import of CSVs in HikaShop: www.hikashop.com/en/support/documentatio...hikashop-import.html
2. Since version 1.5.1, on the products listing, there is an export button which you can use to export products information as a CSV. That way you don't have to fiddle with CSVs in order to understand all the structure. Just create a product as you need, export it, and see how the CSV looks like.

Thank you for this. I have bben looking at the link you sent me, and I really find it a little hard to understand. perhaps once I get going it will make more sense.
I also found another post with a test csv file, and when I liiked at it I really did not understand that either. I was hoping to use excel.

Thank you for telling me about the export facility. I was the previous version at the moment. I will have to upgrade it. I will look and see if I can do that now.

Any further suggestions will be greatfully received.

Hi
Thanks again for the help.

I have now upgraded my hikashop, and downloded the one product I have in the store.
I have opened the csv file, and it looks very very complicated to me. Is there no more simple option than this for multiple items? I know that even if I were to understand it, my client would run a mile.
I can suggest he adds the items one at a time for now, but I do not think he will want to do this in the longrun.

I have attached my exported file

Please can you advise.

Sorry to be so stupid!!

I had a look at turbo lister but it seems to be the same as a CSV when opened with Excel or any other calc software so I don't see where is the difficulty. Maybe you're opening your CSVs with a text editor instead of using such software ? Sure, there are a lot of columns by default but you can just remove the ones you don't need and greatly simplify your CSVs. In the documentation page we provide, we simplified the CSVs to the maximum and you have only a few columns.
If you want something simpler, you have the product creation/edition interface. Note that with the Business edition, you have a copy button on the products listing which mgith greatly help you create new products by first duplicating existing products.

Thanks for the help.

I will try my turbo lister file again, tomorrow, and let you know if it works. I edit it with exel. I have it as a csv file.

We will certainly consider upgrading to the business package, once we are up and running.

Thanks again.

Hi again

I have tried uploading the csv file, which I have made from a turbo lister file. I am unable to upload it, and get an error message. I am attaching both the csv file and a screen shot of the error message. Please could someone help me sort this out.

Thanks so much for your help and patience!

That's not a CSV file. If you open a CSV with notepad, you should be able to read the data in it.
If you open your file with notepad, you can't read anything. So It's normal that you get an error.
Also, before importing a CSV made from another software, you need first to open it with excel or such software to change the name of the columns so that it uses hikashop's columns names.

OK, so I edited it with exel, but then just changed it from .xls to .csv

I have added some hika shop headings as instruced by, I think you, in an email (thank you)

"So it should be pretty easy. You just need to edit the file via excel
or notepad++ and change in the header line the column names:
Price => price_value
Start Date => product_sale_start
Item Title => product_name
Category Leaf Name => categories

Then, when you import the CSV, you will get error messages because
hikashop cannot understand the other columns, but they don't contain
any information and the products will still be imported."

Now I will try to open the turbo lister file with notepad, and edit it from there. I will let you know as soon as I have had time to try this.

Hi Nicolas

I am pleased to say I have made a bit of progress.
I opened my test file in exel and then saved it as a csv file. I was then able to import it. HOWEVER, all it did was add some new categories, without the products. I guess I will have to edit the headings, but I do not know how.

I would also like to say, that I looked at the file in exel (and notepad) and in its current format it looks way too complicated for my client (and quite possibly myself). So, before I proceed with this method of adding products I would like to know if it is as complicated due to the incorrect formatting? If you think it can be simplified, then please can you tell me how to do so.
My client has about 5000 items in his ebay shop, and hopes to build this site up to that level over time. I am sure he will want to upgrade, but I think we need to get something basic up and running first.

I have atttahed the csv file, and then once imported, I downloaded the new file from the site, which I have also attached.

Many thanks

Sarah

It can indeed be simplified. You can remove all the columns of the CSV except "Quantity Available", "price_value", "product_sale_start", "Item Title", "categories"
and change the column names like that:
"Quantity Available" => product_quantity
"Item Title" => product_name

Thank you. I will try it later today.

Thank you. Now it all works and is perfect!!

I will need to add some more headings like image (both thumbnail and enlargement in the description), and condition. I am going to have to work on this a little each day, so next I will search and see if I can find some info on this.

Thnks again.