[Skip to main content](#vessel-content) # How to Clone products ## - **[beevo](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile")** - [![beevo's Avatar](https://www.hikashop.com/media/kunena/avatars/resized/size144/users/avatar6111.jpg)](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile") Topic Author - [ Offline](/forum/user/6111-beevo) Less More - Posts: 10 - Thank you received: 1 - - 14 years 8 months ago - 14 years 8 months ago [\#39238](#39238) by [beevo](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile") *[How to Clone products](/forum/4-how-to/39238-how-to-clone-products#39238 "I' just new and have installed the essentials version on J2.5 No problems as far as bugs yet - thankfully. 1 question here: Is there a quick way to clone a product. I have about 200 art images to enter. Obviously the images and titles are different but they all have the same variants on them and for the most part the prices are the same. Any help appreciated. Thank you for your time.")* was created by *[beevo](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile")* I' just new and have installed the essentials version on J2.5 No problems as far as bugs yet - thankfully. 1 question here: Is there a quick way to clone a product. I have about 200 art images to enter. Obviously the images and titles are different but they all have the same variants on them and for the most part the prices are the same. Any help appreciated. Thank you for your time. --- Using HikaShop essentials on Joomla 2.6 Last edit: 14 years 8 months ago by [beevo](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile"). Reason: Solved one queston so removed it. Please [Log in](/login?return=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaGlrYXNob3AuY29tL2ZvcnVtLzQtaG93LXRvLzM5MjM4LWhvdy10by1jbG9uZS1wcm9kdWN0cz90bXBsPW1hcmtkb3du) or [Create an account](/register) to join the conversation. - **[nicolas](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile")** - [![nicolas's Avatar](https://www.hikashop.com/media/kunena/avatars/resized/size144/users/avatar63.png?1793428657)](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile") - [ Offline](/forum/user/63-nicolas) Less More - Posts: 86322 - Thank you received: 14281 - - 14 years 8 months ago [\#39345](#39345) by [nicolas](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile") Replied by *[nicolas](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile")* on topic *[Re: How to Clone products](/forum/4-how-to/39238-how-to-clone-products#39345 "I' just new and have installed the essentials version on J2.5 No problems as far as bugs yet - thankfully. 1 question here: Is there a quick way to clone a product. I have about 200 art images to enter. Obviously the images and titles are different but they all have the same variants on them and for the most part the prices are the same. Any help appreciated. Thank you for your time.")* Hi, In the Business edition, there is a copy button on the products listing in the back end to do exactly that. Otherwise, you can export your product, modify it in excel and import it back. The following user(s) said Thank You: [beevo](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile") Please [Log in](/login?return=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaGlrYXNob3AuY29tL2ZvcnVtLzQtaG93LXRvLzM5MjM4LWhvdy10by1jbG9uZS1wcm9kdWN0cz90bXBsPW1hcmtkb3du) or [Create an account](/register) to join the conversation. - **[beevo](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile")** - [![beevo's Avatar](https://www.hikashop.com/media/kunena/avatars/resized/size144/users/avatar6111.jpg)](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile") Topic Author - [ Offline](/forum/user/6111-beevo) Less More - Posts: 10 - Thank you received: 1 - - 14 years 8 months ago - 14 years 8 months ago [\#39372](#39372) by [beevo](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile") Replied by *[beevo](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile")* on topic *[Re: How to Clone products](/forum/4-how-to/39238-how-to-clone-products#39372 "I' just new and have installed the essentials version on J2.5 No problems as far as bugs yet - thankfully. 1 question here: Is there a quick way to clone a product. I have about 200 art images to enter. Obviously the images and titles are different but they all have the same variants on them and for the most part the prices are the same. Any help appreciated. Thank you for your time.")* THanks for your reply. Dissapointing that I would have to pay extra money for a function that comes free with virtuemart. While I am grateful for the built in help areas, I would like to take this oppertunity to suggest that a proper manual would be a great help. You need to take a beginner from start to finish setting up a simple store selling 4 kinds of fruits, within thier own categories, with size variants of small, medium and large (with respective price vatiants) and setting up the view areas of the front end, and the paypal method and shipping. The benefits of such a manual would be 1. The learning curve for newcomers would be so much less steep and 2. You would have fewer questions (and delay for replies) on the forum. And finally, 3. It will also make this HikaShop shopping cart system excel above all others. And if it can be done on video so much the better! --- Using HikaShop essentials on Joomla 2.6 Last edit: 14 years 8 months ago by [beevo](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile"). Reason: addendum Please [Log in](/login?return=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaGlrYXNob3AuY29tL2ZvcnVtLzQtaG93LXRvLzM5MjM4LWhvdy10by1jbG9uZS1wcm9kdWN0cz90bXBsPW1hcmtkb3du) or [Create an account](/register) to join the conversation. - **[nicolas](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile")** - [![nicolas's Avatar](https://www.hikashop.com/media/kunena/avatars/resized/size144/users/avatar63.png?1793428657)](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile") - [ Offline](/forum/user/63-nicolas) Less More - Posts: 86322 - Thank you received: 14281 - - 14 years 8 months ago [\#39516](#39516) by [nicolas](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile") Replied by *[nicolas](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile")* on topic *[Re: How to Clone products](/forum/4-how-to/39238-how-to-clone-products#39516 "I' just new and have installed the essentials version on J2.5 No problems as far as bugs yet - thankfully. 1 question here: Is there a quick way to clone a product. I have about 200 art images to enter. Obviously the images and titles are different but they all have the same variants on them and for the most part the prices are the same. Any help appreciated. Thank you for your time.")* Thank you for your input. We already have: a tutorial to explain how to setup your first product, the paypal method and shipping: [ www.hikashop.com/en/support/documentatio...first-test-sale.html](http://www.hikashop.com/en/support/documentation/68-hikashop-first-test-sale.html) a tutorial to explain how to setup your menus and modules to display your products:http://www.hikashop.com/en/support/documentation/67-hikashop-content-display-front-end.html So that covers the basics. But yes, we'll try to improve them and especially the first one in order to have a better starting point. Please [Log in](/login?return=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaGlrYXNob3AuY29tL2ZvcnVtLzQtaG93LXRvLzM5MjM4LWhvdy10by1jbG9uZS1wcm9kdWN0cz90bXBsPW1hcmtkb3du) or [Create an account](/register) to join the conversation. - **[beevo](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile")** - [![beevo's Avatar](https://www.hikashop.com/media/kunena/avatars/resized/size144/users/avatar6111.jpg)](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile") Topic Author - [ Offline](/forum/user/6111-beevo) Less More - Posts: 10 - Thank you received: 1 - - 14 years 8 months ago [\#39530](#39530) by [beevo](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile") Replied by *[beevo](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile")* on topic *[Re: How to Clone products](/forum/4-how-to/39238-how-to-clone-products#39530 "I' just new and have installed the essentials version on J2.5 No problems as far as bugs yet - thankfully. 1 question here: Is there a quick way to clone a product. I have about 200 art images to enter. Obviously the images and titles are different but they all have the same variants on them and for the most part the prices are the same. Any help appreciated. Thank you for your time.")* Thanks for your reply Nicolas. With regard to exporting and importing. I've had a go at that and it is not as straight forward as I'd hoped because all of the variants have their own record and the real product number only increases every seventh row - so messy for editing. Although I have been successful in copying editing and importing, it is very tedious and time consuming. It seems to me that it would be better if the characteristics table itself also held the prices for each variant (or zero for no prices). In that way instead of a new product record being made for each and every variant. just one field on the product record could have the characteristic id which would link to all those variants and their prices. Say for example I have a characteristic record called "Format" and the variants within that are "Print" "Laminated Print" "Framed Print" (etc.) and also the prices 14, 18, 45 respectfully (For variants with different prices you could simply enter another record "Format2" with the new prices.) Because in my scenario there are very few price changes within these products. Then the product record would be Unique_id, Product_id, Product_name, et. etc. **Variant** etc. (and the variant would hold the id for "Format") In this way when I export the products csv, given that each product has it's entire data on ONE record it would be so easy to duplicate/clone this and edit for changes. (it also means that each Parent Product record increments by one on each row) And similar to your present import which allows new categories to be made on the fly you could do the same for new Characteristic records holding the variants (it would hold one dummy variant to be edited later). These could then be edited later (even with an export import) to show the correct variants. In my case this would only be about 9 records in this table. This is better than at present, duplicating all 6 variants for each product on the products table and giving them each their own records. Anyway, that's just my suggestion which as I say suits my purpose for selling art pieces. Thanks for listening. --- Using HikaShop essentials on Joomla 2.6 Please [Log in](/login?return=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaGlrYXNob3AuY29tL2ZvcnVtLzQtaG93LXRvLzM5MjM4LWhvdy10by1jbG9uZS1wcm9kdWN0cz90bXBsPW1hcmtkb3du) or [Create an account](/register) to join the conversation. - **[nicolas](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile")** - [![nicolas's Avatar](https://www.hikashop.com/media/kunena/avatars/resized/size144/users/avatar63.png?1793428657)](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile") - [ Offline](/forum/user/63-nicolas) Less More - Posts: 86322 - Thank you received: 14281 - - 14 years 8 months ago [\#39712](#39712) by [nicolas](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile") Replied by *[nicolas](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile")* on topic *[Re: How to Clone products](/forum/4-how-to/39238-how-to-clone-products#39712 "I' just new and have installed the essentials version on J2.5 No problems as far as bugs yet - thankfully. 1 question here: Is there a quick way to clone a product. I have about 200 art images to enter. Obviously the images and titles are different but they all have the same variants on them and for the most part the prices are the same. Any help appreciated. Thank you for your time.")* Hi, If you don't need variants for your characteristics, you should not use characteristics but options: [ www.hikashop.com/en/support/documentatio...ct-form.html#options](http://www.hikashop.com/en/support/documentation/integrated-documentation/19-hikashop-product-form.html#options) They will also display as dropdowns on the product page you they won't generate variants for your products and the prices will be directly in each option choice and added to the main product price. Creating characteristics from the import automatically is something we have in our todo list. Please [Log in](/login?return=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaGlrYXNob3AuY29tL2ZvcnVtLzQtaG93LXRvLzM5MjM4LWhvdy10by1jbG9uZS1wcm9kdWN0cz90bXBsPW1hcmtkb3du) or [Create an account](/register) to join the conversation. - **[beevo](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile")** - [![beevo's Avatar](https://www.hikashop.com/media/kunena/avatars/resized/size144/users/avatar6111.jpg)](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile") Topic Author - [ Offline](/forum/user/6111-beevo) Less More - Posts: 10 - Thank you received: 1 - - 14 years 8 months ago - 14 years 8 months ago [\#39720](#39720) by [beevo](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile") Replied by *[beevo](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile")* on topic *[Re: How to Clone products](/forum/4-how-to/39238-how-to-clone-products#39720 "I' just new and have installed the essentials version on J2.5 No problems as far as bugs yet - thankfully. 1 question here: Is there a quick way to clone a product. I have about 200 art images to enter. Obviously the images and titles are different but they all have the same variants on them and for the most part the prices are the same. Any help appreciated. Thank you for your time.")* Thank you Nicolas for your reply, I had already looked at the options method and I tried that to see how it would look on the final cart. While this works OK for adding extras (as in the example given of a computer build) it is not suitable for the sale of artwork in this scenario. Imagine you are buying three or four pieces of art. The first one is a framed print the second is a different piece of art but framed original art the next a laminated piece of art and finally a print alone. on the final cart you would have a listing for each piece of art (4 listings), then a listing for the added frame for a print then the listing for a frame for original art then the listing for lamination another 3 listings) and it is not clear which one is attached to what piece of art. This is just messy and not a real 'option' at all for this site. The user needs to see ONE entry on the cart for the ONE purchase they made. Like I say, I believe the prices should be held on the table that holds the variants, separating the prices is one normalisation too far and only serves to complicate, not simplify, the database. And getting back to my main point, it also complicated the records for the product which would only take one record for each product and not a further 6 or whatever for the variants applied. I understand if you've invested time in making your product a certain way you will want to hold tight to your design. I'm just giving you my perspective using the product for my uses and in my case it is over complicated and not conducive to simple edits and cloning via excel. --- Using HikaShop essentials on Joomla 2.6 Last edit: 14 years 8 months ago by [beevo](/forum/user/6111-beevo "View beevo's Profile"). Reason: omission corrected Please [Log in](/login?return=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaGlrYXNob3AuY29tL2ZvcnVtLzQtaG93LXRvLzM5MjM4LWhvdy10by1jbG9uZS1wcm9kdWN0cz90bXBsPW1hcmtkb3du) or [Create an account](/register) to join the conversation. - **[nicolas](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile")** - [![nicolas's Avatar](https://www.hikashop.com/media/kunena/avatars/resized/size144/users/avatar63.png?1793428657)](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile") - [ Offline](/forum/user/63-nicolas) Less More - Posts: 86322 - Thank you received: 14281 - - 14 years 8 months ago [\#39866](#39866) by [nicolas](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile") Replied by *[nicolas](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile")* on topic *[Re: How to Clone products](/forum/4-how-to/39238-how-to-clone-products#39866 "I' just new and have installed the essentials version on J2.5 No problems as far as bugs yet - thankfully. 1 question here: Is there a quick way to clone a product. I have about 200 art images to enter. Obviously the images and titles are different but they all have the same variants on them and for the most part the prices are the same. Any help appreciated. Thank you for your time.")* Hi, If you turn on the option "group options with products" in the configuration, the options will be displayed "together" with their parent product on the checkout/cart/order/invoice/email. That's actually how it is on our demo website and you can easily see which option goes for which product. Please [Log in](/login?return=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaGlrYXNob3AuY29tL2ZvcnVtLzQtaG93LXRvLzM5MjM4LWhvdy10by1jbG9uZS1wcm9kdWN0cz90bXBsPW1hcmtkb3du) or [Create an account](/register) to join the conversation. - **[mbyp](/forum/user/6674-mbyp "View mbyp's Profile")** - [![mbyp's Avatar](https://www.hikashop.com/media/kunena/core/svg/person.svg)](/forum/user/6674-mbyp "View mbyp's Profile") - [ Offline](/forum/user/6674-mbyp) Less More - Posts: 4 - Thank you received: 0 - - 14 years 7 months ago [\#43277](#43277) by [mbyp](/forum/user/6674-mbyp "View mbyp's Profile") Replied by *[mbyp](/forum/user/6674-mbyp "View mbyp's Profile")* on topic *[Re: How to Clone products](/forum/4-how-to/39238-how-to-clone-products#43277 "I' just new and have installed the essentials version on J2.5 No problems as far as bugs yet - thankfully. 1 question here: Is there a quick way to clone a product. I have about 200 art images to enter. Obviously the images and titles are different but they all have the same variants on them and for the most part the prices are the same. Any help appreciated. Thank you for your time.")* Hi Nicholas, Congratulations on a FANTASTIC shopping cart, I am a beginner, but within an hour I had a product on sale. Now I just have to make it look prettier... (any top tips are appreciated) I have to agree with the other Forum Poster here though about the CLONE/COPY button. I have used VM and that makes things so much more quicker to copy products. The excel way seems a bit complicated to me! I understand you have to make money, but is there a quick fix? I would be willing to pay a little for cloning but not the big money a Business edition costs. Anything you can do? Please [Log in](/login?return=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaGlrYXNob3AuY29tL2ZvcnVtLzQtaG93LXRvLzM5MjM4LWhvdy10by1jbG9uZS1wcm9kdWN0cz90bXBsPW1hcmtkb3du) or [Create an account](/register) to join the conversation. - **[nicolas](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile")** - [![nicolas's Avatar](https://www.hikashop.com/media/kunena/avatars/resized/size144/users/avatar63.png?1793428657)](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile") - [ Offline](/forum/user/63-nicolas) Less More - Posts: 86322 - Thank you received: 14281 - - 14 years 7 months ago [\#43467](#43467) by [nicolas](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile") Replied by *[nicolas](/forum/user/63-nicolas "View nicolas's Profile")* on topic *[Re: How to Clone products](/forum/4-how-to/39238-how-to-clone-products#43467 "I' just new and have installed the essentials version on J2.5 No problems as far as bugs yet - thankfully. 1 question here: Is there a quick way to clone a product. I have about 200 art images to enter. Obviously the images and titles are different but they all have the same variants on them and for the most part the prices are the same. Any help appreciated. Thank you for your time.")* Hi, It's indeed a great way to duplicate products. I don't have any other quick fix besides the CSV export import. You can do that quite rapidly though. Select the products in the listing, click on export, save the file, open it with excel, change the product_code and remove the product_id column, save and import the file and you have it. Please [Log in](/login?return=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuaGlrYXNob3AuY29tL2ZvcnVtLzQtaG93LXRvLzM5MjM4LWhvdy10by1jbG9uZS1wcm9kdWN0cz90bXBsPW1hcmtkb3du) or [Create an account](/register) to join the conversation. Board Categories HikaShop Install & Update Product & Category Display Content Creation Sales and Orders Orders management Reports & Statistics Customers Checkout Payment Methods Shipping Methods Import & Export (CSV, XLS…) Specific Features Affilation Taxes Wishlist Vote Carousel & Slider Mass Actions Filters & Search Discount & Coupon Feature Request Integrations Showcase General Talk about HikaShop Development HikaShop 3.0 Beta Translation Commercial Jobs HikaShop Components HikaMarket Market: Feature requests Market: How to? Market: Bug Report HikaSerial General talk about HikaSerial Serial: Bug Report Serial: How to? Support en Français de HikaSerial (French Support) HikaSubscription HikaAuction Auction: Feature requests Auction: How to? Auction: Bug report Hikashop around the world Support en Français (French Support) Russian FAQ. Курс выживания с Hikashop. Частые вопросы и о Расширения Hikashop Наши сайты на Hikashop 日本語版サポート(Japanese Support) Thai German Archives Bug Report How to? [](/forum/topics/feed/mode-topics?format=feed&type=rss) Time to create page: 0.130 seconds [Powered by](/forum/credits) [Kunena Forum](https://www.kunena.org)