ExcelPort: Introducing Bulk Mode
Introduction
This post will cover a new long-expected feature of the OpenCart module ExcelPort, namely - Bulk export/import of products. The feature has been introduced in ExcelPort 1.10 (for OpenCart 1.5.x) and ExcelPort 2.4 (for OpenCart 2.x).
Rest assured, no existing features of ExcelPort have been dropped.
This post will present all available export modes for product information, available in the newest release of ExcelPort.
What is ExcelPort?
ExcelPort is one of the leading OpenCart extensions when it comes to transferring your store data via the XLSX format. It is also a great solution for store owners who wish to migrate their data to a newer OpenCart version without having to worry about database compatibility issues.
For more information about ExcelPort, you can also see the extension's OpenCart page. Now let us get to the point.
How were products managed so far?
In the older versions of ExcelPort (prior to version 1.10 for OpenCart 1.x and version 2.4 for OpenCart 2.x), products could be managed in two modes - Quick export and Full export. With the newest release we have introduced a new, third mode, called Bulk export, but more on that a bit later.
We will give a very brief explanation of Quick export (now called Basic export) and Full export (now called Grouped export).
Basic export (previously Quick export)
This is used to export only general product information, excluding Attributes, Recurring Payment Profiles, Options, Discounts, Specials, Images, Reward Points and Designs. In a spreadsheet it looks like this:
This export mode is great if you wish to manage only basic product details in bulk - base price, model, description, status, general quantity, etc.
Grouped export (previously Full export)
This mode groups all product information into a single sheet. This export format has a bigger learning curve, but the benefit is that you have all information in a single place. This makes it a good choice for cases when you do not need to manage all product information (for example when you are migrating to a new OpenCart), or when you need to manually modify information for very few products.
While the above two modes work for most general-purpose cases, they both lack the ability to easily manage in bulk extra product information - Attributes, Recurring Payment Profiles, Options, Discounts, Specials, Images, Reward Points and Designs. To cope with this issue, the iSenseLabs development team has developed a third export mode - Bulk export.
Introducing Bulk mode
Exports
Our customers have spoken and we have listened. ExcelPort 1.10 for OpenCart 1.x and 2.4 for OpenCart 2.x both introduce Bulk export. This awesome new feature can be thought as an extension to the Basic export mode. Here is how it looks like:
As you can see, extra product information is now available for editing in bulk. Every extra entity is related to a product in the sheet "Products" via the Product ID column.
Head over to our demo page and do a test export in Bulk mode to see the rest of the sheets.
Imports
The import process is still as straight-forward as it was before. You may upload a single XLSX document, or a ZIP file containing XLSX documents. ExcelPort will automatically detect the structure of the document, and it will import your data accordingly.
More information about this process is provided in the ExcelPort documentation.
Partial imports
Bulk import also gives you control over which product entities will be affected upon import. For example, imagine you wish to only edit your Options, without doing any modifications to Discounts, Images, Attributes, etc.
In Bulk mode this is very easily achieved by simply deleting the sheets containing the entities you do not wish to affect upon import. For example:
If you import this file, the data which will be affected is:
- All basic product information - same as if you do a Basic import
- Product options
In other words, Discounts, Specials, Attributes, etc. will not be touched in any way.
In conclusion
We hope you like the Bulk export/import feature. Moreover, we hope it will save you editing time and help improve your workflow. We are open to your suggestions and questions.
