Importing / Exporting

Exporting Data

1. Navigate to Inventory > Import / Export, in the home page of the admin area.
2. Click Data export
3. Choose a table, for example, Products(18). The number next to the table name indicate the total number of records in the table.
4. Choose the columns you wish to export by clicking the appropriate check boxes, for example ProductCode (TEXT : 30). Next to each column name, the data type for that field is indicated. For example, (TEXT:30)  means the value entered in the field must be of text data type and a maximum character length of 30.

   Note: Some tables have column names encapsulated in a box titled Virtual Columns.          

   ** Virtual Field - The data is created on the fly and does not actually exist as a field in the database, therefore usually cannot be imported back in. When you export the virtual columns, the export system is building this data on-the-fly from a variety of tables.

5. Choose the type of file you wish to export to. The most common type is CSV (comma separated values). This type of file can be opened and edited with Microsoft Excel, or any other spreadsheet software. A CSV file can also be imported into Microsoft Access. The CSV format is the most widely supported format across all software, new & old versions.
6. Click the Export my data button. The page will take a moment to generate the file, the page gets refreshed and will provide you with a link to download the file.

Saved Exports

You also have the option to Export Later. To utilize this feature, follow the steps above, but on step 6, type in a name for your export, such as My Product Export, and click the Save to QueryBank button.

After saving your export, you will be taken to the Saved Exports tab, where you will see your export listed. Now, anytime you wish to do this export, just return to this tab, and do the following:

1. Click the radio button of the saved query you would like to export.
2. Choose the type of file you wish to export to.
3. Click the Export my data button.

Importing Data

Navigate to Inventory > Import / Export, in the home page of the admin area.

Click Data Import. Importing data is as simple as taking a standard CSV spreadsheet of data, and renaming the columns to match those of Volusion's database.

We recommend the following steps to accomplish this task:

1. First use the admin area to add a few records to the table you wish to import. Let us take the Products table as an example. We recommend that you use the admin area to add at least 5-10 products first. Be sure to test the configuration of those products and ensure from the front-end of your store that those products look exactly the way you would like them to be displayed.
2. Navigate to Inventory > Import / Export, in the home page of the admin area. Click Data Export and export all fields of the Products table.
3. Now that you have done an export of the data, it will make it easy to use this sample file as a template for importing data. You can either copy the data from your old spreadsheet into this new spreadsheet (which we recommend) or you may re-name the columns of your old spreadsheet to match up with the column names you see in this new spreadsheet.

Common Importing Problems:

1. 1. Often in a spreadsheet you will not notice that there are extra columns and rows that are blank, however the spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel, considers their blank value to be a text value. To ensure you have a clean spreadsheet please take the following steps:
   • Scroll to the right of your spreadsheet to the first empty column with no column name. Click on the top of the column to select the entire column. Hold the SHIFT key and click at least the next 10 columns or so. Now that you have these columns selected, right-click in that selected area and click Delete. Do not hit the DELETE key on your keyboard, as that will NOT do the same thing.
   • Scroll to the bottom of your spreadsheet to the first empty rows with no data. Click the left side of this row to select the entire row. Hold the SHIFT key and click at least the next 10 rows or so. Now that you have these rows selected, right-click in that selected area and choose Delete. Do not hit the DELETE key on your keyboard, as that will NOT do the same thing.
2. 2. File must be generated on a PC, Macintosh is not supported. The reason is that Macintosh uses a different set of characters for line breaks than a PC.
3. 3. The data types and field lengths are important to consider. For example, if a field only allows 30 characters of TEXT, you may only import up to 30 letters, numbers, or other characters. However, if a field is of INTEGER type, you may only import numbers, up to the number 30,000. Please refer to the Data Export to see what the data type constraints are for each field.

Importing Product Photos

For bulk importing photos, try our Automatic Thumbnail Generator located at http://www.volusion.com/support/KB_Article.asp?ID=60 This tool will rename and resize all of your photos (thousands at a time) and with one-click. It will create the required thumbnails, named appropriately and ready to upload via FTP to your site. There is no field in the products table that specifies the photo paths, but rather the photos must simply be named appropriately. That is what this automatic thumbnail generator takes care of.