We are excited to announce several enhancements to the viewing, editing and importing/exporting of items. These enhancements are available to merchants to use now. We will temporarily be allowing edits from either the old or new pages to ensure a smooth transition.
These updates can be accessed from Inventory–>Items–>New Item Pages
Please view a description of the updates below.
Enhanced Item Import & Export
New specifications
- The specifications for the import and export are modified slightly from the old import/export item specs. Files from the old import export system for items cannot be used directly in the new import/export due to these changes. Please review the latest specifications before uploading to ensure compatibility. Most notable changes include:
- Using a | (pipe) symbol instead of : (colon) symbol to separate list values
- Yes/No values versus Y/N
- Attribute definition simplified to just include class name and value, please review the new definition
- Due to the specification changes we will keep the old import available for use for a few months to ensure a smooth transition.
Faster speed
- Exports and imports are optimized to be completed much more quickly and includes the ability to export and import very large data sets.
Format Selection and Name
- Choose the type of export format, ie txt, csv, excel etc and give the file a unique name if needed.
Scheduling
- Schedule a import to be done at regular intervals and from a URL, this allows importing of files that are published from a third party source to be automatically updated with no intervention on your part.
Done in background
- Imports and Exports are now scheduled to occur in the background. This means you can continue working instead of waiting for the import or export to complete. Return at any later time to retrieve the created file.
Leave out columns and change column ordering
- Only required columns need to be included in the import, leave out any column that you are not interested in updating. Columns can also be in any order that you would like. The heading line will be used to determine where the data is located in the file.
Export Column Selection
- Choose the columns that you would like to be part of the export. Uncheck the columns that you do not want to export.
- Export settings will be saved and used for future exports.
Updated Item View/Edit Pages
Enhanced Search
- Search on nearly any item field that is available.
- Have as many search parameters as needed.
- Previous search will be saved upon return to the screen.
- Search matching all criteria entered or matching any entered criteria.
Data Validation
- Data will be validated as it is entered. Any problems on fields will be shown on screen right away and indicated with a light red color.
Settings Popup
- The settings link at the top of the page replaces the old tabs on the item edit screen and the advanced edit versus regular edit.
- From the settings link you can turn on any field on the page that you would to edit or turn off any field that you are not interested in. The settings link enables you to customize the page to match the way you edit items.
- By default we have setup each store to show the fields that you are already using for your items and to hide fields that you are not using.
Extended and User Defined Fields
- Added the ability to have unlimited extended and user defined fields on each item versus a maximum of 5.
- For extended fields create your own item extended variables to be used in your item layout for instance the current extended variables are named OBJ_EXT_FIELD1_OBJ, OBJ_EXT_FIELD2_OBJ, OBJ_EXT_FIELD3_OBJ, OBJ_EXT_FIELD4_OBJ, OBJ_EXT_FIELD5_OBJ. You can now create variables like OBJ_EXT_FIELD_Manufacturer_OBJ, OBJ_EXT_FIELD_ISBN_OBJ etc that are more descriptive and match your unique needs.
- **IMPORTANT NOTE** Unlike everything else the new user defined and extended fields are NOT backwards compatible. If you add extended fields or user defined fields to an item from the new item edit screens they are not editable from the old item edit screens.
Menu Name Change
- On the Inventory menu, the pages current name is Inventory–>Items–>Search, the new page will be available at Inventory–>Items–>View/Edit