Import product data from xl spreadsheet / customisation of administration interface

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Author	Message
steve walker	Tuesday 01 June 2004 6:18:44 am Hi there, I'm currently spec'ing up a big design project, and trying to see if Ez is able to deliver these pretty high level functionality specs - I think the answer will be yes... I am setting up a site that sells diamonds and associated products. First question is: is it possible for the product data to be updated via an import of data from a xl spreadsheet. I have seen some references to an EzTrade module that sounds as though it would do the job, but cant find the module...has it turned into the 'shop' tag in Ez version 3?... also, there is the 'plugin' to ERP systems, but I dont think this will interface with something as basic as Excel. Second question: is it possible to customise the admin interface - if I cant import external data, I'd like to give some customised views of products... for instance, a page that lists all the diamonds with their prices and discount rates etc, similar to a spreadsheet, so that the client could go through the list, make changes to any prices etc as required, and then submit price changes in one fail swoop... instead of having to go through each product one by one?? Any ideas, thoughts and feedback of any sort greatly appreciated. Regards, Steve. http://www.oneworldmarket.co.uk
steve walker	Tuesday 01 June 2004 6:29:22 am Hi, I have found some useful stuff via: http://www.ez.no/ez_publish/documentation/development/importing_attribute_data and the thread found at: http://ez.no/community/forum/developer/content_import_questions Its still all pretty experimental stuff - does anyone know of any developments since then? Steve http://www.oneworldmarket.co.uk
Mark Marsiglio	Tuesday 01 June 2004 8:05:22 am Did you look at the content import function descriptions for eZ 3.4? This is supposed to be one of the new features... Also, there may be a chance at the ERP plug in working, only because Excel does support ODBC, and you would just have to be able to map the data structure correctly for your spreadsheets. I have not used this plugin, though, so that is speculation. In regards to the admin interface, it can be customized just as the user site can - using overrides and custom .tpl files. Beware, though, there are a lot of templates in the admin/standard design folders (base folder in 3.4). Designing an entirely new inteface is possible, but would be time consuming. In my project, we created a few custom templates for displaying our own classes in the admin, and we removed the store tab from the interface because it was not used. These changes were both very easy. Adding a new template would also be quite easy. http://www.thinkcreative.com Turning Ideas Into Strategic Solutions
steve walker	Thursday 03 June 2004 12:20:31 am Mark, Thanks for your input. I cant locate the 'content import function descriptions' - I find the links as I pasted in above, but nothing succinct. It would be great to develope an admin extension that allows the input/output of data, something similar say to when you syncronise a PDA with outlook contact database... The ODBC aspect of XL is interesting... In terms of admin customisation, if I can get the data inport to work well, I dont need to worry about creating new product listing views... we shall see. Alex and others have made some inroads into data importing, but it looks pretty high level stuff - I'll post any success I have here. Steve. http://www.oneworldmarket.co.uk