Quickest Way to perform mass (500+) Product changes.

[Unsu]

Hello,

Overall I am very happy with the efficiency MIVA 9 has brought to quick products changes. I can make 25 price or description changes now in a few minutes versus the interface in MIVA 5.

One question still: is there a more efficient method to making a single change for all your products? I have about 500 to change, and it's actually just an extra letter in the product code.

Currently the MIVA interface still requires a few clicks and server response time per item to make changes.

I am guessing perhaps an export of each category to file, edit in Excel and import again, but I am worried about losing product data in the process.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, thank you!

[Dan - Glendale Designs]

Re: Quickest Way to perform mass (500+) Product changes.

Miva Merchant's new CSV import/export features are much more reliable on a number of fronts. (these features were available in MM5.5, however they were kind of hidden) As a rule of thumb, always check the Import Settings before actually performing an import. Only export/import the data columns you need to change, this reduces the odds of something unintended happening. Keep a copy of the unaltered export file in the event something does happen and you need to roll things back.

Some videos on the topic: http://www.miva.com/videos/category/data-management

[hmendenhall]

Re: Quickest Way to perform mass (500+) Product changes.

Hello,

Overall I am very happy with the efficiency MIVA 9 has brought to quick products changes. I can make 25 price or description changes now in a few minutes versus the interface in MIVA 5.

One question still: is there a more efficient method to making a single change for all your products? I have about 500 to change, and it's actually just an extra letter in the product code.

Currently the MIVA interface still requires a few clicks and server response time per item to make changes.

I am guessing perhaps an export of each category to file, edit in Excel and import again, but I am worried about losing product data in the process.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, thank you!

Hi

The quickest way to do so would be to do a product export/import.
Here is a quick break down...

1. From the Miva Admin Select Data Management
Click the Export Products to Flat File button
Because all you need to change is the product code from the Export Fields area you would select
Name & SKU
Screen Shot 2014-12-10 at 8.03.05 AM.jpg
Your Exported Excel document will look something like this.

2. Next make your changes needed to the product codes and save changes.

3. Go to the same Data Management page and select the Import Settings Tab. Edit Add/Update Products from CSV
Your settings for this section should be as shown:
Screen Shot 2014-12-10 at 8.11.13 AM.jpg
Save

4. Go back to the Import/Export tab on that page click the Add/Update Products from CSV
Choose the file you edited and you will be all set and will not lose any product data. :)

I hope this helps

Please and Thank You

[Mark Hood]

Re: Quickest Way to perform mass (500+) Product changes.

You probably already know this but as a side not don't forget any links you have to those products outside Miva (search engines) will become broken unless you redirect them.

[koala]

Re: Quickest Way to perform mass (500+) Product changes.

Kent Multer wrote us a custom 301 redirect module - you should talk to him about this before changing your product codes as you'll have a lot of SEO issues if you make these types of changes.

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: Quickest Way to perform mass (500+) Product changes.

Just to clarify something that has been mentioned, but only in passing, changing the product by using import will create a NEW, SEPARATE product. It will not CHANGE the existing product so you need to make sure ALL data is exported and referenced such as Custom Fields, Category Assignments, Availability Groups etc.

You will also want to probably remove the old products when done, or perhaps just before importing.

[Unsu]

Re: Quickest Way to perform mass (500+) Product changes.

Thanks everyone for the awesome replies. I really appreciate a community of staff, developers and enthusiasts lending a hand.

I have learned alot over the last few weeks of research and trial & error. I am making alot of changes to products that were added back on Miva 4 as early as 2002, and require alot of care with canonical links, image types, custom fields etc.

I built a structured task list and am using a dev site to test everything again and again.

I've also contacted Kent for his services, he is a great guy but I will probably be happy with my own simple 301 htaccess file which I have tested and it works well:

RewriteEngine On


RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} Store_Code=rd&Screen=PROD&Product_Code=P100A [NC]
RewriteRule ^.*$ http://website.com/store/product/PP100A [L,R=301]

and of course redo this 500 times :)

Bruce brings up an interesting point - if you change the product code on the CSV, it will see it as a new item, not as a modified item. I need to keep that in mind when syncing the change.

Enabling shortlinks seems like a snap with CCSUI. I enabled them, set my paths, and only need to make link changes on links I manually put in (my own category tree for example). I read horror stories about going into PLST,CTGY,SRCH,PROD,BASK etc. and changing the code manually?

My last bit of hesitation is the sequence of launching it all. I intend to do it late tonight or tomorrow and put the site in maintenance mode for 30 minutes. I believe this is the order I want:

1) Add/Update the new CSV with new Product Codes, essentially adding new products.
2) Upload the modified .htaccess file with the 301's for products/categories
3) Delete the old products (I believe this has to be done manually in admin.mvc)
4) Enable Shortlinks
5) Adjust any old manual links to the new short links
6) Click on every possible thing I can think of to debug and find errors.
7) Relaunch the website.

Does this sound like a good plan?

Thanks!