This chapter will provide some guidelines for importing a hierarchical file.
· Details about what a hierarchical file is are in What Is A Hierarchical File?.
· The valid fields in a hierarchical file are listed in Valid Fields in Hierarchical Files.
The process of importing a hierarchical file is pretty much identical to what is described in Importing From A Standard Spreadsheet, with the following exceptions:
· The option about whether the first row contains field names will be unavailable.
· There will be multiple mapping screens - one for each header row in your file.
Please read through these requirements before creating/editing a hierarchical import file:
General Settings
The import file should be a plain text file in either comma-delimited or tab-delimited format.
The 'Header:' fields (and the corresponding text in the data record) are case sensitive.
Data records MUST begin with the keyword defined in the related Header definition.
For each header field there must be a corresponding data field. If there are more data fields (or the data record contains trailing records because of an export from a spreadsheet) they are ignored. Actinic won't generate an error. If there are fewer fields than required then Actinic will raise an error message.
Each field value in the data record must match the field type that is used internally by Actinic, otherwise the whole row will be dropped. For example, do not put letters in a field where numbers are required.
If necessary, you can import updated values only by using empty fields for the values you wish to retain. See Updating Existing Products Via An Import for more details.
When importing sections, the use of "End,Section" signifies
that the current section (or subsection) is ending. This is useful when building
a section hierarchy. For example the following import file would create a
section called Furniture that contains two sub-sections called Tables and
Chairs:
Header:Section,Section name
Header:Product,Short
description,Price
Section,Furniture
Section,Tables
Product,Round
Table,17500
Product,Square
Table,24000
End,Section
Section,Chairs
Product,Dining
Chair,5600
Product,Armchair,25000
End,Section
End,Section
In the case where the last field does not have a value, a
comma or tab will be inserted at the end, e.g.
Product,Arm rests for Office
Chair,,1500,,,0,,1,
Customer Groups
Customer Group data records MUST be placed BEFORE any section data records.
Attributes, Choices and Components
An Attribute is attached to the most recently defined Component or Product.
A Choice is attached to the most recently defined Attribute.
A Component is attached to the most recently defined Product.
If a component has one or more attributes you will need to use permutation rows. A permutation is placed after any choices.
Prices
You can import pricing information using the Price keyword for Product, Components and Permutations
Permutation prices ("Price" header keyword) MUST be written AFTER each permutation.
You can delete all prices of a given priced item for a specified schedule.
Header:Price,Price,Minimum,Schedule
Price action=delete,,,Retail
Note: the words 'action' and 'delete' are case insensitive.
Special Characters
If a text field contains one of more of the delimiter (comma/tab) then you should enclose the field in double-quotes.
If you want to include text in a section description or product name/description that contains a double quote (e.g. a 17" Monitor), you have to put two double-quotes to produce one double-quote in the catalog (e.g. Product,"17"" Monitor").
Similarly if you wish to include a backslash character in a section or product description, you must use two backslashes, e.g.
More\Less should be written as More\\Less
Details on Tax Treatment
"Zero Rated" is the default value.
In order for "Tax2" or "Both Taxes" to be working, "Include Tax 2" in Business Settings | Tax must be checked.