one of the biggest challenges i face is the maintenance of product data
 
At present we only capture those products that we have on special, however we would like to be able to capture and update all product from all our suppliers - i am talking about thousands of products - that change daily!
 
i would love to see a feature that allows me to import my supplier price lists (usually supplied in excel format) -
 
however since each supplier has their own way of laying out the data and naming fields it would be great to have a tool that imports and and displays the data in rows and colums as per the original excel file
 
allowing the administrator to create and save rules for automatic updating of data using the most recent price list - on the first import it will take sometime to establish the rules but with each subsequent import the process becomes quicker as the rules become more defined.
 
i am working on a more detailed description - but for now you get the idea?

I totally agree.
 
I spend half my life (it seems) sorting through hundreds of prices on vendors workbooks or pdf's, going into each and every product to change.
I know you can do it via import feature but that isn't as easy as it sounds.(or maybe we just need to be shown the best way)
 
I find it hard ti believe there is not an easier way to update just the pricing on many products, via one admin page.

I don't see a problem simply importing table updates into mySQL.
 
Hunny's problem appears to lie in the fact that the lists are not consistent in field structure and I wonder whether it would be possible for Viart to have a straightforward method of handling that anyway?
 
Chris

I don't see a problem simply importing table updates into mySQL
 
Because I wouldn't have a clue how to do it.

I presume you have phpMyAdmin? Most hosts provide this.
 
That makes it easy to import a file to add to, or to over-write, a table (you must make a copy of the table first for security - and you can also do that easily with phpMyAdmin.
 
The program is fairly clear about what to do, and really quite easy to use, if you have patience to read the screen and take care to get it right.
 
You must ensure that the table fields are identical to the Viart Table so preparation is important. When you have done it once you will probably set up a routine to do this.
 
I am definitely not a programmer and I quickly learned how to do this so I am sure you can
 
Regards
 
Chris

Thank you,
 
Only if I was 100% sure that I wouldn't stuff it up, would I try this. So, I wont try unless I were shown how to do it :(,
Maybe Viart should make a flash tutorial?

If you do a copy table - you will see how easy this is in phpMyAdmin - you have no problem.
If you screw the data on import you simply delete the changed table and rename the copy back to the original name. That's it.
 
So, if I upload to add to, or over write, a table called va_items, I first make a copy to va_itemsCOPY.
 
If the upload action to the original table fails all I have to do is delete va_items and rename va_itemsCOPY to va_items ... and I am back to where I was before I did anything.
 
I leave this with you - It's what I do and it's your choice. Perhaps other users can offer an alternative?
 
Chris