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Auto generate UPC's


piccolina

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Is there a way to force CC to automatically generate UPC's after adding the product options.

 

I thought of importing the catalogue with UPN's included. I manually added UPC's to one product but when I exported the catalogue the the UPC column is 0, when it has 6 unique UPC's

 

So I'm not sure how to add the UPC's to the csv catalogue so I can then import back to CC...to add them individually to each product is too tedious.

 

I'm assuming everyone using EAN's or UPC has a method for this otherwise the fields wouldn't be there?

 

I'm trying to implement noodlemans ebay sales mod and hence the necessity for the UPC's

 

I look forward to the suggestions.

 

Geoff

 

CSV file attached

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Was there a particular exporter you used?

 

In CC600b5, these are the CSV header row column names and the corresponding database table names (lines wrapped for clarity):

$header_fields = array('Product Name', 'Status', 'Include in latest products', 'Product Code', 'Weight', 'Description', 'Price', 'Sale Price', 'Cost Price',
                                     'Tax Class', 'Tax Inclusive', 'Main Image', 'Stock Level', 'Use Stock Level', 'Stock Level Warning', 'Master Category ID',
                                     'Manufacturer', 'UPC Code', 'EAN Code', 'JAN Code', 'ISBN Code', 'Brand', 'MPN Code', 'GTIN Code',
                                     'Meta Title', 'Meta Keywords', 'Meta Description', 'Condition');
 
$fields  = array('name', 'status', 'featured', 'product_code', 'product_weight', 'description', 'price', 'sale_price', 'cost_price',
                         'tax_type', 'tax_inclusive', 'image', 'stock_level', 'use_stock_level', 'stock_warning', 'cat_id',
                         'manufacturer', 'upc', 'ean', 'jan', 'isbn', 'brand', 'mpn', 'gtin',
                         'seo_meta_title', 'seo_meta_description', 'seo_meta_keywords', 'condition');

Your SIG says you are using CC5.2.4 - is this correct?

 

CC524 has a choice as to what export destination contents that you want: it looks like you chose "CubeCart:.

$header_fields = array('Product Name','Product Code','Product Description','Price','Sale Price','Cost Price',
                                     'Image','Stock Level','Use Stock','Master Category ID',
                                     'Manufacturer','UPC','EAN','JAN','ISBN','Brand','MPN','GTIN');
 
$fields = array('name', 'product_code', 'description', 'price', 'sale_price', 'cost_price',
                        'image', 'stock_level', 'use_stock_level', 'cat_id',
                        'manufacturer','upc','ean','jan','isbn','brand','mpn','gtin');

So, other than the missing Product Description, everything seems to line up. We are querying for all the columns of the CubeCart_inventory table (and a couple extra bits of info), where the general UPC code is stored. We see it represented as a zero in the file.

 

You said: I manually added UPC's to one product. It has 6 unique UPC's."

 

I have to conclude that you added the UPCs to the product options, as opposed to the main product. In CC524, the product's options Matrix Table is not retrieved for export.

 

Not that it can't. That would take a special exporter.

 

On the flip side, it would take a custom importer to read in options and their attributes for the Matrix Table.
 

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Thank you Brian,

 

I used export catalogue in my CC5.2.4 and the cubecart export.

 

I deleted the Product Description column just to make the image smaller.

 

I added the UPC's in the product options, as I need a different UPC for each individual product option.

 

 In CC524, the product's options Matrix Table is not retrieved for export.

 

​So does that mean one cannot import a catalogue with product options? The options will ALWAYS need to be added manually? 

 

Geoff

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Certainly for CC524, and probably for any version of CC5, a custom importer and possibly a plugin or code snippet will be required to "parse" an imported file and deal with the product's options.

 

I am also not seeing evidence of importing data in a manner that would populate a Matrix Table in CC6, either. (But we can hope.)

 

I do not mean that importing options cannot be done. Because CubeCart (except 5216+) is 99% human readable and therefore incredibly customizable, that would have to be the way to solve this: a customized importer.

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If we are asking for Cubecart to auto-generate a UPC code, or any other piece(s) of data that would otherwise be entered onto the Matrix Table, we might already be in admin assigning options to a product at the Options Table. At the Options Table is where the options are enabled that are to be used in populating the Matrix Table. So, if already at the product's Options tab, what purpose is there to have the UPC (and other data) auto-generated?

 

Now, I can imagine that a properly formatted import document that includes a product's options (there does not exist such a thing as yet) can be parsed, and various CubeCart functions can be called to "simulate" an admin hand-entering this data. And that would be so very nice! But this causes me to ask, what generated the properly formatted document in the first place?

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At present the ONLY reason I need UPC's is so I can use noodlemans ebay sales plugin. Ebay can only only accept the product options from CC (through the plug in) if each option has a UPC. Otherwise I don't need them. But someone must otherwise the fields wouldn't be there....I'm assuming.

 

I appreciate I can add a UPC for every product option in my cc store once I've completed the said products matrix. This would be very tedious.

 

I have a pos system in my retail store that can generate the UPC,s , which in a perfect world I would import to CC through a csv file. And needless to say: it'd be ideal if the UPC's were the same in my real shop and my CC store.

 

The bit I don't understand is ....how does one populate those UPC and EAN etc fields in the "Options Matrix" ? I mean.. the empty fields are generated so how are they populated. If one was to do it manually, and you had 100 products in ONLY 1 x colour over 9 sizes , that's 900 individual entries!!

 

I hope I got that maths right Brian..

 

You sure I'm not missing something here? Thanks for your patience.

 

Geoff

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"how does one populate those UPC and EAN etc fields in the Options Matrix?"

 

Manually, and you got the maths right. Hopefully, however, those 100 products are entered over a span of time. But I can appreciate that a new store owner would want to get the initial several dozen products loaded into the store as quickly as possible. And for high inventory turnover, it would be tedious!

 

You are not missing or misunderstanding anything about the Options Matrix capabilities in your experiences with CubeCart.

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I thought the UPC was very specific to products. Solely only the manufacturer can define what it should be? If you sell these products through more than one vendor then shouldn't they all have the same code?

Just thinking out loud. The import/export has been improved in more recent CC versions so that met help. In v6 it's the best.

To confirm Brian is right as the import won't make option varieties. That's very complex. Hopefully we can support it in the future.

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Thanks Al...and I THINK you are mostly correct.

 

I am the manufacturer, and in Australia the standard product numbering is EAN's which requires one to subscribe to an international service that allocate a range of numbers to you, and you generate the numbers from there, with an app they provide.

 

Currently, I don't subscribe as it's only the major/dept stores that require you to have EAN's, and I'm not supplying them at present. 

 

My need is just really for any random, but unique, number for each product option...like an SKU...I can generate them as I mentioned with my pos system instore from which I print product barcode labels....I just want to get them to CC with out having to manually add them....so I can use noodlemans very cool plugin...

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

Geoff

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I thought the UPC was very specific to products. Solely only the manufacturer can define what it should be? If you sell these products through more than one vendor then shouldn't they all have the same code?

The different types of barcode are used in different countries of the world - for example Europe and some other countries use EAN - but all should be unique and specific to that product. Otherwise it is simply an SKU which is different.

Just thinking out loud. The import/export has been improved in more recent CC versions so that met help. In v6 it's the best.To confirm Brian is right as the import won't make option varieties. That's very complex. Hopefully we can support it in the future.

While data is stored at product option level it is rarely used anywhere useful at the moment unfortunately. The import / export routines dont look at any data at an option level but even the product codes and weights at option level arent shown or used in many (any ?) places yet

 

I am the manufacturer, and in Australia the standard product numbering is EAN's which requires one to subscribe to an international service that allocate a range of numbers to you, and you generate the numbers from there, with an app they provide.

 

Currently, I don't subscribe as it's only the major/dept stores that require you to have EAN's, and I'm not supplying them at present. 

Yes Australia also uses EANs (in the UK they are controlled and distributed by GS1 - https://www.gs1uk.org) and each country will have a similar and affiliated organisation. For a small yearly membership fee you can get your own unique batch of barcodes to use how you wish.

My need is just really for any random, but unique, number for each product option...like an SKU...I can generate them as I mentioned with my pos system instore from which I print product barcode labels....I just want to get them to CC with out having to manually add them....so I can use noodlemans very cool plugin...

If you dont need valid EANs for eBay (I am not sure but check as Amazon 100% definitely does need valid and correct barcodes) then any random SKU will do but getting those into the correct fields that Noodleman's tool can then use is going to require a custom import routine - I have written many of these for different stores when taking product feeds from manufacturers or using their own creation

Ian

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....thank you all for your help and suggestions. As usual I'm totally amazed by this forum and the knowledge you guys have....

 

Noodleman has offered a solution to generate the UPC's and get them into CC for me...

 

Perhaps you can follow up with him should you need the info.

 

Geoff

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All sorted. was an easier one to sort out because the options already existed in the matrix, so was just a simple SQL query to update the product codes of the matrix options.

UPDATE
    CubeCart_option_matrix as om
JOIN
    CubeCart_inventory i
        ON om.product_id = i.product_id
SET
    om.product_code = CONCAT(i.product_code, om.matrix_id)
WHERE
    om.product_code = ''
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