Adding categories in bulk

[cubicsquare]

Hi there,

I wish there were a quicker way to add categories, rather than one by one. Some shops may have a large amount of categories, and the categories may be copy-pasteable directly from a parallel eBay shop (at least, via a text editor to format it ready for pasting directly into spreadsheet)

I'm thinking: allow upload of a spreadsheet, where the headings are:

ID --- Arrange --- Visible --- Status --- Category --- Name --- Meta Title --- Meta Description

 

Finally: How important is it to have Meta Title and Meta Description for a category?

 

 

[bsmither]

Your spreadsheet would want to have at least these columns:

cat_id, cat_name, cat_desc

CubeCart will self-create a meta-title if missing. Other table columns have default values.

 

[havenswift-hosting]

8 hours ago, cubicsquare said:

Finally: How important is it to have Meta Title and Meta Description for a category?

A unique and carefully crafted meta title for each and every page in your site is massively important (if you want to get good SERPS and get visitors to your site anyway) as is meta description.  Dont bother with meta keywords not used and being removed in the next release

[cubicsquare]

9 hours ago, bsmither said:

Your spreadsheet would want to have at least these columns:

cat_id, cat_name, cat_desc

CubeCart will self-create a meta-title if missing. Other table columns have default values.

 

Hi there, thank you for letting me know that CubeCart will self create a meta-title.

May l ask:

- How would l upload such a spreadsheet? I didn't think it was at all possible to even upload one.

- l'm guessing cat_desc is meta-description?

- I downloaded a bulk download spreadsheet showing only my test item. That spreadsheet was only an inventory spreadsheet, nothing to do with category uploads, BUT my point is: that spreadsheet had proper English headings for the columns (e.g. for "cat_id" as you call it, it has "Master Category ID"). So, at least for the category ID,  are "cat_id" and "Master Category ID" interchangeable? Of course it's no effort for me to write either but l'm just wondering why the difference in column headings for the same thing.

 

 

Look forward to your reply

[bsmither]

Using an external database utility, with its feature to import a CSV, is a typical way to get bulk data into a database.

There may be a CubeCart plugin to do this. But CubeCart has no native means of importing data other than inventory (which, I think, can also include a category the product belongs to).

The cat_desc is not meta. When viewing a Category in CubeCart, in addition to any child categories and the products in that category, there can also be a full description of what the store owner wishes to say about that category - in the same scope like what is shown to the customer concerning a product's description.

Downloading a CSV is intended as a deliverable for some other user - not as a template for importing. CubeCart used to have a number of sets of column headings to choose from but now relies on creating a custom export module if one's needs are different from the one format that you've seen. The default format is hard-coded to show a phrase keyed against the column name but can be overridden.

The cat_id column in the Inventory table is maintained (I assume) for backward compatibility. (There is another, more versatile method of associating categories to products.)

 

[cubicsquare]

Hi there bsmither,

Can you suggest an external database utility that can get the job done?

[bsmither]

If you are having your site hosted by a commercial company, then you are probably given a "control panel" to manage your domain name and site contents, and a bunch of other tasks as well. A popular control panel is cPanel, another is Plesk.

Among the various tools included in your control panel, there will be a database manager. Invariably, that manager is phpMyAdmin. That manager utility has a wide variety of capabilities - including absorbing CSV files to populate database tables. phpMyAdmin is an online app. You access it using your web browser.

If you are hosting your site on an internal machine (local to you), there are desktop applications to manage databases. (I like HeidiSQL - https://www.heidisql.com/) Warning: if you install phpMyAdmin on a local web server exposed to the public, expect hundreds of thousands of attempts each month to hack it. Just like Wordpress sites.

If your hosting provider allows you to access your database server from outside their confines, that is, publicly exposed and allows remote connections, then a local desktop app can also connect to your database. (The hosting provider will probably restrict remote access to be that of your local IP address.)