How to import products from a CSV file
Start by going to 'Products' and selecting 'Import' at the bottom of the dropdown (1).
In this window you now have three options:
- Upload a file to implement your data (2).
- Read more about how to prepare your file for upload through a quick demo (3).
- Or you can download an example file so you can see how an import file can be structured for best practise (4).
Getting started
To get started with importing your products, drag your file into the 'Drop .CSV in here" or click to choose a file manually from your computer.
When you have uploaded the CSV file for import, the PIM will ask you to confirm that the file is being read correctly. Plytix serve users all over the world where different file standards are used, hence this step is necessary.
You can select what kind of value separators you use between characters (1), Text delimiters (2), and what charset should be used to read the file (3). When you have set your options, scroll to the bottom and press 'Save'.
Working with your data
The PIM system will now show indicators on how well your import is configured (1), so you can ensure everything is setup correctly, before starting the import. Below it, you get an overview of your data in 3 sections:
In the 'Importing Settings' section you can configure the import mode (2). Secondly you can change the 'File Settings', in case your initial setup was incorrect. In the 'Data Matching' section you can match attributes from your spreadsheet to PIM attributes. (4).
(1) Import Configuration Indicators
This section tracks the health of your import setup to help you get everything imported correctly. If you match an SKU from your import file to the SKU within PIM and have no duplicated matches, you’re all good to go and the smileys will be happy 🙂. SKU is the only mandatory attribute you must have matched before you can import, it's not necessary to match all attributes in your import file, so don’t worry too much about the middle smiley.
(2) Importing Settings
The import settings allows you to define how PIM treats the product data from your file.
Import Products
Choose the import mode and instruct PIM to either:
- Add new products & Update existing products
- Only add new products
- Only update existing products
Status for new products
Choose if newly updated products should be created as Draft or Complete products. See more about product status here.
(3) File Settings
Column separator
CSV files have a separator character in their format, this is traditionally a comma, but in some cases we see other separator characters, from here you can choose between:
- Comma (,)
- Semicolon (;)
- Pipe (|)
- Tabulator ( )
* This setting is auto detected, but you have the option to change it.
Text delimiter
As CSV files are using normal text characters to separate data values, a text delimiter is introduced to encapsulate your content in case your content uses the Column separator. You can also choose between single, or double quotation marks.
* This setting is auto detected, but again, you have to the option to change it.
Charset
At its core, all content is encoded in numbers when you save a file, the Charset defines what system/dictionary PIM uses to translate the encoded numbers into readable text. Today everyone uses UTF-8 (…at least they should, to ensure world wide compatibility).
* This setting is auto detected, but you have the option to change it.
(4) Attribute Matching
If the header for a column in your import sheet has a name that matches an attribute in the PIM it will in most cases be auto-matched (1). For columns that have different names than the attributes in the PIM, or doesn't have an existing attribute to map to, you must either match to an existing attribute or create a new one. All the columns that needs to get matched is highlighted in grey (2).
*If the data doesn't get a specified attribute, it will not be imported.
Matching the columns
In the top left corner you can see the column name from the uploaded import sheet (1), below the column name two matching options are available (2), and on the right side you will see a sample of the data in the column (3).
When matching an attribute to the spreadsheet column you can either choose to 'Match existing attribute', or you can 'Create new attribute' (1).
Match existing attribute
When matching to an existing attribute you can select what existing attribute you want to match to (1). You can to either match to the predefined 'System attributes' or with one of the user created attributes.
Create new attribute
Create new attribute enables you to match your column with a newly created PIM attribute. You will be presented with the full list of attributes types available to save the data in (1). To learn more about the what types are fit for your data, head over to the following article: attribute types
In example you could have a column containing different colors of a t-shirt. So for optimized usage of the PIM, you would choose the 'Dropdown' attribute (2).
By doing so you will get a dropdown menu within PIM that holds the different color options.
when expanded:
Attribute Values
When you have chosen an attribute to match with, you can define how the PIM should treat empty and new values (1).
Empty Value
In case the incoming data value is blank when updating an existing product, you can choose if PIM should 'ignore' and leave the existing value untouched (if any), or 'erase the existing' value.
New Values
Some attribute types can hold multiple values, for example Categories and Multi-select attributes. When these types of attributes receive new incoming data from an import, you can choose between adding the new data to the attribute, or replacing the old data with the new incoming data.
Load/Save import settings
After you are done with matching attributes, you can save the setup as an import profile in order to recall the matching settings if you import another file with the same layout (1). Read more about Import Profiles here
