Product Import Data as XML

[martineug]

Hi

Are there any plans to allow for a product file to be supplied in XML format to the
Product Import utility which would be used directly by the importer or possibly
converted to the current text file format before processing?

I'm sure you agree that the current text file format is unwieldy due to the number of
fields. This coupled with a large amount of products produces a rather hard to understand
file.

I'm sure a simple SAX parser could be written to do an XML to text file conversion.

Best regards
Eugene Martin

[heidi]

We're well beyond the planning stage on this one!   

We have created an XML import/export tool that not only handles a store's products but, optionally, all of the data in a store as well (customers, configuration data etc etc).  These low-level utilties will give us scope to produce some useful higher-level management functions such as for backups or migrating complete store data sets from QA to production, for example, but these are still being assessed. 

I expect that most common will be the usage for product import/export however. 

These utilities should be available in the next release.

[martineug]

That's fantastic.

And the six million dollar question.....

Any idea of a ballpark release date?

Thanks
Eugene

[heidi]

I'm sorry I have no idea...   we've had so few problems with the current v3.2.0.0 we don't have any pressure to create a maintenance release (beyond the v3.2.0.1 patch that was issued in March '09).

We do have a long list of new features ready for the new release, however, so I hope it won't be too long;  but nobody has made any decisions on this yet.

[martineug]

Hi

OK. Perhaps the import export tool could be made available as a download or
were there db changes as well making that difficult to do?

Eugene

[heidi]

I'm afraid we won't be able to do that in the short term due to both technical (it hasn't been finished yet and has dependencies with other parts of the product that aren't ready yet) and business reasons (the packaging of what goes into the new release has not been decided yet).

[martineug]

Hi

OK. Thanks for the info Heidi.

Eugene