Export Catagories to a Flat File

With MIVA Merchant you can export product categories to a flat file — a plain–text file containing set types of data separated by a tab or text character. You can edit this file in any text editor or import it into a spreadsheet. Use the data elsewhere or edit it and import the results back into MIVA Merchant. This is an easy way to copy categories to another of your stores.

Export Categories to File

Specify a name for the file where you will export the category information. The default is categories.dat.

You might find it useful to include the date or other detail in the file name like cats-20060131.dat or cats-summer05.dat. The file will be saved on the server under Merchant5/s01/export/filename.dat where s01 indicates your first store. If you have additional stores the directory will correspond to the store number (s02, s03, etc.).

Export

MIVA Merchant can export up to four fields or pieces of information about the categories in your store. Select the fields to export:

Code

The unique string of characters by which the category is identified and referenced.

Name

The descriptive name of the category which is seen by shoppers in your store.

Active

A boolean or yes/no field specifying whether the category is active in your store (indicated by the number 1) or inactive (indicated by the number 0). Inactive categories are not displayed in the store. This field will contain a 1 or 0.

Parent Category Code

The code of the category under which the current category is to be placed. For instance, a gardening store might list Wildflower Seeds, Vegetable Seeds, and Sunflower Seeds under the category Seeds. Seeds would be the parent category of the other three.

Delimiter

Specify how each data field in a record will be separated from the next. Tab-delimited flat files are common. You can use any character like a comma or a vertical line ("pipe") character: |. Be aware that if the specified character appears in a category name like the comma in "Chocolates, with Nuts" that will be interpreted as a break between one field and the next. Choose a character that is not used in any category names.

If File Exists

Specify how you want the data handled if a file of the same name as that you have specified already exists. Select Append To File to have the newly-exported data added on to the end of the existing file. Select Replace File to discard the earlier version and save only the data currently being exported.

When you are satisfied with the settings click Export.