General questions
How does ShopAdmin work?
In brief ShopAdmin communicates directly with your shopping cart’s database via the ShopAdmin add-on, a thin layer of PHP code that resides within your shopping cart. (We will provide this add-on for you when you sign up.) The ShopAdmin UI component provides a rich, powerful and easy-to-use interface in your browser, and communicates with the ShopAdmin add-on to show your data. You can find more details on our website.
How do I install Apsona ShopAdmin?
To install the ShopAdmin add-on, you simply download the zip file that you receive when you sign up, and unzip it into the admin folder with the file paths preserved. Please visit our support page on our website for a detailed document.
How many accounts am I allowed to have of ShopAdmin?
You can have for free as many accounts as you like. However you need a new email ID everytime you sign up. Also, we ask you to sign up fresh for every website you have.
Product catalog management
Can I import new products that have names, categories, descriptions in two languages?
If you have two languages configured in your cart, you should see a dropdown menu at the top of your ShopAdmin window that will let you choose the “current” language. You can choose English first (say) and import the English names and descriptions, then choose Spanish (say) from that menu and update the products with their Spanish names and descriptions.
How do I bulk upload category description & meta tag Info for Categories?
Click Categories under the product tab and then select Import/update under Tools.
Select update existing records and paste data in the box.
Select next, match fields validate data and import.
Why do I get the error message ‘ is not a valid category’ even though the category exists in the database?
This maybe because the category name in the database maynot be matching the name in the csv. The best way to get this to work is to ensure that the representation in the CSV matches the representation in the database. You might want to use ShopAdmin to export your category names. Go to Products – Categories and then Tools – Export, and export their names. That will give you the names in the exact form they are stored in the database. You can then match your CSV data with that form, either by modifying the database content or modifying the CSV data.
How do I set up categories?
Basically for categories all you have to do is as follows: The parent category followed by a colon and a space and then the sub category.
Eg: Lighting: Lamps: wall lamps, where lighting is the parent category(add a colon and a space) and lamps is the sub category(add a colon and a space) and wall lamps is the sub sub category. Please visit our support page on our website for a more details.
What do I do when after the installation, you are redirected back to the login page?
When you are redirected to the login page, please login and access Apsona ShopAdmin. It should open up. If there is still an issue it may also be because of other add-ons already installed.
Can I link a product to more than one category with ShopAdmin?
Yes, it is possible. In the csv please include all the category names in the a single cell. This can be done by entering the first category string and then entering “ALT + ENTER”. Repeat for more categories.
What does the update via import feature do?
This is very valuable when, for example, you wish to perform a “mass edit” (or “mass update”) of one particular field in a lot of your records. For example, suppose you want to change the prices of several tens of your products. You export the Product ID and Price fields of the records in question (using ShopAdmin’s built-in export feature), edit the prices using your favorite spreadsheet program, and import the data back into the system as an “update”.
Can I export my Orders?
You can export a specific order into a customizable Excel-compatible format.
This feature is only available by request. If you would like them enabled for you, please contact us via email.
Does ShopAdmin support localised numbers?
ShopAdmin now allows localized numbers and currencies when importing and editing. For example, the number written as 23,302,983.02 in the US and UK is written as 23.302.983,02 in Germany, as 23′302′983.02 in Switzerland, and as 23 302 983,02 in France. ShopAdmin uses the locale determined by the user’s browser.
How do I get ShopAdmin’s new and features?
All updates and new features will take effect automatically when you next refresh your ShopAdmin window.
How do I edit the time period in the Orders by date report?
The time period for the report can be edited as follows:
Click Reports from the Orders table.
Click on the Orders by date and region, Dec 2009 report and select edit.
The report wizard opens.
Click on the Filters tab.
Change dates to what you would like to see by clicking the dates dropdown.
Click Save and run
The report will now data corresponding to the changed dates
Do I have a trail of my product imports in ShopAdmin?
You can see the date and time of all your products imported via ShopAdmin. These records are available under the Filters tab.
Is double byte unicode characters supported by ShopAdmin?
Yes, ShopAdmin does support UTF8 characters.
How do I upload images?
ShopAdmin does not include any facilities for loading images. You will need to do the image upload via your ftp program.
How are extra fields in my database be handled?
ShopAdmin picks up all the extra fields in your Products table. If you decide to install a new add-on (or you include custom code) that creates new fields in your product table, ShopAdmin will automatically detect them and make them available. When importing new product records, the new fields are available for import.
Can I clone a product record?
Yes, when cloning a product record, ShopAdmin now clones all the attributes of the product as well.
Does ShopAdmin support multiple languages?
ShopAdmin supports a range of European languages in addition to English. If you run one of the supported shopping carts that is configured for more than one language, ShopAdmin automatically detects the languages you support, and displays them in a dropdown menu at right of your main menu bar.