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Operations PIM - Product Specification Import Options

There are several ways to update product specifications by importing, and the below examples give the different scenarios of what is updated with each import.

Import Option: Create Only

This import will search for products by productCode, and only create specs that do not already have specs.

Summary

  • This option will search for products by productCode.
  • If it doesn’t find that productCode, it will skip.
  • If it finds the productCode and also finds that specs are already attached to the productCode, it will skip.
  • If it finds the productCode but finds no specs attached to it, it will create specs.

Scenario

A user would choose this option if they have an import sheet to run with the intention of only creating new specs for products that do not already have specs. So your import sheet could contain product codes that already have specs, but when running this import it will only find the products without any specs and create specs for those products. It will not update specs themselves, or even create new specs on a product that has specs already.

Import Option: Partial Update Only

This import will search for products by productCode, and when finding a productCodewith existing specs, it will both update and create specs for that productCode.

Summary

  • This option will search for products by productCode.
  • If it doesn’t find that productCode, it will skip.
  • If it finds the productCode and also finds that specs do not exist, it will skip.
  • If it finds the productCode and also finds that specs do exist, it will update existing and create more specs.

Scenario

A user would choose this option if they have an import sheet to run with the intention of updating existing specs on a product and also add new specs to the product that is being updated. However, it will not create specs on a product if specs do not already exist on that product, so think of this option as a targeted import to update and create specs only on products that already have specs.

Import Option: Overwrite Update Only

This import will search for products by productCode, and remove existing specifications in the import and also create new specs for the product codes included in the import. For this import, you only want to include product codes for which you want to remove specifications and add new.

Summary

  • This option will search for products by productCode.
  • If it doesn’t find that productCode, it will skip.
  • If it finds the productCode and also finds that specs do not exist, it will skip.
  • If it finds the productCode and also finds that specs do exist, it will wipe out all existing specs and add the specs in the import. It does not try to match the specs. It will clear all specs and create new ones.

Scenario

A user would choose this option if they have an import sheet to run with the intention of updating only products with existing specs. However the import is not concerned about finding specs and updating them. If it finds a product in the import sheet that does have existing specs, it will first wipe out all existing specs and then add new specs. A user would choose this option if they know there are a lot of existing specs that they want removed at the same time as adding new specs for the product.
Do not use this method if you want to keep specs that you do not have in your import.

Import Option: Create & Partial Update

This import will search for products by productCode, and create new specifications for products that do not have specs attached. This import will also update specifications already attached to a productCode. Product specifications will not be removed with this import.

Summary

  • This option will search for products by productCode.
  • If it doesn’t find that productCode, it will skip.
  • If it finds the productCode and also finds that specs do not exist, it will create specs.
  • If it finds the productCode and also finds that specs do exist, it will update any specs that exist and also create new specs included in the import. It will never delete anything from specs. It will only find and add to existing specs.

Scenario

A user would choose this option if they have an import sheet to run with the intention of both creating new specs for products that do not currently have any specs, and also update specs that already exist. The import is best used when you wish to only create or update existing specs that are matched up, but will not do anything to existing specs that are not matched in the import sheet.

Import Option: Create & Overwrite Update

This import will search for products by productCode, and specifications will be created or removed to match what is contained in the spreadsheet. When the import is complete, the product codes in the spreadsheet will only contain the specifications in the spreadsheet.

Summary

  • This option will search for products by productCode.
  • If it doesn’t find that productCode, it will skip.
  • If it finds the productCode, it will always create specs.

Scenario

A user would choose this option if they have an import sheet to run with the intention of recreating specs in their system that exactly matches their import sheet. This means the user is basically creating a "copy" of your import file. Before creating all the data for your import file, it will first wipe out all data for the product codes included in the sheet. This is useful for when the user just wants to wipe out and recreate the specs for certain products on import.

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