CSV/XLS Listing Import/Export

The XLS(X)/CSV Import/Export plugin is quite a useful and powerful tool for populating your site with listings. It will save you and your users a lot of time and stress by giving them the ability to import bulk listings from their accounts in an intuitive manager with a few clicks.

How it works

After installation, the Plugin adds a manager to the back and front ends, from where the administrator and users may import and export their listings in the XLS(X) and CSV formats. Due to nature of the Plugin, it doesn't offer any extra settings in the Basic Settings section in back end offering custom settings for every uploaded file. After uploading a file, photos in a zipped archive and mapping columns with corresponding site fields, the user will be able to easily upload practically any file with listings.

Front End

The Plugin allows users to upload XLS(X) or CSV files with photos from the front end of your classifieds site. A user may find the link to the Import/Export manager in the Account Area after logging in. The link navigates to a separate page with file selectors; one for a file with listings and the other for photos in a zipped archive. After selecting and uploading files the user will be taken to a mapping manager. The mapping manager loads the uploaded file with dropdown selectors above every column allowing the user to map columns with corresponding fields available on the site, which makes the Plugin quite a flexible tool for handling files with different structures. If there are any inconsistencies between the field names on the site and those in the file, the user will be able to map them or skip data in a particular column.

At the bottom of the mapping manager, the user may find some extra settings. The settings allow the user to select a listing type to which the listings will be uploaded. The user may also select a default category for his listings in case something goes wrong with the category mapping from the file. Likewise, the user may select a default package, if the system failed to assign his listings to a selected package or membership plan. The user may choose if he wants his listings to go online right after the import or disable them, so he could have more time to browse through them and make sure everything is fine.

To upload pictures to the listings, a user will need to collect all the pictures in a folder and zip them making sure that the titles of pictures match the ones in the XLS(X) or CSV file separated by comma. Alternatively, the administrator or user may load pictures to your site from URLs listed in the XLS(X)/CSV file. The Plugin allows users to upload PNG and JPG images.

To make the Plugin work with membership plans the administrator will need to disable listing packages and enable membership plans from the Basic Settings. The number of imported listings, in this case, will be regulated by the number of listings offered by a membership plan. So, if the plan offers a package of 10 listings, the Plugin will import the first 10 listings from the file.

The Plugin offers quite flexible settings for exporting listings. The user will be able to select listings to be exported by date of posting, listing type and category.

Back End

The Plugin in back end looks and works almost in much the same way as in front end except for two settings that are available to the administrator only. They are "Default Owner" and "Mark as Paid". The administrator can set an owner for an uploaded file. When uploading premium or paid listings the administrator can also choose if he wants to import them as paid or import them and make the user pay for the listings uploaded. In this case, the uploaded listings will be assigned an unpaid status until the user purchases a listing package and renews his listings.

If an XLS(X) or CSV file contains a column that doesn't match any of the fields available on your site, the administrator can easily add a new field from the Field Manager and further map it with the column in the file.

Make sure the RAM limit for your site is set to 512 Mb at least, which is the minimum limit for a stable performance of the Plugin. You may set a maximum file size that users will be able to upload per import session. Make sure you have enough disk space for uploaded files and photos. The current version of the Plugin doesn't offer the ability to import listings through FTP.