Thread: Importing with Excel duplicates categories

I've just started having a problem and I can't figure out what is causing it. If I import products with Excel, and the category already exists, it is duplicating the category.

I think this is happening because when I create a category in the Admin Console, in the SQL Database the category "Name" appears as:

<ml><locale name="en-US">Test Cat 3</locale><locale name="es-ES"></locale></ml>

And when I import the excel file, it creates another category, and in SQL Database it appears as:

Test Cat 3

The <ml><locale name..... part hasn't always appeared. This just started happening. What did I do?

Edit: I created a new DB, and it is now working correctly... the <ml><locale name..... does not appear when I create a new category and the import works correctly. I'm not sure what I did to cause the problem though.

Thanks.

We are glad you were able to resolve the problem yourself. Thanks for letting us know.

can anyone elaborate on this issue? what changed about the database? we get this too, but happens on multiple databases for multiple clients. thanks.

my question is related to this topic. What if i have 2 locale (en-US and zh-CN) and i wish to import the name and description of the products in zh-CN only? how will the system know that i'm importing to a specific locale?

do i have to something like <ml locale= ..... as the tag in front of the name and description field? thanks.

best regards,
edwin

What version you're on? If you're on the latest builds 8.x, you need not to specify a locale tag on each column and that should display to all locales when you view it in the front-end, otherwise, you'll going to do it like below.

HTML Code:

<ml><locale name="en-GB">Playstation 3</locale><locale name="en-US">Playstation 3</locale><locale name="it-IT">Playstation 3</locale><locale name="zh-CN">Playstation 3</locale></ml>

I am having the same duplication issue and i'm using 8012.

the db appears as <local.......>playstation 3</local> whereas in my excel if i put /playstation 3/ it will just create a new category with the same names in the admin panel. I note the difference when i check the sql server and indeed there are 2 entries in there.

can we import the products using category ID instead of name? thanks.
edwin

Both fields should have to be there in the import file, they're one of the import qualifiers, and it's necessary. If you have more than 1 locale, that's an expected behavior... each locale should have its own product name, description etc. That's the point of it.

But the problem is, now the category's name appears as <ml><locale=en-US>cat 1</locale><locale=zh-CN></locale></ml> in the database and if i try to import to create a product via excel it will generate an error if i put the whole phrase "<ml><locale=en-US>cat 1</locale><locale=zh-CN></locale></ml>" in the Category1 column in the spreadsheet. Right now i have to first import the product and then use the admin console to assign the product one by one to the correct category. If i just input "cat 1" in the Category1 column it will indeed create a duplicate category. Any workarounds?

thanks.

best regards,
edwin

I am having duplicate categories and sections inserted into the database when I import from excel. I am not doing locale - What could the issue be ? I looked at the log and I see Ignoring bad/duplicate SectionRef, Name=/Under $1/ Key Chain but its in there for every item I enter.

If I add the product name manually in the database as "Product 1", through SQL Server Management Studio then I edit the product using aspdotnetstorefront admin site then it renames the product as "<ml><locale name="en-US">Product 1</locale><locale name="es-ES">Product 1</locale></ml>".

Please note that there are two <locale> tags inside < ml > tag. Why is it so?

How can I retain only one locale?

Please tell me from where we can select only one locale.

Did you read the locale information in the manual? You can go to the locale setup page in the admin site and remove the extra locale.