Training

[rmeeks@val-test.com]

We are some what new to Shop Site and we have been manually loading data into our site.

We need to load data from an excel spread sheet along with images.

Can some one recommend a good instructor for this, or are there classes that we can take...maybe on line ?

Thank you.....Russ

[ShopSite Lauren]

Russ, there isn't really an instructor that you could use, but below I have given my basic instructions, and there is a video tutorial for uploading Excel spreadsheets. Note, the video tutorial was made when ShopSite couldn't take Excel files, now ShopSite can. Make sure you save your Excel spreadsheet as the 97-2000 format (should end in .xls NOT .xlsx), and you can upload that Excel file directly into ShopSite.
http://www.shopsite.com/tutorial/utilities-database.htm

1. FTP all your images into your ShopSite media folder first.
You can bulk upload your images into your ShopSite media folder so that they are all there quickly. If you don't have an FTP client that you prefer, then for PCs I typically use FileZilla (I think this is a free download). For Macs I typically use Transmit (I think this is a pay download). If you don't have the FTP access (FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, it is a way of directly accessing the server, essentially bypassing the ShopSite portion), you will need to contact your hosting provider to give you, reset, or setup FTP access to your hosting account. Log into your hosting account, open your domain, open the "media" folder, and drag and drop all your images from your computer to the server in the /media folder.

2. Once all your images have been uploaded into ShopSite, you will want to create all the resize images.
If you have thousands of images, then the server will likely time out before ShopSite has a chance to create the thousdands-x-3 images that are needed... so if you have thousands of images, then you will want to do them in 400ish images at a time increments. Go to Images > highlight 400 or so images > Create Resized Images, and ShopSite will automatically create the smaller image sizes, like the thumbnails, the mini images for the shopping cart, etc. When you upload images using ShopSite, ShopSite can create the resized images when you upload. However, since you FTP'd the images in, you bypassed ShopSite, so now you need to go back in and have ShopSite create those resized images.

3. Last step, upload your Excel file(s).
If you have a page/category list AND a product list, then I would suggest uploading your page/category list first. The main things you want in your database for your pages/categories are a column for the page name, and a column for the file name. If you don't have specific file names yet, a quick way to create relatively custom files names that are good for SEO (you might want to change a few based on your page names, but most will be good), would be to use the following equation in column B in your Excel database (assuming your page names are in column A)....equation: =(LOWER(SUBSTITUTE(A1," ","-")))&".html"

For your products, you can map the fields in your Excel database to the corresponding fields in ShopSite. Go to Utilities > Database > Upload, and upload your products database, ShopSite will walk you through the rest. Again, make sure your Excel file has been saved as an .xls file NOT a .xlsx file).
http://www.shopsite.com/tutorial/utilities-database.htm