The Data Import module can also be used to update existing data. This only applies when importing products, suppliers or clients. We will demonstrate this with an example for Products and Services.
The handler (key) to check whether an entity exists is the SKU code (for the Products) and the Supplier/Client Name (for suppliers/clients). If the handler exists, then, the system does not insert a duplicate entity but updates the attributes of the entity instead.
The update of data using the Data Import module is better illustrated with an example that involves a single product:
In the example of the product above, the SKU is set to “001”, the Product Description is set to “Some product description”, the Long Description field is empty and the Product Variant is set to “Some variant”.
The spreadsheet template that will be used in this example includes the same SKU of “001”, a different Product Description field of “Another product description”, a new Long Description field of “Adding Long Description to Product” and an empty Product Variant field.
After successfully uploading the CSV file, the Data Import module displays the success message that zero (0) products have been imported and one (1) product has been updated:
The product definition has now changed to the one of the following figure:
An empty field in the spreadsheet file preserves the respective existing field in the Product definition. For example, the empty Product Variant field in the spreadsheet template of the figure above did not change the existing Product Variant field of “Some variant” to the empty one of the spreadsheet file.
The same spreadsheet file can be used to insert new products to the account and also update existing products.