Hostahoy Shopping Cart™ 
Importing / Exporting 
Product Data

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The Hostahoy Shopping Cart™ allows for what we call shell mode configuration*.  This is generally for users with existing databases of many products. Shell mode configuration requires shell access to a server and a touch of technical know how. This document assumes the following: 

  • you know basic database terms
  • you know how to use FTP to upload and download files
  • you have an existing database
  • you have a full version of the Hostahoy Shopping Cart
  • you have shell access to your server
  • you are familiar with the directory structure of the cart

Importing Data 

If you have an existing database of products you most likely already have all of the required fields of a Hostahoy Shopping Cart™ database and some of the optional fields, so why bother creating a new database from scratch? Importing existing data lets you maintain your current database while saving you a lot of time and effort! 

In this step by step example of importing and exporting data, we will use an example product from our on-line demo store.  Please note that your fields will contain different information. 

Step 1: creating your first item with the online wizard 

  • You will want to create your first item with the online wizard to make full use of every option and feature that works for your store.  This product will appear in the cart_db.txt file in your admin directory. This is the start of the text based database file that the Hostahoy Shopping Cart uses.
  • Now view that file and make note of the format and data that is entered in each field.
  • CODE           mystmeat
    NAME           Mystery Meat 
    CATEGORY       Lunch Foods 
    PRICE          14.95 
    TAXABLE        NO 
    INTRO          We are not sure what type of animal this meat comes from, or even if it comes from an animal at all.  But some have eaten it before without dying. 
    IMAGE          mm.jpg:left 
    ICON           :left 
    OPTIONS(pldwn) Toughness:Tough:Very Tough:Hard as a Rock - add 10%:: 
    OPTIONS(check) Parts to Include:Legs:Rump:Back:Fingers:Tail:Kidneys:: 
    DISCOUNTS      2-99:10%::100+:25% 
    SHIPPING SCHED price 
    MINIMUM  
    RELATED        soda 
    RELATED_MSG    How about a frost cold one to go with your Mystery Meat? 
    FOOTNOTES  

    Note that each field begins with a capitalized word, tabs, then the value.  Some text may wrap due to size of the screen but in actual file text does not wrap.

Step 2: preparing your existing database 

  • The import script reads in an ASCII delimited text file. This file can be produced with any database on the market today.  See your database documentation on how to export data if you do not already know how.
  • Export the data using a tab as the delimiter (recommended) and no quotes around each field.
  • Name this newly created text file "cart_ascii.txt" and upload it (in ASCII mode) to your cart directory**.

Step 3: setting up and running the import script gen_proddb.pl 

  • In your cart directory is a script called gen_proddb.pl.  This is a Perl script that must be run from a shell that builds the new cart_db.txt file. We need to customize the top portion to match the text file you just created and uploaded. Here are the default entries:
  • $CODE  ='COL1';
    $NAME  ='COL2'; 
    $CATEGORY ='COL3'; 
    $PRICE  ='COL4'; 
    $TAXABLE ='COL5'; 
    $INTRO  ='COL6'; 
    $IMAGE  ='COL7'; 
    $ICON  ='COL8'; 
    $OPTIONS_pldwn ='COL9';  
    $OPTIONS_check ='COL10';  
    $DISCOUNTS ='COL11'; 
    $SHIPPING_SCHED ='COL12'; 
    $MINIMUM ='COL13'; 
    $RELATED ='COL14';  
    $RELATED_MSG ='COL15';  
    $FOOTNOTES ='COL16';

    Assign the corresponding column in your "cartt_ascii.txt" with the number with the Hostahoy Shopping Cart variable.  For example, if you have 5 columns and the 2nd column is the CODE, then set the value to "COL" plus the column number "2" 

    $CODE='COL2'; 

    If you want the variable to be a fixed value for each,  then enter the value - ex: $TAXABLE='YES::'. If the variable is to be left blank, then leave blank - ex: $OPTIONS_pldwn='';.

    You may end up running the script several times before you get the exact results you are looking for. 

  • Make sure the script is executable (755) and run the script at the command line.  This will create a new "cart_db.txt" file in your same directory that the script is running within.
  • Now move this file to your admin directory and test it out!

Exporting Data 

Converting your Hostahoy Shopping Cart™ database to an offline database that you can use in other applications may be necessary at times.  To do this, we use the magic script called gen_ascii.pl in your cart directory. Unlike importing data, there is really just one simple step. 

Step 1: exporting 

  • copy your "cart_db.txt" file in your admin directory to your cartt directory.
  • run the script  gen_ascii.pl. This will create and plain text file in the same directory called "cart_ascii.txt". This script uses a tab as the delimiter.  The format is as follows:
  • CODE   NAME     CATEGORY     PRICE     PINTRO     IMAGE     ICONw     ICONp     OPTIONSP     OPTIONSC     DISCOUNTS   SHIPPING   RELATED_    RELATED   TAXABLE    MINIMUM     FOOTNOTES

  

* Offline configuration and shell mode configuration is only available to the owner of the script. 
** If you cannot run CGIs in any directory but your cgi-bin, then move the script file and the file the script needs to read in into the cgi-bin