Andreas v. Studnitz (integer_net GmbH)

This was an excellent session, and one that I’m sure any Magento developer or back-end user can relate to. Getting content into Magento is certainly not without challenge and Andreas von Studnitz offered a great solution to deal with some of the current limitations with Magento.

Andreas outlined the main methods available:

1. Manual Input via Magento Admin
– No technical knowledge required
– No development costs
– All entities supported (e.g. categories, products, attributes, etc)
– Indexing is integrated / automatic

But,
– Prone to human error
– So so slow

2. Using Magento Models
– Reliable
– All entities supported
– Customisable to any kind of input data
– Indexing is integrated / automatic
– A lot faster than manual data input but still slow

3. Using DataFlow
– Easy to use via Magento Admin

But,
– Hard to use in individual workflow
– Supports Customers and Products only
– Slow

4. Using ImportExport
– Fast
– Standardised

But,
– Imports from CSV files only
– Supports Customers and Products only
– Complicated data format
– You have to take care of indexing yourself
– Available from Magento 1.5 (CE) and Magento 1.10 (PE and EE)

5. Using Raw SQL
– Very Fast
– Flexible: imports from any Source
– Supports all Data Entities

But,
– Requires deep knowledge of Magento database structure
– Magento database structure subject to change
– You have to take care of indexing yourself

Fast Simple Import
Fast Simple Import is an extension developed to deal with the above limitations. Extension available from http://github.com/avstudnitz/AvS_FastSimpleImport.

Goals:
– Faster import than with Magento Models
– More flexible than ImportExport
– Easy to use for developers

Approach:
– Array adapter for ImportExport
– Callable from any Magento code (command line, cronjob, via own extension)

Advanced Features:
– Partial Indexing of imported entities only
– Create options for predefined select attributes automatically
– Import of Bundle Products
– Import of Categories, supporting full root category and breadcrumb such as “Root Catalog/Electronics/Cameras/Digital Cameras”
– A few bug fixes for ImportExport (default values were set on updates when the attribute was not given)
– Assign Categories by ID
– Download images with HTTP
– Improved error messages
– Stop creating image duplicates (_1, _2, _3, etc.)

Note:
ImportExport exists since Magento 1.5 CE / 1.10 EE, image import since 1.6 CE / 1.11 EE, so this module needs at least one of those versions.

Links:
http://github.com/avstudnitz/AvS_FastSimpleImport
http://www.integer-net.de/download/ImportExport_EN.pdf *Excellent article on using ImportExport
http://www.webguys.de/magento/turchen-19-produktimport-mit-der-importexport-schnittstelle/ *German
http://netzarbeiter.com/media/MagentoImagine/ImportExport.pdf *Using the new Import Module by Vinai Kopp at the 2011 Imagine Conference