Exporting Products

You can export lists of products to CSV files (MS Excel compatible). This feature enables you to edit product lists which can then be re-imported into X-Cart, instead of updating information through the web interface. Large exports can take some time, so please be patient.

To export a list of products:

Click on Export products in Products menu to open the 'Export products' form.
Picture 1: Export products form.
Choose a delimiter from the drop-down menu. (Tab is recommended, because comma and semicolon could appear in product description).
If you are planning to backup product thumbnails and detailed images, specify the full path to the directory where the image files should be stored. Make sure the directory exists and has permissions for writing. If you do not want to backup product thumbnails and detailed images, select the corresponding check box.
Click on Export products and save the file.

Note. The list of your products is exported in the format described in "/main/products_export.tpl" template.

Froogle Export

Froogle is an extension of the Google search engine that millions of people around the globe use daily to research products before they purchase. Listing your product in Froogle is a free way to extend the reach of your marketing efforts to millions of new customers.

X-Cart has a special module that enables you to submit a data feed to Froogle directly from your store. Doing so will ensure that your entire product catalog is included in Froogle, and it will also allow you to control the freshness and accuracy of your product information.

If you want to use X-Cart Froogle module, enable it via Administration -> Modules.

Then go to the Froogle export section of your store (Products menu -> Export products -> Froogle export).

Picture 2 Froogle Export form.

In this form the Filename field shows the path to the file on your server to which the data will be saved by default. You may choose a different location on your server (Mind that it should be a file path, not an URL!).

To save the information about your products in Froogle compatible format, click on Export. It will be saved to the location specified in the 'Filename' field.

To download this file onto your local computer, click on Download.

To submit the information to Froogle, click on Upload.

Note. If you use Froogle, make sure your thumbnail images are stored on the file system: the Froogle export file contains information about the location of the product images on the file system. If no thumbnail image for a product is found on the file system, the default_image.gif file ("No Image Available") is used for this product. Also be aware of the fact that HTML tags used in product descriptions are dropped on export and that only the first 1000 characters of the product descriptions are displayed to the users finding products via Froogle.