Exporting/Importing Product Tree Category Information

Fishbowl has two features that are closely tied together: the ability to export Product Tree Category information and the ability to import that same type of data. You could use the Export feature to create a file containing your Product Tree Category information. You could then edit the existing categories or create new ones and Import it back into Fishbowl updating the Product Tree Category information.

Formatting the Data

You must create a CSV file formatted in a way that Fishbowl knows what to do with the data. This is easiest to do with a spreadsheet program.

When the Product Tree Category data is Exported it will be formatted according to the table below. If you are Importing, the data file must be formatted according to the table below.

All fields will be one of two types:

Text - A textual value. May contain any character, but if it contains a line break, comma or double quote, it must be wrapped with double quotes on both ends. If a field is wrapped, all text must be inside the double quotes. Double quotes in the text value must be doubled to import properly
Numeric - A decimal number greater than or equal to zero with up to four digits after the decimal point. The number must not have thousands' separators in it - 1234.56 is a valid number, while 1,234.56 is not.

Fields of a Product Tree Category file.

Column Name	Type	Description
Name	Text (30 chars)	The name of the category being created/edited.
Description	Text (252 chars)	The description of the category being created/edited. If the category already exists, this is the only field that will be updated.
Path	Text	The path, or position, of the category on the tree. Each position on the tree is separated by a colon (:).

The file must contain column names in the first row, using the column names in the table above.