The fastest way to get up and running is to import your existing auction data. You can import from Turbo Lister, a flat file or directly from eBay. You probably imported your data when you first ran the Setup Assistant. If you did not, you can import it now from File|Import on the main menu.
Different programs will contain different amounts of useful data for eB. Depending upon how you imported your data, you may need to perform some more tasks to get your database in shape.
Turbo Lister doesn't export its entire database all at once. Instead, it exports one folder at a time. The best way to import from Turbo Lister is to create same-named folders, one at a time, importing data into each of them separately.
To import from Turbo Lister, select File|Import|Import Turbo Lister CSV File.
Images: Images are lost, except for images that reside on the local hard drive with the same letter and folder (e.g.: "C:\Images") as that used by Turbo Lister.
States (Status): Turbo Lister doesn't use the concept of states (or status) of items, so when Blackthorne imports, it tries to estimate and assign a rough status (if the item has a currently-running auction, for example).
Inventory/Part Numbers: Turbo Lister also doesn't handle inventory, so when items are imported into Blackthorne, the inventory section is set to: "Don't track inventory for this item." The Part Number field is not set.
Seller/E-Mail Contact: The E-mail contact field is not available. Neither is the Seller field, so Blackthorne assigns the current seller (if the "current seller" is set to "All Sellers", then the seller field is not assigned).
Shipping: International shipping details are not importable from Turbo Lister.
Item Specifics: Item Specifics are imported correctly.
Templates: E-mail and Ad templates are lost. Ad template is set to "Simple."
Picture Host: Is set to EPS by default.
In the very best-case scenario, if the listing was created using Blackthorne, just about every piece of information, including information that is completely independent of eBay (e.g.: part numbers) will be imported.
To import from eBay, choose File|Import|Import from eBay.
When importing eBay listings that were created with other programs, more information will be lost:
Images: Not imported.
Inventory: Not imported. When the listing is created, inventory is turned off by default and needs to be turned on individually for each item.
Part Number: If the listing was created by Selling Manager or Blackthorne, part numbers are imported, otherwise they are not.
Dispute Status and ID: These are both imported.
Templates: Not imported.
Archiving reduces clutter and speeds up operation of the program, while keeping all information still available if needed.
With this in mind, the import program automatically archives data, subject to the following criteria:
Sales older than 6 months are archived.
Listings that ended more than 6 months ago are archived.
Items that were last used to create listings more than 6 months ago are archived.
Store listings that haven't been used in more than 6 months are archived.
In addition to the six-month boundary, incomplete items (no listings ever created from them; missing user information and option settings) are also archived.
If your data is not in a format that is directly importable (Turbo Lister or on eBay), then you can use the flat file import to retrieve your data. A flat file is a file that contains all of your data in a readable format. The data for each imported item will appear on its own line in the flat file, and the fields are separated on the line by a comma or tab. Many software packages allow you to export your data into flat files which can then be imported into Blackthorne.
Since different programs will export data differently, part of your job when importing from a flat file is to create a mapping between the two formats. You will be shown your flat file and the field names in Blackthorne. It will be up to you to match up which field from your flat file will import into a particular field in Blackthorne. Once a mapping is created, you will be able to save it so you can import similar files easily in the future.
It is very likely that the data you are importing will not contain all of the fields that Blackthorne expects. There are a few different ways you can have the import fill in this missing data. You can specify a constant value that will be set for all records (i.e. set $9.99 as the Starting Price for everything) and/or you can specify an Item Template to use for any missing values. By using an Item Template, you can enter all the fields that are common once in the Item Template and not have to worry about importing them.
Before proceeding, we should first define the requirements for a valid flat file. To be properly imported, a flat file must:
be in ascii text (readable in notepad)
contain the information for one item per line
have the fields separated on the line by a comma (commonly referred to as comma separated values (CSV)) or tab (commonly referred to as tab-delimited)
have a header line as the first line in the file. The header line contains the titles for all the fields in their corresponding order separated by commas or tabs
any fields that may contain commas (like the Title or Description) must be contained in double quotes (")
any double quotes in a field surrounded by double quotes must be represented by two double quotes (i.e. "Jerome ""The Bus"" Bettis signed autograph")
Following is an example of a flat file:
TITLE,ARTIST,LABEL,COMPOSER,DATE,COPYRIGHTDATE,RUNNINGTIME,VALUE,VALUEDATE,COPIES,UPC,ISBN,LCCN,DEWEY,USERNUMBER,FORMAT,SERIES,SOUND
(Theme From) The Lord Of The Rings,Aragorn Ballroom Orcestra,Fantasy,,1978,,,19.77,2007-08-12,1,,,,,,,,Stereo
Ballad Of A Menace,C.P.O.,Capitol Records,,1990,,,13.77,2007-08-12,1,,,,,,12&doublequote;,,Stereo
I Want It Now,Cameo,Atlanta Artists,,1990,,,6,2007-08-12,1,,,,,,,,Stereo
Machismo,Cameo,Atlanta Artists,,1988,1988,44:56,7,2007-08-23,1,,,,,,LP,,Stereo
Dancing Barefoot EP,"Celibate Rifles, The",What Goes On UK,,1988,1988,,14.77,2007-08-23,1,,,,,,12&doublequote;,,Stereo
Panic / Tainted Love,Coil,"Wax Trax! ""Waxy"" Records",,1985,,,24.77,2007-08-22,1,,,,,,PS 12&doublequote;,,Stereo
Many common applications such as Microsoft Excel can export data in this format.
Create a valid flat file as described under Definition_of_a_Flat_File.
From the main menu, select File|Import|Import from Flat File.
Browse to your flat file and click OK. The Import from Flat File window will appear.
If you have previously performed a mapping for this type of file, you can select it from the "Select an existing Map file if available:" dropdown. If not, leave it set to AutoMap. AutoMap will automatically map any fields from the flat file that have the same name as a field in Blackthorne. This will act as a good starting point for you to complete the mapping.
For each field in your flat file that you would like to import, drag the column header from the grid at the top of the Mapping group to the corresponding Blackthorne Field in the Mapping table. Your mapped fields will appear as [[FieldName]]. The Description and Allowed/Sample Values columns will help you understand the Blackthorne fields and the type of data they are expecting.
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If your flat file column names are the same as the Blackthorne Field names, ignoring any blanks, then the mapping of those fields will be performed automatically when you load the flat file. For instance, the flat file had a field called "Title" and the Blackthorne Field name is "Title", so this field was automatically mapped. Likewise a field in your flat file called "StartingPrice" would map to the "Starting Price" field in Blackthorne. |
If there are any constant values that you would like set for every record imported, you can place the value in the mapping table. For instance, as shown above, you can set the "Track Inventory" field to True and the "Subtitle" to "Your one stop shopping for all your music!", simply by placing those values in the mapping table. The Description and Allowed/Sample Values columns will help you understand the Blackthorne fields and the type of data they are expecting.
If desired, specify an Item Template to use as a default for any non-mapped fields. By entering an Item Template, you can have many of your fields automatically filled into your newly imported items.
If desired, click the Save button to create and name a Map file. This Map file can then be used in the future when you are importing other files with the same format. You can also exchange Map files with other users. For instance, if you are converting to eB from another application and you have created a Map file to bring the data into eB, you may want to offer that Map file to other users on the Discussion Board. Likewise, you may want to see if someone else has already created a Map file for your file format.
Click the Import button to perform the import. Depending upon the amount of data being imported, this may take a little while. The imported records will appear in the current folder, or in All Items if there is no folder selected.
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When importing, any fields that are not valid (i.e. importing text into a currency field) will not be imported. Any fields that are too long will be truncated. At the end of the import you will be notified if any data was not imported. A complete list of the errors can be found on the Import Errors tab of the Activity Log (Tools|Activity Log). |
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When importing Field Presets, Templates or Accounts, the data can contain the full name of the preset, template or account, or it may be the internal ID number assigned by eB. |
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Steven sells DVDs. Every month, he receives a CSV file containing the Title, Desc and Cost to him. He wants to import these into Blackthorne and with as much information filled in as possible and set his Starting Price to $2.00 above his cost.
Before doing the import the first time, he creates an Item Template for DVD's. This Item Template contains the Subtitle, Seller Account, Category, Listing Format, and many other fields already filled in for DVD's. It even has the Field Presets for Listing Upgrades, Shipping, and Payments filled in.
When Importing the Flat File, he loads the Map file that he created the first time he imported a file of this type. That Map File maps the Title field to Title, Desc to Description and Cost to Starting Price. It also specifies his DVD Item Template as the default item template.
When he clicks the Import button, each record in the CSV file becomes a record in his current folder. It has the Title, Description and Starting Price filled in from the CSV file and all the other fields filled in from the Item Template, so his item is pretty much ready to list.
The one last thing he needs to do is change the Starting Price to be $2.00 more than his cost, so he selects all the imported records and does a Bulk Edit to add $2.00 to the Starting Price. |
The primary purpose of Field Presets is to "normalize" the item records. This means that instead of every item storing all the values for Listing Upgrades or Shipping for instance, we store sets of values once and each item refers to a set of those values. The advantages to normalization include making the database much smaller and allowing the user to make changes to many records in just one place.
When importing from a flat file, if we read all of the individual values from the presets into an item record, we would lose the benefits of normalization. Therefore, on import, we require you to specify an existing Field Preset and not the individual values in a Field Preset. By doing this, we ensure that the user can still make changes to multiple items in just a single location.
Field Presets can be specified in the flat file by their name, or they can simply be excluded from the flat file and specified in the associated Item Template.
In addition to creating new records from a flat file, there is also a feature to allow for updating existing Item, Listing and Sales records from a flat file. A flat file is a file that contains all of your data in a readable format. The data for each record will appear on its own line in the flat file, and the fields are separated on the line by a comma or tab. Many software packages allow you to export your data into flat files which can then be used to update your data in Blackthorne. See Definition_of_a_Flat_File for more information on what a flat file is.
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Steven sells DVDs. Every week, he receives a file from his supplier that contains the Part Number and Retail Price of any DVD's that have had price changes. Steven uses the Retail Price - $2.00 as his Fixed Price on Buy It Now auctions.
By using the flat file update, he can update all the affected items at once by doing a simple Update from Flat File. |
Create a valid flat file as described under Definition_of_a Flat File.
From the Items Actions, Listings Actions or Sales Actions menu, select Update from Flat File.
Browse to select your flat file.
Select the common field (unique key) you would like to match on:. This is the field that will have the common data in both Blackthorne and your flat file so Blackthorne knows which records to update. Whichever value you choose, your flat file must have a field that has the exact name as the value chosen in the dropdown. Click OK when finished. The Update from Flat File window will appear.
If you have previously performed a mapping for this type of file, you can select it from the "Select an existing Map file if available:" dropdown. If not, leave it set to AutoMap. AutoMap will automatically map any fields from the flat file that have the same name as a field in Blackthorne. This will act as a good starting point for you to complete the mapping.
For each field in your flat file that you would like to update, drag the column header from the grid at the top of the Mapping group to the corresponding Blackthorne Field in the Mapping table. Your mapped fields will appear as [[FieldName]]. The Description and Allowed/Sample Values columns will help you understand the Blackthorne fields and the type of data they are expecting.
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If your flat file column names are the same as the Blackthorne Field names, ignoring any blanks, then the mapping of those fields will be performed automatically when you load the flat file. For instance, if the flat file had a field called "Title" , the Blackthorne Field name is "Title", so this field would be automatically mapped. Likewise a field in your flat file called "StartingPrice" would map to the "Starting Price" field in Blackthorne. |
If there are any constant values that you would like set for every record updated, you can place the value in the mapping table. For instance, you can set the "Track Inventory" field to True and the "Subtitle" to "Your one stop shopping for all your music!", simply by placing those values in the mapping table. The Description and Allowed/Sample Values columns will help you understand the Blackthorne fields and the type of data they are expecting.
If desired, click the Save button to create and name a Map file. This Map file can then be used in the future when you are updating from other files with the same format. You can also exchange Map files with other users.
Click the Update button to perform the update. Depending upon the amount of data being imported, this may take a little while.
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When updating, any fields that are not valid (i.e. updating text into a currency field) will not be imported. Any fields that are too long will be truncated. At the end of the update you will be notified if any data was not updated. A complete list of the errors can be found on the Import Errors tab of the Activity Log (Tools|Activity Log). |
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When importing Field Presets, Templates or Accounts, the data can contain the full name of the preset, template or account, or it may be the internal ID number assigned by eB. |
