Overview of preparing your data
If you are importing data from a Database or Comma Separated text file, the standard EROL import will pull in the data from your data source and populate your store using EROL's alpha-numeric ordering.

As such EROL allows you to group your products along a series of grouping/ordering rules, including:
- The order the products appear on the page
- Clusters of products presented as a single product (with price dependent options)
- Assigning products to pages

What can be imported
EROL's Data Import feature allows you to import:
- All your products and their relevant data from a Database
- All your products and their relevant data from a Comma Separated text file
- An EROL 1 store
- An EROL Small Store Edition store
- An EROL demo
- An Actinic Catalog store

In order to utilise these ordering/grouping rules (especially Product Grouping and Page Grouping) you may be required to create an extra column or columns in your data source that can govern the grouping/ordering rules. We call this an ID Column.

What is an ID column
An ID column is an extra column in your data Spreadsheet or Database that acts as a sorting/grouping and/or ordering field for when you Group/Order your data during the EROL data import process.

An ID column exploits EROL's automatic alphanumeric ordering to force your data into groups or user-defined orders.

Creating an ID column for Item Ordering
An ID column ordering your Items on a page (i.e. what order they appear on the page) uses EROL's alphanumeric ordering to position your products on each page in a user-defined order.

To create an ID column for Item Ordering,
1. Add a new column (ie. Field) in your spreadsheet/database table
2. Name the field 'Page Order'
3. Locate the product(s) you wish to appear first on every new page
4. Place the numeric value '1' in the 'Page Order' field for that product(s)' row(s)
5. Repeat this - increasing the numeric value each time - for every additional item you require per page.

When importing the data, you will then be able to order your products for each page by simply applying the 'Page Order' field as the ordering rule for Item Ordering.

Creating an ID column for Page Grouping
An ID column for Page Grouping (i.e. The products assigned to individual pages) uses EROL's alphanumeric ordering by applying the same value in the ID column to all products that you wish to appear on a page. You can create as many page groups as you require.

To create an ID column for Page Grouping,
1. Add a new column (ie. Field) in your spreadsheet/database table
2. Name the field 'Page Grouping'
3. Locate the products you wish to group on an individual page
4. Place the same alphanumeric value in the 'Page Grouping' field for every product you wish to appear on that page.
5. Repeat this - using a different alphanumeric value - for all other page groups.

When importing the data, you will then be able to create Page Groups for each page by simply applying the 'Page Grouping' field as the ordering rule for Page Grouping.

Preparing your tax field
When importing product data into your EROL store, it is important to stipulate whether the prices of the products are tax/VAT inclusive. You will need to create a new ID column for this.

To create a Tax/VAT Inclusive ID column,
1. Add a new column (ie. Field) in your spreadsheet/database table
2. Name the field 'Tax Inclusive'
3. For every product insert either a 'yes' or a 'no' for each product

When the data is imported, your product prices in the store will be correctly displayed.

Creating a style for your imported store
Before importing your data it is recommended you perform a certain amount pre-design so that your data can be imported with your desired look and feel applied to it.

In order to do this, you will need to create:
- A Product Item template that can be applied to all the products you import
- A Product Item Expanded View template (if your products have expanded views)
- A default Page (including background colour or image etc) with its initial layout table set to your requirements (number of columns per row etc.).

Stage 4 of the import data walkthrough requires you to select the above styles to apply to the new products.

CSV text file or Database table
There is essentially little difference between using a Database table or a CSV text file, as EROL handles either equally.

Remember though that if you do use a Comma Separated (CSV) text file, you will need to use the first line of all your fields as a header name, and then check 'Parse First Line as the Field Names' in Stage 1 of the data import process.