Unique identifier

Hi Max,

When you say some records are only being updated, does this mean it is updating records that have been created in the same run, or is it finding records that have been deleted (should be able to see what is happening on the history tab for that importer?

By default the importwp-woocommerce addon checks for existing products in the following order (ID, _sku, post_name).

For products i would recommend using the sku field, you can however change what field is used for the unique identifier guide can be found here

Thank you for the quick reply. Unfortunately I didn’t get a notification.

I will take a look into the guide you provided.

Regarding your questions:
It seems that some records that have been imported before, then deleted and then reimported again are revived from the trash bin and updated. How is this handled? Can I restrict ImportWP from “reviving” old records from the bin? Does it even do that?

And the other problem I have is that when I import let’s say 40 products, in the same import 30 records are being created and 10 are being updated. I tested this and it looks like ImportWP updates it’s own records while importing them, so I end up with only 30 products in the end. How can I prevent this?

Thank you.

If it’s helpful I can create a screencast showing this.

Same question, asked differently:
I have to import 40 products, their names are the same, but they differ in attributes.

Product 1:
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro
RAM: 4GB
ROM: 128GB
Version: Global

Product 2:
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro
RAM: 6GB
ROM: 128GB
Version: Global

Product 3:
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro
RAM: 4GB
ROM: 256GB
Version: Global

Product 4:
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro
RAM: 6GB
ROM: 256GB
Version: Global

Product 5:
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro
RAM: 6GB
ROM: 256GB
Version: International

Product 6:
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro
RAM: 6GB
ROM: 128GB
Version: International

How can I make sure they’re all imported correctly and do not update each other?

You would have to empty the trash to make sure a record that has been deleted so that it would not be updated, the import checks for the following post_status to find existing records: ‘any, trash, future’.

To stop these products that all share the same title but have different attributes you would have to make a custom field or use the sku field, and populate it with a value that makes it unique, e.g.

Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro-4GB-128GB-Global
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro-6GB-128GB-Global
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro-4GB-256GB-Global
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro-6GB-256GB-Global
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro-6GB-256GB-International
Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro-6GB-128GB-International

Ok awesome, thanks.

I didn’t know I could assign letters and symbols as SKU as well (thought it’d have to be numbers only).

The only thing left now is that when I import 40 products from a list, ImportWP creates 31 new records and updates 9, although there are 0 pre-existing products in woocommerce and also 0 in the trash bin. I will create a video for this shortly.

Thank you very much for your support here James, it really helps a lot!

Kind regards,
Max