Importing products with custom tabs

Hello @itspriyanka

We have an add-on for WP All Import that may be helpful for you:
https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/custom-product-tabs-wp-all-import-add-on/

Let me know if that works,
-Tracy

Hello @itspriyanka,

Did you add the custom tabs to the import/export? By default they will be set to “Do not import” but you can change this. After importing your tabs this way, you’ll also need to import a couple of WP options for the saved tabs to work correctly. These options have the names yikes_woo_reusable_products_tabs and yikes_woo_reusable_products_tabs_applied.

I hope that helps. Let me know how it goes.

Cheers,
Kevin.

Edit: I’m sorry I should have clarified that you should export the yikes_woo_products_tabs field and then, during import, choose the “Import as Meta” option and enter the field name yikes_woo_products_tabs.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by yikesitskevin.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by yikesitskevin.

Hi Tracy,

Sorry for the delayed reply. I installed “WP Import All” and “Custom Product Tabs for WooCommerce WP All Import Add-on”. When I try importing a file from WP Import All to update my existing products, I get a message that says “The WooCommerce Add-On is Required to Import Products”; which is a paid add-on. So I could not use it. Do you have any free plugins that I can try?

Regards,
Priyanka

Hi Kevin,

I exported the yikes_woo_products_tabs and then tried exporting them as meta. I however, do not see any option where I can enter the field name (yikes_woo_products_tabs as suggested by you). When I import the products back, I do see my changes reflecting in the tabs though.

Also,how do I import WP options:
yikes_woo_reusable_products_tabs
and
yikes_woo_reusable_products_tabs_applied

I see “WP Options Importer” plugin but thats not being updated in the last 2 yrs.. do you have any recommendation?

Thanks!
Priyanka

• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by itspriyanka.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 2 months ago by itspriyanka.

Hi @itspriyanka,

Using an older plugin to export options should be fine as the table structure hasn’t changed in years. Which plugin are you looking at? I can test it out and make sure it works.

Cheers,
Kevin.

Hi Kevin,

I was looking at this plugin:

https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/options-importer/

Regards,
Priyanka

Hi Priyanka,

Sorry about the delay! I just tested the WP Options Importer and it worked perfectly.

1. Download & install the plugin on both your old and new sites
2. On your old site, go to Tools -> Export -> Options to export your options file
3. On your new site, go to Tools -> Import -> Options
4. De-select all the options and check off the two YIKES options, yikes_woo_reusable_products_tabs and yikes_woo_reusable_products_tabs_applied.
5. Import these two options

Let me know how that goes.

Cheers,
Kevin.

Hi Kevin,

Sorry for the late reply. This did not work. I am not sure if I explained my requirement well. I do not need to export/import from one installation to another.
I will try again:

1. I plan to have 5000 products in my woocommerce, all of which need to have custom tabs.
2. I create 2 saved tabs with some generic content.
3. I create 5 products and add these 2 saved tabs manually to all of them.
4. I then import these 5 products in a CSV file using the woocommerce product
   import feature.
5. I add more products in the CSV file and just copy the yikes_woo_products_tabs
   fields as it is to the new products I am adding.
6. I import the file back. I see that the dropdown next to import “yikes_woo_products_tabs” says ‘Do not import’ and there is no matching field for me to select.
7. When the import is over, the new products do not have the saved tabs.

Is there a way to get the saved tabs to the new products?

Regards,
Priyanka

• This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by itspriyanka.

Hi Priyanka,

Thanks for explaining that. I understand now.

So the issue is that there is no way for the plugin to know that the product’s custom tabs are really saved tabs. In your workflow, the tabs should be imported (by the way, here’s what you need to do to the field to import them: https://imgur.com/a/Eobjp), but they won’t be saved tabs; they’ll be custom tabs (so any changes would need to be made to each individual product).

Does that make sense? Do you know what I mean when I say they will be imported as custom tabs and not as saved tabs?

Let me know.

Thanks,
Kevin.

Hi Kevin,

This is what I did before I posted a question in the forum.The columns are there in the CSV that I import / export, but they do not appear in the product pages in the backend or on the website.

Regards,
Priyanka

Yeah I had a feeling that was the case. Sometimes serialized data can get corrupted when it’s being copy and pasted into spreadsheets. I’ll test this.

Hi Priyanka,

I was able to export my products, open the export file, copy a product’s line, paste it into a new line, change the ID (and some other info), copy the yikes_woo_products_tabs field (from a different product), paste it into my new product, then delete all of the other products in the file.

I just imported this file and I have a new product with a custom tab.

This is what you’re trying to do, right? Are you trying to copy multiple custom tabs or trying to combine custom tabs in the CSV file?

Hi Kevin,

I tried this just now:

1. Deleted all my products.
2. Created a new product and added a custom tab.
3. Exported the product and added a new product in the file(with the custom tab from the exported product)
4. Deleted the row for old existing product and imported the file.

The new product now has a custom tab.Then I did this:

1. Exported the 2 products.
2. Changed the content of the custom tabs.
3. Imported the file

The custom tabs are not visible now in the products backend and frontend.

So I guess the issue is when we modify & import some existing product. I can make-do with this right now and import only the new products via CSV file. But I am wondering how this will work later when I have to modify products in bulk and need to do it via CSV file.

Thanks,
Priyanka

• This reply was modified 7 years, 1 month ago by itspriyanka.

Hey Priyanka,

Yes this makes perfect sense. The reason is that the data is exported as a serialized string. For security purposes, a serialized string will include information as to how many characters are in it. If you change anything about the string, you will most likely change the number of characters and corrupt it. When the server pulls that data it notices the character mismatch and does nothing with the data (again, this is for security purposes).

Sorry about that. I’m trying to think of a good solution for you.

We do have a WP All Import add-on (https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/custom-product-tabs-wp-all-import-add-on/). However, this will only allow you to add saved/custom tabs to all of the products you’re importing (rather than choosing Saved Tab #1 for Product 1, Saved Tab #2 for Product 2).

Thanks Kevin for the detailed explanation ?? For now, I can make-do with this. I have one question though – if I have to change prices in bulk (any field other than custom tabs); and I do not import the custom tab when I import the CSV with changed prices; will that remove the custom tab for those products or let them be as they are?

Thanks again!