Custom Modules import issue

Hi, I am in the process of replicating an real estate site from BC to Treepl. In our case we have to upload the revised property details every day through excel import option of custom modules. I have the following issues/queries.

  1. Do we need to follow the same fields sequence and file format as shown in export file?
  2. System generated “External ID” for each web item. When we try to import the existing web item details with same External ID, it throw error. If we left the External ID field blank then it generates new record with the same details.
  3. Some of the columns data of text field did not get updated. Do we need to change the data type of the field or the cell format.

Let me know. Thanks.

Hey @sgupta1221. Great to have you back on the forum.
2. We are exporting and re-importing costum module items via the admin quite often for quicker edits. So far we didn’t need to delete the external ids before re-importing. Did you delete the items in the admin before re-importing? Because we don’t. On import the system just updates what we have changed in the Excel file.
We’ve also exported to Excel, then added items and re-imported them. Worked fine so far, the system generates new ids for the new items.
1. We always worked with the Excel spreadsheet generated on export from the admin.
3. I don’t think you need to change any data types or cell formats in Excel. Just stick with the document you get on export. If you want to import from a spreadsheet you got from a different system, I would:

  • create the properties of a costum modules following the columns of that spreadsheet with the property types you need.
  • export an empty spreadsheet and copy and paste the columns from the external spreadsheet.
  • re-import the spreadsheet

Thanks Tim for your response. I tried updating the exported file for re-importing but system returns “internal error”. In some cases it imports but did not update the custom module records. Is it because the site is trial mode?

Sorry, for the late answer. MIssed that …
No, trial mode should not make a difference. “internal error” seems to be a problem either with the current version of the CMS or the site instance you’re working on. If you export an Excel file, edit it and then re-import the same file, this is not the expected behavior IMHO - trial or live site. If it’s still doing that in the latest version of the CMS I’d open a ticket with support.