We've been setting up an e-commerce site for 3 months building the databases directly from CSVI-outputted CSV files as the templates. Now came the moment of truth-- uploading the databases, and CSV has been totally unpredictable to the point of being useless.

1. It can't even properly re-import what the code itself outputs.

2. It either scrambles/loses characters or just drops out information altogether.

3. Every time a CSV is imported, some information is duplicated instead of replaced.

Believe me, we spent literally -days- working with this software. It's a nice idea, but right now it's just so buggy I feel the least I can do is warn others off for now.

Please, people-- TEST stuff before you release it!!!

This product is made by programmers, for programmers, and everyone else is just out of luck.

The interface is much more complicated then it needs to be.

There are far more options then there need to be.

The output in every format except the XML format was useless. All the CSV outputs were non-sensical, and devoid of product information. All of the input labels (which should have been rows) were in a single cell, and all the columns were empty.

Is it possible to get an import/export extension that JUST WORKS?? I promise you that it really doesn't need to be that complicated. Try making a wizard or something.

We needed to move our VirtueMart music store to a new domain and CSV Improved was the perfect solution! We were also upgrading the store from Joomla! 1.0x to Joomla! 1.5x so we needed to export everything first, then import everything when we were ready. It worked just as advertised! What a time saver!

This really makes the use of VirtueMart a lot easier, and far more attractive..

A giant timesaver indeed!

Highly recommended!

This might just be the worst product I have ever found that uses Joomla. If I were Joomla I would remove it from the list.

I have tried to upload the same file with every change myself and a team can come up with for a client and every time it generates an error that means nothing and that if you try and track it down doesnt exist.

And it doesnt matter if you remove the lines that it says are bad or not. It just recreates the error somewhere else.

I dont recommend this to anyone. I would gladly pay for something that works at this point. Well I would gladly pay for something that works as long as CSV Import didnt make it.

Don't bother with anything else, or trying to do it any other way.... quite simply fantastic, easy to use, great support, what else can you want?

At first I was critical of an earlier version of this offering on one of the Virtuemart forums. I could not get it to import it's own product export file.

However, the latest version is very good indeed. If you want to be able to export your Virtuemart product and category information to a CSV file for modifying in MS Excel or OpenOffice Scalc then this component is indispensable.

I apologise for criticising the earlier version, I should have waited for the newer version to come out. I will donate a fiver to you if you tell me where the link is to do so!

Using CSV Improved 0.9 I find a number of issues with exporting a Google base XML file.

1. If you select either manufacturer or a shopper group other then All, your file will not export.
2. If you list several attributes in a sequence like g:payment_accepted which should allow for multiple entries, only one entry is actually exported.
3. No provision to export the product category name which could answer the g:product_type field name for Google.
4. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear that the cron portion of the code is written properly (or perhaps the instructions are not clear) as even when invoking a template that is supposed to output, the file insists on trying to read an input file and thus fails.

Other then that, the program does seem to function OK. Given the issues found and the fact that the author is converting the 1.5 version to commercial, I would not be able to give more then an average rating to this component.

An excellent time saving component with first class support from RolandD. Many thanks Roland.

TonyG

Takes a little bit of figuring how to use it but once you have the broad idea this is priceless. Thanks to Roland for his efforts.

I had a short period of stumbling with this at first as I've never dealt with mass importing of products or csv, but after getting this down pat, with amazing support from Roland, this product is priceless!
The amount of time it will save me getting my products up on virtuemart is worth it's weight in gold.

Thank you!!!!

This addon for Virtuemart does so many things, it's a very powerful tool.

The need to export from VM in Excel format (e.g. CSV files) is central to so many business functions, whether it be for accounting, business intelligence, stock control, etc.

I'm astounded that VM haven't put more into developing this side of the extension, but RolandD has done an excellent job. He responds to questions very promptly and is frank and honest about what is being developed, what bugs exist and how long it'll take to get things fixed.

All together, this is an excellent addon which is being actively developed! It has huge potential and I'll certainly be using it a lot!