Importing related products (product relationship lists) - Textalk Abicart

Product import allows you to add related products to your store via an import file. The feature uses so-called product relationship lists, where you specify related products on a specific product.

In this guide, we'll walk you through how to create an import template for relationship lists and how to import related products to your products.

Step 1 – Create a template for product relation lists

Before you can import related products, you need to create a product relation list template.

  1. Go to Catalogue → Import
  2. Open the tab Templates for related products
  3. Click Add new template
  4. Enter:
    1. Name of the relation list (for example "Similar products")
    2. Visibility settings
  5. Click Create list
The template is used to tell the system which relation list the import should update.





Step 2 – Prepare your import file

Related products are specified in the import file using product numbers separated by commas.

Important to keep in mind:
  • The product number for the main product must be on the same row
  • The related products are specified using product numbers separated by commas
Example:

In this example, the products with product numbers T-SHIRT-002, T-SHIRT-003 and T-SHIRT-004 will be added as related products to T-SHIRT-001.

Step 3 – Upload your import file

You can now import related products.
  1. Go to Catalogue → Import
  2. Upload your import file
Make sure that "Automatic" is selected for both "Fields separated by" and "Character encoding", and that "Update information" is selected under "If the product already exists in the catalog".


Step 4 – Map the columns in the import

For the system to know what information is contained in each column, you need to map the columns to the correct properties.

Since the import file has clear column headers, this is easy to do.

For example, you need to specify:

  • the column containing the product number for the main product
  • the column containing related products – here you select the name of the template you created earlier, for example "Similar products"


In this example, the first row of each column in the import file contains headers. We do not want to import these, so we check "First row contains column headers".


Here we have selected the column content for each column in our import file: Product number, Product name (sv) and Related products → Similar products.

Step 5 – Start the import

Once the columns are mapped, click Start import.

The system will now create or update the product relation list depending on whether this list already exists on the product or not.

Result after the import

When the import is complete, you can check the result by:

  1. Opening a product
  2. Going to Related products
Here you will see that the relation list has been created and is linked to the template used for the import.

In this example, we import only one list of related products, but it is possible to import multiple product relation lists for the same product. In that case, simply add another column for related products (for example "Matching accessories") and make sure to create a corresponding import template before uploading the import file.

It is only possible to import related products to relation lists that are linked to an import template. Lists that were created manually cannot be updated via import.


Here we can see that the product relation list "Similar products" has been created after the import.


The list can be edited manually afterwards by clicking the name or the "edit" icon on the previous page.

Important to know about importing related products

When importing product relation lists, the following applies:

  • The products in the existing list will be replaced by those specified in the import file.
  • If the column for related products is left empty for a product in the import file, the entire product relation list will be removed from the product (if there is already a relation list linked to this import template).