Enhance bulk chemical import to handle multiple product import

[Mike Dewhirst]

The objective is to import a set of chemicals (ie., a list of CAS numbers) and simultaneously link an arbitrary number of products which have that same set of chemicals as ingredients.

It is impractical to rely on product names - which may be different in different markets - when a product ID (hereafter SKU) is designed to be reliable and is available.

Therefore, this enhancement relies entirely on a list of SKUs. It will also deal with a list of names but won't rely on them and users will be expected to make necessary product name corrections if there are any discrepancies.

A list of SKUs will each be separated by a comma. An optional list of names likewise.

For the user interface to simultaneously handle single product imports it has to remain more or less the same. For example, the software can detect one or more commas in the Product ID field and process the import as multiple products.

This ticket needs user feedback. For example, what to do with detected missing names or SKUs if lists are different lengths?

Being SKU driven, would it be appropriate for example to import a single product with multiple commas in its name if there were no commas in the Product ID (SKU) field.

[Mike Dewhirst]

Bulk import is now deployed in Rev 3.8.1

• Mismatched lists of names and SKUs are padded out to be the same length
• Missing product names become "Product <SKU>"
• Missing SKUs are permitted
• Product names and product SKUs are now case insensitive
• Uniqueness is now defined as Company + Product name + Product SKU (case insensitive)
• Product ordering in lists is governed by Product name + SKU (case insensitive)

If a list of chemicals is imported or re-imported with a list of products, only the differences from existing products are processed.

• If a SKU exists it will be found and the product name changed if it is different
• It will be an error to try and change a product name in this way if that product name already exists (obviously with a different SKU)

This ticket will be closed as completed although there is scope for bespoke data import which would not become part of Chemintro standard features.