Adding Products in Bulk via Import

If you have been invited to join a FoodLogiQ Connect Community by one of your customers, you might need to share your product information as one of their requirements. If you have many products, you may want to use our import template to add them in bulk. If you'd prefer to add products individually, please visit the Adding Products article.  If you are a Community Owner and would like to add products on behalf of your suppliers, please refer to the Adding Products on Behalf of Suppliers article. 

Steps to Adding Products in Bulk

1. Select "Products" from the left side navigation menu to visit the Products page.

2. Click on the import icon button in the top right corner of the page to download the template.

3. Select the appropriate options from the dropdown menus on the left - Associate with Community and Type.

No Community - Select if you are adding products in bulk and do not wish to share with a community.

• If you are a community member, here are some scenarios where this may be desired:
  • Add all your products at once so they are available to share with additional communities in the future.
  • You are interested in using FoodLogiQ to generate GS1-compliant labels. To learn more visit the article, Creating GS1-Compliant Labels. 
• If you are a community owner, here are some scenarios where this may be desired:
  • You are interested in using FoodLogiQ to generate GS1-compliant labels. See article link provided above. 
  • You are initiating withdrawals using the Recall + Response product for your own products. To learn more, visit the Initiating a Withdrawal article. 

4. Once you've made your selections from the dropdown, click Download Template. For this article, we will walk through adding products in bulk via import and sharing with a community. 

5. A .csv file will download to your computer. When you open the spreadsheet, notice a set of column headers at the top of the file.

6. Follow the instructions below to fill in the spreadsheet with your product data. Each row should be used for a single product. Fields that have an asterisk are required by your community/customer. Add as much information as you can, paying special attention to the required fields. If you do not fill out all required fields, you will see Missing Attribute To-dos populate your dashboard after your upload. Read the article Supplier To-Do: Missing Attributes for more details.

• Product ID (_id): You should leave this field blank if you are importing new products.
• *Product Name (name): Required.

Note: Because product types are configurable to community owners, your spreadsheet will likely look different than the above image. Here, we’ve described tips and special rules for some attributes you should be aware of when uploading.

• GTIN-14: If your product has an assigned Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), please ensure it is properly formatted and is 14 digits. For more information, please visit our Assigning GTINs to Products article.
• *Community: Required. This will be pre-filled and should match the community name you selected from the dropdown menu.
• *Product Type: Required. This will be pre-filled and should match the product type you selected from the dropdown menu. To confirm this, go to the Products page in FoodLogiQ Connect, click Add Product in green, select the community name, then view the product type options displayed.
• Custom Attributes: (If applicable) Defined by your customer. Required if an asterisk (*) is contained in the field name. Please review the online product submission page for further details as to what field types and values are accepted. In the below example, we’ve pulled up the submission page for a specific product type that has 4 custom attributes. When bulk importing via spreadsheet, we would need to type “Yes” or “No” in the spreadsheet for the 3 corresponding attributes and “home state,” “imported,” or “U.S.” for the last attribute.

• If you are being asked to upload images for your products, please delete these columns from your import template before importing. You will need to go into the product detail pages manually to edit.

7.  Once you've populated your spreadsheet with your product information, save the file as a comma-separated values file type (.csv) on your computer.

If you would like to complete a test import to confirm correct data entry, copy the first two rows of data from your spreadsheet into a new workbook and save this file as a comma-separated or .csv file type on your computer.

8. Make sure you are back on the page pictured in Step 3 above. This time, instead of downloading the template, you will upload the .csv file you’ve filled out.

9. Once you've imported your file, you will be placed on the History tab to see the results. If any errors occur they will be presented here. Click into the import history record to view details to resolve any errors that may occur. 

If you need to modify any information after importing in bulk, please review our Changing Product Information in Bulk article for further instructions. You can also edit products individually; review the Editing Products article for more information.