Setting Up Cron Job – WooCommerce Product Import Export Plugin

The Best Product Import Export Plugin for WooCommerce

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WooCommerce Product Import and Export plugin facilitates to schedule the Import and Export of the products. You can auto import the products at regular intervals from CSV which is present on the FTP Server by providing starting time and intervals between import. You can also auto-export the products to FTP in a CSV file at regular intervals.

What is Cron?

The software utility Cron is a time-based job scheduler in Unix-like computer operating system. Generally, it is used to set up and maintain software environments to schedule jobs (commands or shell script) to run periodically at fixed times, dates, or intervals. It typically automates system maintenance or administration—though its general-purpose nature makes it useful for things like downloading files from the Internet and downloading emails at regular intervals.

Cron is most suitable for scheduling repetitive tasks. Scheduling one-time tasks are often more easily accomplished using this utility.

You can run the Cron only when the site is visited in the scheduled interval. For more information, please refer Setting Up the Cron Job article.

Setting Up Cron for Importing

The plugin automatically imports the products to your online store at the scheduled time with the specified time interval. You can also use the mapping file in which you have saved field mapping data.

Important: You must import product from FTP manually at least once before automating it using Cron.

How to Import the products using the FTP Server?

Suppose, CSV file is as shown below: Sample CSV

And the uploaded CSV file on the FTP server (you can use FileZilla) is as shown below:

Note: Click sample CSV of Cron to download it.

Navigate to Admin settings (WooCommerce > Product Im-Ex) of Plugin. Under the Product tab, the Import window appears as shown below:

Import Products set up

Provide FTP Details. If your CSV file is on a server, then to import it, you need to do FTP settings as given below:
1. Select the checkbox to enable FTP import/export.
2. Enter FTP Server Host/IP.
3. Enter FTP User Name.
4. Enter FTP Password.
5. Enter FTP Server Path.
6. Select the checkbox to use FTPS.
You get the mapping file option(s) for auto-mapping only if you save the mapped fields with a user-defined file name while Mapping the fields. Select the required mapping file from the Select a mapping file drop-down list as shown below:Note: If you are importing the products for the very first time, then there will be no option available under Select a mapping file. The options will be available only when you save the mapping field data in a file.
Update products if exists: Check this check-box to update the existing products on your store with information from the CSV file. Existing products are identified by their SKUs.
Skip New Products: While updating existing products, tick this check-box to skip products which are not already present in the store. If a new SKU is encountered in the imported CSV file, it will be skipped, and only the existing products will be updated.
Enter the delimiter which separates the mapping values.
Select the checkbox to merge empty cells.
Click Upload file and Import. The import window appears as shown below:

mapped fields 8. Click Submit.

9. According to the CSV file, the product gets added to your online store. The import window appears as shown below: import-successful

10. The Product gets imported as shown below: products page

How to Automate the Product Import?

To automate the product Import, navigate to Dashboard > WooCommerce > Product Im-Ex > Settings. The window is displayed as shown below: FTP-Settings-Import-Export

Select the checkbox to enable FTP import/export.
Enter FTP Server Host/IP.
Enter FTP User Name.
Enter FTP Password.
Select Use FTPS checkbox to connect securely.
Test FTP if working properly.
Enter the Export Path to where the CSV file will be imported
Enter the name of the CSV file in Export Filename.
Choose Enabled option to automatically Import products from FTP Server Host/IP, as shown below:
Enter the complete path of the CSV file to be imported in the Import File column
Enter the required Start time for importing the products.
Enter the time interval in minutes for importing the products.
Select Merge Products if exist checkbox to merge existing product with the updated details of the same product. The Merging of the product is possible only if the product ID already exists in your online store. Otherwise, the product is imported as a new product.
Skip new product: If a new product SKU is encountered in the imported CSV file, it will be skipped, and only the existing products will be updated.
Delete existing products: check to delete existing products that are not present in the CSV.
Use SKU to link grouped products: Check this to link grouped products using product SKUs instead of product IDs
Select a required mapping file from the given drop-down list.
Click Save Settings to save/update settings.

You can see the auto-imported products from the FTP server to your online store.

Setting Up Cron for Exporting

Auto Export the products from your online store at the scheduled time with the specified time interval.

How to Export the products to the FTP Server?

Suppose, the Product page is as shown below: Product page exp1

Navigate to Admin settings (WooCommerce > Product Im-Ex) of the plugin. Under the Product tab, the Export window is displayed as shown below:

Product Export Screen

Offset: Enter the product row number at which you wish to start the export.
Limit: Enter the number of products that you wish to export from Offset number.
Product Categories: Allows you to select categories of products to be exported. This option can be used as a filter for exporting products of certain categories.
Product types: Allows you to select the types of products to be exported. You can import simple, variable, grouped or external products only or any combinations of these types.
Sort Columns: Enter the column name(s) by which you want to sort the products in CSV file. If you want to sort the products by more than one column name, enter Comma (‘,’) in between the column names.
Delimiter: With this field, you can change the comma separated file to ‘|’ or ‘.” separated file according to your requirement.
Columns: Select the checkbox for required columns if you want to export specific columns. With the Column Name field, you can modify the column header in the CSV file. To do that, simply enter the required column name for the specific column.
Include hidden metadata: Select the checkbox if you want to show hidden metadata of your products in the CSV file. To get thumbnail IDs of the product images, select this checkbox.
Click Export Products, the CSV file gets auto-downloaded to your computer. The sample products CSV file is as shown below:The CSV file gets exported to the FTP Root folder on the server(You can use FileZilla) and it is as shown below:Note: You can download the Sample Exported CSV.

How to Automate the Product Export?

To automate the product export, navigate to Dashboard > WooCommerce > Product Im-Ex > Settings. The window appears as shown below: FTPSettingsImpEx-2

Select the checkbox to enable FTP import/export.
Enter FTP Server Host/IP.
Enter FTP User Name.
Enter FTP Password.
Select Use FTPS checkbox to connect securely.
Choose Enabled option to automatically Export products to FTP Server Host/IP, as shown below:
Convert Shortcodes to HTML – Enable this check box to convert shortcodes to HTML in the CSV.
Product Categories – This field allows you to enter the categories of the products only which will be exported.
Export Start Time – Enter start time for export. You can enter a time value like 10:10 am.
Export Interval [Minutes] – Enter the time interval in minutes for exporting the products.
Include hidden metadata – Check this box to include hidden metadata in the CSV file.
Click Save Settings to save/update settings.

You can see the auto-exported CSV file of products details on FTP server.

To know more about other features of the plugin, read the documentation.

The Best Product Import Export Plugin for WooCommerce

#1 in WordPress Official Plugin Repository With 50,000+ Active Installs

#1 in Customer Satisfaction With Most 5 Star Reviews

WebToffee Guarantee: Get Your Money Back if You Are Not Satisfied With The Product

Buy Now!

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16 thoughts on “Setting Up Cron Job – WooCommerce Product Import Export Plugin”

Jacob says:
Hi,
Is it possible to make a cron job, where the quantity will be updated from sold products..

Like; If there is 10 in stock, and we upload a .csv with -1, there will be 9 in stock.

August 20, 2019 at 9:58 pm
- Alan says:
  Hi,
  
  Yes, you can manage the stock quantity of the products by scheduling the import. If you are required to reduce the stock amount of a product from 10 to 9 then you may please provide the data (-)1 in the stock column.
  
  August 21, 2019 at 10:39 am
Laurens says:
Can I export all my sold items to my supplier automatically or manually?

August 1, 2019 at 3:06 am
- Alan says:
  Hi,
  
  By default, there is no option to export only the sold-out items automatically to the FTP server. We can provide you with a custom code snippet for the premium version of the plugin to export only the sold-out items automatically to the FTP.
  
  Please reach us via support if you are interested in having the code snippet.
  
  August 2, 2019 at 12:52 pm
Bäthge Maximilian says:
Hello,

can i set a automatic update for URL import? Just want to update my stock every 15 minutes.

July 4, 2019 at 5:02 pm
- Alan says:
  Hi,
  
  Yes, you can schedule automatic import/update via URL import to update the stock of products at a specific interval of time.
  
  July 4, 2019 at 6:18 pm
  - Bäthge Maximilian says:
    Can u describe me how?
    
    I have imported everything now and it works fine. But i can’t find the Option for the automatic update, may u have a tutorial for me?
    
    Thanks.
    
    July 4, 2019 at 6:40 pm
gchisholm says:
What should the time interval in minutes for importing the products be set to or based on?

June 15, 2019 at 9:17 am
- Mark says:
  It depends on your requirement. ie how frequent you need to update the data. Say for eg, if you need to update it once per day set 1440 minutes as the interval.
  
  June 16, 2019 at 11:15 am
Luis says:
Where i can see the debug log? is active by default the DEBUg log of the cron processs?

January 14, 2019 at 3:31 pm
- Alan says:
  Hi Luis,
  
  You can find the cron import log from Woocommerce>Status>Logs>csv-import.
  
  January 14, 2019 at 4:45 pm
carlos says:
Hi, I am interested in the pro-version of your product
Yesterday night I find a “sandbox” to test, but now I cannto find….
Please, can you send me the url for test ??

Thanks
Carlos

November 23, 2018 at 4:20 pm
- Mark says:
  Hi,
  
  Currently, there are no demo servers to test the plugin due to some server issues.
  
  You may go ahead and purchase the plugin. We offer 30 days-No Questions Asked-100% refund guarantee for our plugin purchase.
  
  November 26, 2018 at 11:16 am
Luis says:
is there some logs if the cron fails or is ok?

March 22, 2018 at 8:00 pm
James says:
Where can I find this Cron plugin?

December 7, 2016 at 6:20 am
- Ando says:
  Hi James,
  
  We have a product import export plugin which has cron job feature in it.
  
  kindly find the link to it – https://www.xadapter.com/product/product-import-export-plugin-for-woocommerce/
  
  December 7, 2016 at 2:32 pm

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