Skip to main content
All CollectionsPublications
Update publications in bulk
Update publications in bulk

In this tutorial, you will learn how to update the data of your publications in bulk using a Google Sheet or Excel spreadsheet.

Lara Macarena Sastre avatar
Written by Lara Macarena Sastre
Updated over a week ago

Step by step:

1. We are going to create the file with the metadata. To do this you must open the file that we shared as an example ( see sheet "update "), go to File and choose "Make a copy" to be able to edit it with the information that you want to incorporate. You can delete the columns that you are not going to use or leave them incomplete.

NOTE:

  • The file must be an XLSX (Microsoft Excel).

  • It is not necessary to add all columns to do an update, and not all columns can be updated.

  • The detail of columns, taxonomies and the data that may or may not be updated can be found below.

2. Once the spreadsheet is completed, you must save it as a .xlsx file (Microsoft Excel) in order to use it.

3. Go to the Control Panel of your Library, then to Settings > Imports.

4. Click New Import, click on the Update Publications option, and add the file you have created.

5. Click on the Create Import button, and the process will automatically run.

Once this process has run, you will be able to see in that same section the status of the import, if it was carried out successfully or if an error was generated.

In some cases, you may need to refresh the page to see the final status of the process, if it continues to appear as "Processing" for several minutes.

COLUMN DETAILS :

  • ISBN: REQUIRED. It is a unique identifier for the publication and here you must place the ISBN. It can contain alphanumeric characters, as well as hyphens and underscores with a maximum of 250 characters.

  • Name: REQUIRED. It is the name of the publication. It must contain a maximum of 200 characters.

  • Description: Optional. It is the description of the publication. It must contain a maximum of 10000 characters.

  • Free: Optional. In case the publication is free it must contain 1, if it is not free you must enter 0 (zero).

  • Free Until: Optional. In case the publication is free until a certain date. It must contain the date in the format "year-month-day" (yyyy-mm-dd). For example: 2021/05/12.

  • Publication Date: Optional. If you want you can specify a date and time of publication. It must contain the date in "year-month-day" format and if you add a time it must be in "hours-minutes-seconds" format. For example: if you only add the date 2019-09-15 and if you add date and time 2019-04-28 00:00:00. Note that if you leave the field empty the default value will be the date and time when you upload the files.

  • Allow Preview: Optional. If you want the publication to have a preview, it must contain 1, otherwise a 0 (zero). Note that by default the preview percentage is 10% for all publications, i.e. a book with 100 pages will have the first 10 previews; and a book with 150 pages will have 15 previews.

  • Require Login for Preview: Optional. In case the publication requires login when it can be previewed, it must contain 1, otherwise a 0 (zero).

  • Require Login to Read: Optional. In case the publication when it is free requires login to the user, it must contain 1, otherwise a 0 (zero).

  • Private Material: Optional. If the publication contains private material (for example: a link to a video, a code or password or any other information you want to add to the publication). Only users with access to the post will be able to see it. It must contain a maximum of 10000 characters.

  • Prices: Optional. It is a string with the format currency_id:amount.
    It admits multiple values separating them with the "|" character.

    - Currency_id: ARS, USD, EUR, MXN, COP, PEN or CLP.
    - Amount: is the price value, in floating or integer format.
    For example: If you want to set the price of a publication in 500 Argentinean pesos, 300000 Chilean pesos and 9 US dollars you will have to place them as follows:
    ARS:500|CLP:300000|USD:9.99

  • PPU Prices: Optional, but REQUIRED if ppu_enabled is equal to 1. It sets the price of the PPU license (which usually corresponds to 10% of the book cover price) and follows the same format as the prices field, with the difference that it only accepts prices in USD (for example: USD:0.40 to set the price in 40 US cents, per loan or rental).

  • Retail Enabled: REQUIRED: You must set this field to 1 if you wish to offer the publication on the market under the retail license (after signing a contract), otherwise 0 (zero).
    IMPORTANT: Please note that if this field is 1, in the next column "prices" you must put the price in dollars (USD).

  • PPU Enabled: Optional. This field allows your publication to be marketed in loan or rental mode in Libraries, under the PPU (Pay Per Use) license. It must be 1 if you want to commercialize it, otherwise 0 (zero).



    TAXONOMY COLUMNS

    All taxonomy columns are optional. You can add and use the standard taxonomy columns and/or add custom taxonomy columns.

    Standard taxonomy columns:

  • Keyword: optional, supports multiple values by separating them with the | character. Maximum of 250 characters.

  • Category: optional, supports multiple values separated with the | character. Maximum of 250 characters.

  • Collection: optional, supports multiple values separated with the | character. Maximum of 250 characters.

  • Author: optional, supports multiple values separated with the | character. Maximum of 250 characters.

  • Narrator: optional, supports multiple values separated by the | character. Maximum of 250 characters. (For audiobooks)

  • Publisher: optional, supports multiple values separated by the | character. Maximum of 250 characters.

  • Country: optional, supports multiple values separated with the | character. Maximum of 250 characters.

  • Edition: optional, admits multiple values separated by the | character. Maximum of 250 characters.


Custom taxonomy columns:

Maximum 250 characters, supports multiple values separated by the | character.

To add taxonomy columns you must first create them in your store/library. We share with you this tutorial that shows you how to do it.

For example age, gender, etc.


MOST COMMON ERRORS

In View report details , the row ( ** ) in which the error is occurring will be indicated.

( ** ) The indicated row is exactly the same as in the spreadsheet, the header being counted as number 1 (one).

The different errors that usually occur are the following:

  • Invalid headers - This is one of the most common errors and generally stems from two causes:

    • The data of some of the headers were modified by hand and it does not exactly match the ones indicated in the example file and in this tutorial.

  • You may have chosen another option other than Import publications, such as importing users or some other from the list.

  • Date with the wrong format: This can be caused by some changes in the type of data format and in this case, the one indicated in the previous points must be followed.
    Dates should not be written: using the bars (2020/01/20) as separators or writing them without using the corresponding order (01/20/2020) or abbreviating the year in two numbers (01-20-20). The accepted format is year, month, day (yyyy-mm-dd).

    1. Too many characters: Not respecting the maximum number of characters in the fields as indicated in each case can cause an error in the import.

    2. File not found: This can be generated because you forgot to load a publication or cover in SFTP and the system cannot find it, or because it is misspelled. Check if you did not leave extra spaces, if the file extension is correct and if the ISBN matches the one loaded in the SFTP.





We hope you find this tutorial simple, if you have any questions you can email us at [email protected]

Did this answer your question?