I am administering several shops with tens thousands products and hundreds thousands of categories and i am still missing a posibility to import large files. i mean really large like over 100 MB csv or xml to import. both for products and also for categories.
 
also some synchronization api to feed the shop with data from a remote website or xml would be great

Its better to contact Support, open a support ticket.

Can you tell me what the maximum import sizes are? is it by file size, or by item/category count?

it is by php and mysql server configuration which is quite limitating sometimes and you need to split it into smaller files either by records count or by byte size

Thanks Ruck -
I am currently building on a local PC MYSQL server.
I typically import Via append query right into the needed Viart tables, but have a problem with the VA_ITEMS table import, as I have imported the records, but they do not show on the site or in my admin.
I am not sure why this is, but beleive there may be another table i need to update to get them to display.
Dows anyone know what tables are touched with the minumum addition (part number, price, and part name) of a new product?

try if you can see the item by editing the url like http://shop.scooter-tuning.sk/product_details.php?item_id=5530
 
if yes then you need ti fill the va_item_categories table
at least you need to assign each item ID to category_id 1 which is the default category.
 
or you can do another import through the web admin panel with an csv containing product_id and category_name
it will update your products with categories. but if you have hundreds of thousands as i do it will take you few days as you will haev to split it into 1,5 MB files

Thanks Ruck again, glad to have someone that chimed in.
Like you (If that was your site in the example) I have tons of categories and products to deal with (Automotive Parts).
You were correct as just needd to add the part number to the va_item_categories table.
 
I did not know that large imports were not supported in Viart, although my prefrence is to directly import data to the tables (mostly using Access and now learning File Maker Pro). In playing with my local setup, It only takes me seconds to query the data and add a few thousand categories or products.
 
I am not sure on how many products you host, but can you tell me how many you have been able to carry before seeing some serious server slow down? I am not to keen on the fact that the va_Items table houses so many factors of data by itself (Prices, Image Paths, Descriptions, etc..) that it seems that a large ammount of products will slow it down quite a bit.

the slowdown comes from displaying manufacturer filters. beside that the shop is quite quick. i have a shop with 33 000 products and 117 000 categories (also automotive) and it is quite quick honestly but it depends on the server hw as well. i will be adding few thousands of items and categories in few weeks but i always use the csv upload function as it also checks for syntax errors which are quite often on such amounts of products

Thanks for the info on this Ruck adn your help, it is appreciated.
When you get the chance post a link on that site, would love to see Viart performance with such a huge database.
Thanks

give me some contact details i do not want to publish it to the world

Thanks Ruck, you can email me the info at
 
Grimlock222
At
Gmail.com
 
Appreciate the help.

mail sent just to let you know to check your junk mail folder :)