# anyone know of a better way to import/manipulate product data from Alpha & Sanmar



## flekkiman (Jul 10, 2007)

I'm tired of importing and manipulating all the data from Alpha and Sanmar every year so I can have their products on my website. And now I'm also looking to redo my website.
Does anyone know of a template or similar set up for the embroidery business that is set up to use swatch colors and can have the the data from Alpha & Sanmar easily imported each year?


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## CUSTOM UK (Jun 28, 2008)

*Re: website data*

Hi. Although in a slightly different application (tapestry swatches) I found the only practical solution was to put the swatches in a database and reference them using their RGB display codes. By that, I mean populate the web page using the database. 

You can set up the database so it preserves the original data and only updates items that have changed, or are new additions. It involves a few hours of custom programming, so you'll need to be reasonably proficient with setting up databases and have some knowledge of php, (or the language your site currently uses). It's not an easy option, but it is a long term solution.

Hope this helps.


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## VectorKing (Mar 1, 2007)

flekkiman said:


> I'm tired of importing and manipulating all the data from Alpha and Sanmar every year so I can have their products on my website. And now I'm also looking to redo my website.
> Does anyone know of a template or similar set up for the embroidery business that is set up to use swatch colors and can have the the data from Alpha & Sanmar easily imported each year?


I haven't seen any templates. I usually just make my own color chips for each product using the manufacturer's pantone colors. I save these as cdr (Corel Draw) files so that if any colors ever change I can easily go back and edit them. I then export the file as a jpg to my site. If you type style numbers specific to Sanmar in their website and then click download specs, it will usually tell you the product's pantone colors. As far as other items here are some links that may save you some time in the long run.

Gildan Activewear
Jerzees ®
2008 | Anvil. The Right Fit.
Colors - Wholesale Resources - American Apparel

Also if you go to the major suppliers sites and click on "marketing tools" you can usually get an image that shows all colors available. As far as pricing and product details, I make excel sheets for each product that I keep on file with my pricing formula incorporated into it. I haven't had any luck with finding a shortcut. If anyone has please enlighten the rest of us!


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## T-BOT (Jul 24, 2006)

flekkiman said:


> I'm tired of importing and manipulating all the data from Alpha and Sanmar every year so I can have their products on my website.


I guess you can contact their webmaster and get permission to Embed what you need right on your site. You may need to do some type of server end stuff or even .htaccess re-directs to keep clients on your site etc. 


I would think these types of site/companies would have some type of out-bound easy-product/specs/etc/feeds for re-sellers such as yourself, by now.


:


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## flekkiman (Jul 10, 2007)

Thanks for all your input - I wasn't so worried about the swatch colors themselves - but all the data about the shirts, sizes, and colors. It's just a pain to update with all the new products each year and take out all the disco products.

It's not a problem if you limit the number of products to very few, but when you get up into the hundreds/thousands of products, it gets very tiresome...

How do you handle this on your websites?

OK, I'll quit whining and get back to work


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## Air Art Girl (Mar 29, 2007)

have you tried contacting SanMar marketing, there is a tool that they will set you up with the allows a click from your site right to their catalog with retail pricing of the blank garments.


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