Company Catalog Import / Export
SolarNexus provides a set of features for importing and exporting your SolarNexus Company Catalog of products. These features are a means for:
- Quickly populating your SolarNexus Company Catalog at startup with existing cost items that you use for building customer quotes
- Managing your product information using a spreadsheet program
- Integrating product cost updates from suppliers into your Company Catalog
Things you can do:
- Create new products
- Update existing products (product manufacturers, names, descriptions,
Things you cannot do:
- Create new PV Modules or Inverters
- Manage variable product costs
- Set more than one primary supplier
The Import / Export functionality is found in a pane at the left side of Company Catalog screen. The available operations are:
- Export to CSV - This outputs your existing Company Catalog into a CSV file.
- Import Products from CSV -
- Summary of Last Import Operation -
- Sample CSV File - This outputs a sample CSV file that shows the columns present in any import or export. You can use this file as the format to build a set of new products for import.
Each operation is described in detail below.
Export to CSV
This operation downloads a CSV file of your complete Company Catalog. This is useful for managing bulk product cost updates to your catalog within a spreadsheet. You simply make your updates to individual products, save the updates, and import the modified file back into SolarNexus (see Import Products from CSV below). You can also add new products to the same file for updating the Company Catalog.
This feature should also provide reassurance that you can always get your data out of SolarNexus, should you ever need to (we sincerely hope not!).
Import Products from CSV
This operation imports a file from your computer and populates your Company Catalog with its contents. The import process can create new products in the Company Catalog and update attributes for existing products in the Company Catalog.
The file must be in comma separated value (CSV) format, and must include the header row as defined by SolarNexus. You may get a file formatted this way by exporting your current Company Catalog (see Export to CSV above), or by downloading a sample CSV file (see Sample CSV File below).
The process of importing is simple. Just select the CSV file from your file system, and specify whether SolarNexus should overwrite existing data in the Company Catalog with the data provided in the CSV file.
If overwrite products is checked, then the import process for each item in the CSV is as follows:
- First checks for existing SolarNexus Company Catalog ID, if one is present then overwrites existing product data with data in CSV.
- If no SolarNexus ID, checks if there is a Public Catalog product that matches the product in CSV. If so, adds that product from the Public Catalog to the Company Catalog and populates the provided cost and categorization information.
- Next checks if the item matches any existing company catalog products (Manufacturer, Model). If it does, then overwrites existing product with CSV data.
- If no matches are found, creates a new product.
If overwrite checkbox is unchecked, then CSV data for existing products is ignored (only new products will be added).
On initiating an import, SolarNexus displays a screen that shows the current import status (scheduled / running). Since the import can take some time (depending on number of products), SolarNexus schedules an asynchronous process to do the import. This means that instead of waiting for SolarNexus to finish, you can go off to do something else while SolarNexus does the work in the background. If you do stay on the status screen, SolarNexus will update and show the results when complete. Otherwise you can go to the Summary of Last Import Operation when returning to the Company Catalog. Either way, the results are described in the Summary of Last Import Operation section below.
Supported CSV Fields
The same rules enforced by the SolarNexus Company Catalog UI apply to the data provided in the CSV file. The following fields are supported, an asterisk (*) indicates a required field:
- SolarNexus Company Catalog ID (only provided when Company Catalog is exported, having the value makes import updates more effective)
- Category* (must be a legal SolarNexus value, see below)
- Sub-category (must be a legal SolarNexus value, see below)
- Mfr / Provider*
- Model / Name*
- Description
- Product Selection Help
- Unit* (must be a legal SolarNexus value, see below)
- Company Unit Cost
- Cost Structure* (must be a legal SolarNexus value, see below)
- Cost Category* (must be a legal SolarNexus value, see below)
- Supplier1 Name (must be a supplier defined in your SolarNexus account)
- Supplier1 Catalog Number
- Supplier1 Cost
- Supplier1 Primary (only one Supplier may be primary)
- Supplier2 Name (must be a supplier defined in your SolarNexus account)
- Supplier2 Catalog Number
- Supplier2 Cost
- Supplier2 Primary
NOTE: Markup is not an included field. SolarNexus is no longer supporting individual product markups in feature enhancements. If your company is still using the legacy individual line item markups, we suggest that you switch to using Percentages of Solution Sub-Total for markups. You can make this change from the Administration > Project Settings screen. See the Project Settings > Indirect Project Costs section of the Administering Your Company Account article for more information.
Product Category / Sub-Category, Legal Values:
| Category | Sub-Category |
| PV Modules | - |
| Inverters | String inverters - grid-tie Microinverters - grid-tie Battery-based inverters - grid-tie / off-grid |
| Inverter Options and Accessories | Integrated Component Options Interconnection Wiring Installation Accessories Warranties & Service Agreements |
| DC Optimizers | - |
| Labor and Admin | - |
| General Material | - |
| Kits | - |
| Services |
Business administration Consulting Design & permitting Inspections & commissioning Operations & maintenance Sales leads |
| Mounting Structures | Roof & Ground Racking Pole Mounts Trackers |
| Electrical | Combiner & Junction Boxes Wire & Accessories Disconnects & Switches Overcurrent & Ground Fault Protection Load Centers Connectors & Terminals Transformers & Converters Surge Protection Labels & Signage Conduit & Fittings Controls |
| Metering, Monitoring, & Telemetry | Grid-Tie System Monitoring DC Meters & Battery Monitoring AC kW-hr Meters & Monitoring Control Interfaces Sensors & Weather stations |
| Tools | Cable tools Meters & Testers Shade Assessment Software |
| Thermal Collectors | - |
Unit, Legal Values:
| each |
| Wstc |
| kWstc |
| per module |
| per inverter |
| per array |
| hr |
| ft |
| mi |
Cost Structure, Legal Values:
| Standard Cost |
| Variable Cost (cannot be used for adding new products) |
Cost Category, Legal Values:
| Materials:PV Modules |
| Materials:ACPV Modules |
| Materials:Inverters |
| Materials:PV System Kits |
| Materials:Thermal Equipment |
| Materials:Mounting Structure and Hardware |
| Materials:Electrical Equipment |
| Materials:Other |
| Materials and Labor:General |
| Labor:Administration |
| Labor:Engineering |
| Labor:PV Installation |
| Labor:Thermal System Installation |
| Permitting Fees |
| Solar Thermal |
| Other |
| Non-Categorized |
Supplier Name, Legal Values:
You must use an exact name of a supplier created in your SolarNexus suppliers (Administration > Suppliers).
Supplier Primary, Legal Values:
TRUE, FALSE. Only one Supplier can have Primary = TRUE.
Summary of Last Import Operation
Following each import, SolarNexus reports on results of last import operation, including:
- Resulting status of import
- Number of created products
- Number of updated products
- Number of unchanged products
- Number of not overwritten products
- Number of rows with errors
- List of specific errors by row number
Some Sample Errors and Fixes:
| Scenario | Sample Error | Fix |
| If you try to create a new PV module or inverter | Line 10: Model / Name and Mfr / Provider values should match an existing Inverter product. | You may not add PV modules or inverters to SolarNexus. Go to SolarNexus Public Catalog and select desired PV modules to add to your Company Catalog. |
| If you try to specify a supplier name that does not exist in your SolarNexus account. | Line 7: No supplier named 'Joe's Engraving' - please add it in the Administration/Suppliers section. | Go to Administration > Suppliers and create the desired supplier. Use that supplier name in your CSV. |
| If you try to specify that a product is supplied by an existing SolarNexus supplier with a pre-defined catalog that does not include that product. | Line 6: ^Product SampleProductName is not supplied by AEE Solar, please select other supplier or Save resource with no suppliers associated. You can add supplier to this resource later. |
Sample CSV File
This operation downloads a sample CSV file in the proper format for import into SolarNexus. You can use this file as a guide to format your existing product data for import into SolarNexus. See above for details on that operation.