Amazon Instructions
Importing from an Amazon Open Listings Report
Caveat: Amazon names all files that you can access with the same name, no matter that they may be different files. Amazon always names them "catalog-generic-export
These may be Open Listings Reports or Upload Reports. If the latter is used, you will get a Rejection message upon importing this file.
Go to your Amazon account page: http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/subst/your-account/manage-your-seller-account.html/
At the top, under View Items, click the last link: Download fulfillment and listings reports
This brings you to the Reports page. Click on Generate reports now login, scroll down to Open Listings Report and click on the little round button to the left of: o Yes, include data for all listings currently open.
Click the Preview button at the bottom. This takes you to a Generate Reports Now page, click the Generate Report Now button to create the report. Depending on the number of listings on Amazon this could take a few seconds to several minutes.
When you think the Report is ready, go back to Download fulfillment and listings reports and click the second link, Pickup generated reports
If the Report is ready then it will be displayed at the top, right under Open Listings Report. You will know it is there by the date: OpenListings-MM/DD/YYYY followed by the time of the report, ending with PDT.
Right click on OpenListings-MM/DD/YYYY to download. Select Save Target As…. at the top of the menu choices. This opens up a Save As form:
Click on the v button to the right of the long field and select System (C):
You will see a list of folders in the big window, find the BTPro folder, select it, then click Open at the bottom right:
A new list of folders appear, select the Data folder, click Open again.
You will see a large, empty field:
below that:
Click the Save button. Do not change the File name, leave it just as it is. BookTrakker will be looking for this name when it does the Import. You will get the Download form:
Check the Close this dialog box when download completes. Wait for download to finish.
After download is complete, do File > Import > Amazon. You will get the Amazon Import
Form, similar to the above Save As form. Click the dropdown button in the field at the top
that says Look in: and navigate to the C:\BTPro\Data folder where you downloaded
your Amazon Open Listings Report. You will see catalog-generic-export in the window,
select it to get this:
Click the Open button, lower right.
A warning message will appear:
Click Yes if you want to replace your current Inventory with the Amazon download file. Click No if you want to add the Amazon records to the end of your current Inventory. Click Cancel if you are not sure, then contact Customer Support. mailto:
If you click Yes you will get another warning message about clearing your database:
Click Yes to clear your database and import your Amazon records. Click No to import your Amazon listings but add them to the end of your database. Click Cancel if you are niot sure what to do, then contact Customer Support at mailto:
After you confirm the import of Amazon records you will see the Amazon import message:
If your import file was incorrect, i.e., it was an Upload Report rather than an Open Listings Report then you will get a reject message similar to this when the import is finished:
You can only import valid records into your database.
If you imported from an Open Listings Report, and there were no records rejected, then you will see a confirmation message:
Click OK. Restart BookTrakker.
Because Amazon data is so "dirty", we cannot properly parse their Item-Name field into BookTrakker fields. Therefore we import Item-Name into Title, unless there is a colon in the field, in which case everything after the colon goes into Subtitle.
The Amazon Item-Name filed may contain Author, Title, Binding and Edition, in no particular order, with any combination of these four fields.
Examples:
American Star by Collins, Jackie
American Soul [Paperback] by Schurmann, Franz; Rodriguez, Richard
The Career Fitness Program : Exercising Your Options [Paperback] by Sukiennik
Light and Color (The Young Scientist Investigates) by Jennings, Terry; Barber
The End of the Nation State : The Rise of Regional Economies [Hardcover] by...
Original Backyard Scientist : Experiments That Kids Can Perform Using Things...
After importing your data you may want to edit Title/Subtitle into the fields that should contain the correct information. Title into Title, Author into Author, etc.