Automatically importing categories and products into the database

[Aminur]

Hi

I have a takeaway menu hosted on openmenu - which is a site that basically allows you have a centralised menu that you can then distribute to many sources, like your own website.
I am in the process of writing a service which will take the json (see http://openmenu.com/menu/6ea1e324-7a41-11e4-b910-00163eeae34c?json) feed they provide and convert it into different formats that can be easily imported into a POS.
I have done this for other free POS and would like to do a similar thing for Samba as I think one of the biggest hassle in setting up a POS is actually creating the menu structure - its boring and labour intensive.
My question is which tables do I need to work with. Is there a database schema document that I could have a look at?
Has anyone written SQL scripts that they are willing to share with me that inserts Categories and products.
In another POS (I won’t name it here) there is a handy feature which allows you to import a menu in xml format - do such features exist for Samba?
My idea is that a user could update the menu in openmenu. Call my service from their pc. This would delete and recreate their entire menu structure with the updates in Samba. If this is impossible due to too many entity relationships in the database then I would have to look at creating an update and insert process only.

Thanks

[JTRTech]

Check out this post; SambaPOS4 Bulk Product Importer

[emre]

Batch create products feature might be handy for some cases too. You can find details here.

Configuring Menus on First Install

When you install SambaPOS it generates some demo data for you so you can test SambaPOS. To clear demo data and create your products follow these steps. ###Clear transactions If you own DatabaseTools module you can simply execute Clear Database Transactions task to clear all tickets. If you don’t see Clear Database Transactions task in the list click Create Default Tasks button. [image] If you don’t have DatabaseTools module follow this topic to clear transactions. ###Clear Menu Click P…

[Aminur]

Yes the Bulk product Importer that JohnS has written is an excellent starting point for what I am looking to do (even if he has written the import in PHP!). Thanks.
Having thought about this some more I was thinking is there any value in creating something which takes SambaPOS as the menu source and allow users to export/embed their samba menu into their website.
Very much like openmenu - “SambaPOSMenu” widget. Perhaps it could be an addon in the Samba Market.
How do you find out if there is demand for such an addon. No point writing it if nobody wants or needs it.