My goal is to be make a custom "Add-product-page", so I can customize everything the way I want it. So far I've managed to create a .phtml file which I've made a link for in the backend menu.
Imagine a totally blank .phtml file viewed in the backend - that's where I'm at now.
How do I make a form, where I can add basicly the same stuff, as in the default "add-product-page" - but via. PHP? The reason I'm doing this is to predefine some of the values, since most of the stuff is the same stuff every time. That leads me to my..
How do I predefine some of values, so they don't need to be changed, but CAN be changed?
Is it possible to add image uploading, so I basicly have the same possibilities as in the default?
Thank you!
To be honest, I would use something like Magmi.
This will allow you to import a csv file with all of your data without having to build it all again from the ground up.
To address your other questions, due to the fact that the file being imported is a csv, you can basically do what you want. You could just copy and paste the predefined values in. Magmi will also import images and assign them correctly.
The other benefit is that Magmi scales well, I have 2500+ items on the site I work on and it will handle the full load of data, or just loading a couple of items pretty quickly.
I used the built in magento import tool. Read and follow the directions it totally works. So if you're wanting to create your own (which I would advise against), start out by reviewing the code for their import. I put all our products in a MySql db and then used a php script to create the csv export files to send to magento. This script then set all the defaults. The built-in import can handle images... you ftp them to your site (which can be automated in php, I've done it) and the import script gets the location of the images upload folder.
The reason I advise people against messing with Magento directly is that it is very very convoluted at how data is organized in the database. I've never seen anything like it, and I'm used to having id's linking to things across 5 tables. Here, they use one table for many functions, so an item id might show up 5 or 7 times.
Further, unless you really understand the architecture of how it uses product attributes and all the nuances therein, who knows what the outcome will be. Worse will be when an update comes where they change (or remove) a class that you need to do your work.
