Changelog

This release is about where you use Portaim. It now runs inside your Shopify admin, looks like part of it, and answers Sidekick's questions about your imports. As always, nothing reaches your store until you confirm the export.

• + Portaim runs inside your Shopify admin — install it from the App Store and open it from the Apps menu. There is no separate account to create and nothing to connect: your store is linked from the first click. Portaim's pages sit inside the admin with its sidebar and title bar around them, and settings save through the admin's own save bar. The standalone app at app.portaim.com works exactly as before.
• + Ask Sidekick about your imports — in Sidekick, type @, pick Portaim, and ask where an import stands, why rows failed the checks, or what the last export created or updated in your store. Every answer links to the right step. Sidekick only reads; mapping, fixing and exporting stay in Portaim.
• + A light theme — inside the admin Portaim is light to match it. In the standalone app, choose light, dark or follow your system from the header; dark stays the default.
• + A store connection that renews itself — Portaim now uses Shopify's short-lived access tokens, which it refreshes on its own. Nothing changes for you, and a store that was uninstalled and reinstalled is picked up again automatically.
• + Smaller fixes — the Settings page loads again when it was failing to show your store connection and plan usage, files with very little text are no longer mistaken for another language, and option columns split out of one cell are grouped into variants correctly.

This release is about where your files come from and how little you should have to do with them once they arrive. And as always, nothing reaches your store until you confirm the export — every step before that is a preview you can change.

• + Import straight from WooCommerce — upload a WooCommerce product export and Portaim converts it to Shopify's format on the spot, variants, images and tags included. You can review what changed and switch back to the original file at any time.
• + Shopify-format files map instantly — a Shopify export, a filled-in Shopify template or a file from another migration tool is recognised and mapped column for column, with nothing left to guess and no spurious warnings.
• + Import from a link — paste a Google Drive, Google Sheets, Dropbox or plain file URL instead of downloading and re-uploading.
• + Import as Draft — one switch on the export step keeps every product unpublished until you have reviewed it in Shopify, on both the direct push and the CSV download.
• + Nothing lost on the way to your store — the direct push now sends inventory quantities, tracking and variant images; the CSV download uses Shopify's exact column names for stock and weight, so neither is silently dropped on import; and UPC, EAN-8, GTIN-14 and ISBN barcodes are recognised alongside EAN-13, never mistaken for a SKU. A SKU is no longer required — Shopify doesn't require one either.
• + Auto-fix in seconds, and it fixes more — large files that took minutes now take seconds, and comma decimals, thousands separators, currency symbols and codes, Excel's TRUE/FALSE in French, German, Spanish and more, and handles are all fixed for you. Prices your spreadsheet computed with a formula are read as Excel shows them, suggested values come in your file's language, spreadsheet-mangled barcodes and prices below cost are called out clearly, and any row you would rather not fix can be dropped, and restored, from wherever you see it.
• + Calculated fields — when a value is not in your file but can be worked out from what is, the mapping can calculate it: a per-unit price from a case price and a pack size, a retail price as a markup on cost, stock summed across warehouses.
• + Mapping that copes with more real files — product names group their variants even when the item name repeats them, duplicate option columns are not doubled, exact column names are honoured, a Handle column in your file is used as the handle, a minimum-order-quantity column never lands in stock, weight columns are read in the unit they declare, products with several images no longer trip a false "missing option" error, and "Run fresh mapping" gets you out of a saved template. You can also sign in with your Shopify account and upload files up to 50 MB.

After rebuilding the mapping step, the focus turned to the rest of the journey — catching and fixing data problems, and getting a clean import out the door with far less manual work. The fix step now does more for you, and the mapper handles even more of the awkward files real suppliers send.

• + Guided fixes with AI — empty fields that can be generated (SEO text, descriptions, and more) are filled for you, blank prices are suggested from similar products in the same file, and most issues now come with a one-click suggested fix.
• + Category clean-up — messy category values are matched to the nearest entry in Shopify's product taxonomy, with per-value recommendations and autocomplete so you can correct the odd one quickly instead of one by one.
• + More reliable mapping on tricky files — the mapper now corrects more cases where a column would land on the wrong field — an internal item code mistaken for the product name, a price hiding under an unusual header, a category column dropped — and it analyses your whole file, not just the first rows, so it isn't fooled by files sorted in an unusual order.
• + Mappings that remember — once you've mapped a supplier's file, the next file with the same columns is mapped automatically, so recurring imports take seconds.
• + A more helpful editor — a live preview with image thumbnails, peek at any source column's data inline, clearer empty and error states, per-field help, and a safeguard before re-mapping clears fixes you've already made.
• + Sharper resolution tools — skip an optional field, drop and restore individual rows, and bulk-fix groups of duplicate or invalid values — all aware of how fields depend on one another, so a change never leaves your import in a broken state.

The column-mapping step is rebuilt from the ground up. Real supplier files rarely fit Shopify's CSV format one-to-one — product details spread across many columns, image galleries scattered across several URL fields, multiple price columns, status values that don't match Shopify's exact tokens. The new mapping understands these shapes and handles them automatically.

• + Combine columns — several related columns can now feed a single Shopify field, instead of one being chosen and the rest discarded.
• + Split columns — combined values like "Red / Small" automatically split into separate variant options. Hierarchical category paths route to Shopify's product category instead of becoming free-text tags.
• + Expand columns — multiple image columns expand into a real product gallery, each image as its own row, instead of fighting over a single image field.
• + Smarter AI — many real-world patterns that used to trip the mapper are now recognised: price columns with non-standard headers, status values that look like a custom vocabulary, structured data hiding inside text columns, identifier columns being routed to the wrong field, and more.
• + Closed-enum awareness — Shopify fields that only accept a fixed set of values (status, taxable, requires-shipping, and similar) are now recognised even when your file uses different wording. The mapper picks the right target; value translation happens in the fix step.
• + Categories that fit your store — supplier category text is matched to Shopify's product taxonomy, even when it doesn't line up exactly. On direct export, the category adapts to your store's taxonomy version instead of being dropped.
• + Big files handled gracefully — a file larger than your monthly row allowance now imports what fits and tells you exactly what was skipped, instead of failing outright.
• + More reliable export — direct Shopify export is faster, handles Shopify's rate limits without dropping products, and can be cancelled mid-run (anything already sent is kept).
• + Rebuilt editor — a live preview of exactly what Shopify will receive. Every field shows how it's built (mapped directly, set to a constant, combined, expanded, or split) right in its column and is editable inline, with the first rows rendered as the finished result. A summary shows which of your source columns are mapped and which were skipped.

Mid-flight imports that hadn't reached export will need to be re-mapped through the new editor. Completed exports are unaffected.

Portaim is now available on the Shopify App Store. Direct Shopify export is now enabled for all users.

• + Shopify App Store — install Portaim directly from the Shopify App Store
• + Direct Shopify export — push products to your store via API, now available for all users

Initial public beta release of Portaim — the smart Shopify product importer.

Features

• + File upload — CSV, XLSX, and XLS support with sheet selection and custom header rows
• + AI column mapping — automatic and AI-powered field matching with confidence indicators
• + 40+ validation rules — Shopify-specific checks for required fields, allowed values, formats, and cross-field consistency
• + Smart issue resolution — auto-fix, bulk value mapping, AI suggestions, and manual cell editing
• + Export options — download clean Shopify-formatted CSV or push directly to your store via the Shopify API
• + Supplier templates — save and reuse column mappings for recurring imports
• + Shopify integration — OAuth store connection, direct product export, encrypted token storage
• + Multi-language AI — column mapping and suggestions work with German, French, Spanish, and other languages

Beta Limits

• Up to 10 imports per month
• Up to 1,500 rows per month
• Up to 10,000 rows per file