There has always been a problem with importing listings as PaymentsPlus was designed for new sites and because customising import SQL statements could be very different from one site to another, it would be just impossible to create a generalised script to handle it. So, unfortunately the only way to update the data is to do it manually with PhpMyAdmin from your servers Cpanel.

If you have multiple Admin's and you don't want to give them access to your Cpanel then there is an admin module that can be installed in your Joomla to give PhpMyAdmin access via Joomla's Admin panel if you don't want to give your admins access to cpanel.

See Link Below: Read the reviews there is a review from tradewise with a how to for installation.
JooMyAdminLite

BEFORE PROCEEDING ANY FURTHER BACKUP YOUR DATABASE

Also note that the information given here should be performed by someone with some experience with SQL databases. I've endeavoured to write this information to be as informative as possible, but at the end of the day these proceedures can become quite complex, so proceed only at your own risk!.

Due to the time that could be involved extra support in this area is very limited and if needed will be regarded as a custom modification and charged accordingly. Note: On Server Support included with Platinum Memberships is not available for issues involving importing or modifying existing listings prior to installing PaymentPlus.

If you want a Tutorial on using PhpMyAdmin just Google PhpMyAdmin Tutorial

DISCLAIMER: All SQL code given in this FAQ is given as a guide only and may need to be adjusted to suit the individual website. Whilst I think the code is technically correct t has not been tested and therefore it is not guaranteed.

PaymentsPlus modifies link_featured to further define the different listing types. A standard install of PaymentsPlus changes the Mtree structure to:
Free = 0, Featured = 1 and Standard = 2 and then allows you to add your own types if needed. Additionally PaymentsPlus adds some new columns to jos_mt_links but at this stage the only one of concern is ipn_product_id .

When Importing Listings there a lot of things to take into consideration and each of these may need different values added to make them work with PaymentsPlus. Generally your imported or original listings prior to PaymentsPlus will be definded in two groups:

GROUP 1.
Listings are owned by Admin and set up to be Claimed by a User prior to installing PaymentsPlus
Imported or existing Listings owned by Admin are a little easier to modify because there's only a few values you need to change to make them Claimable for use with PaymentsPlus. Note however that once you've modified the imported or existing listings there is a Claims process you'll now need to follow to generate the Payment Buttons for the user once the Claim is approved. This Clams process is very different to the original Mtree claims process.

The following values need to be set in order for the Admin owned listing to still be published and ready for claiming. Most likely your listings will be set up as Free Listings, but if they are not then you need to adjust the value for link_featured and also for  ipn_product_id which is the PaymentsPlus Product (See PaymentsPlus > Manage Products) that uses that Listing Type (See PaymentsPlus > Manage Listing Types):

Set link_published = 1
Set link_approved = 1
Set publish_up =  0000-00-00 00:00:00
Set publish_down =  0000-00-00 00:00:00
Set link_featured = 0
Set ipn_product_id = 3

All of your imported or original listings will be lacking the ipn_product_id so it will be easy enough update the entries using PhpMyAdmin with a simple SQL statement to run.

First run the following statement, it will give you a count and list all the affected rows.
The count is handy especially if you need to alter the imported records to have different product ID's or you have listings affected by Group 2. However for simplicity you should try to make them all the same and these instructions assume thy will all be the same. :

SELECT * FROM `jos_mt_links` WHERE `ipn_product_id` = '' OR `ipn_product_id` = 'NULL'

Then run the approprite satatement below to update all the rows. When you've finished making adjustments, the totals of each adjustment should then be the same as the above result. Note the ipn_product_id value will need to be adjusted to the product ID that YOU wish to use that also matches the Listing Type. (See PaymentsPlus > Manage Products and PaymentsPlus > Manage Listing Types):

IF YOU DO NOT HAVE ANY LISTINGS THAT ARE AFFECTED BY GROUP 2 BELOW,  THEN USE THIS STATEMENT.
Note the ipn_product_id value will need to be adjusted to the product ID that YOU wish to use that also matches the Listing Type.

UPDATE `jos_mt_links` SET `link_featured` = '0', `link_published` = '1', `link_approved` = '1',  `publish_up` = '0000-00-00 00:00:00', `publish_down` = '0000-00-00 00:00:00', `ipn_product_id` = '3',   WHERE `ipn_product_id` = '' OR `ipn_product_id` = 'NULL'

IF YOU HAVE ANY LISTINGS THAT ARE AFFECTED BY GROUP 2 BELOW,  THEN YOU NEED TO MODIFY THE SQL.
Before proceeding you will also need to know the USER ID/s of the Administrator/s who owns or created the listing. It's simple enough if there is only one Admin but if there is more than one you need to identify ALL the admins in the SQL statement.

Only ONE Admin:
We'll asume the User Id for this Admin is 62, you'll need to adjust accordingly.

UPDATE `jos_mt_links` SET `link_featured` = '0', `link_published` = '1', `link_approved` = '1',  `publish_up` = '0000-00-00 00:00:00', `publish_down` = '0000-00-00 00:00:00', `ipn_product_id` = '3',   WHERE `ipn_product_id` = '' OR `ipn_product_id` = 'NULL' AND `user_id` = '62'

More Than ONE Admin:
For each Admin you only need to add an OR clause for each additional Admin. Lets' say second Admin was User Id 63.

UPDATE `jos_mt_links` SET `link_featured` = '0', `link_published` = '1', `link_approved` = '1',  `publish_up` = '0000-00-00 00:00:00',  `publish_down` = '0000-00-00 00:00:00', `ipn_product_id` = '3',   WHERE `ipn_product_id` = '' OR `ipn_product_id` = 'NULL' AND `user_id` = '62'  OR `user_id` = '63'

The above statements will essentially set all listings that did not have a ipn_product_id numeric value and additionally set the other values needed accordingly. Setting publish_up and publish down to 0000-00-00 00:00:00 basically means the listings will never expire. So they'll remain published till they are CLAIMED.

REMEMBER once you've modified the imported or existing listings there is a Claims process you'll now need to follow to generate the Payment Buttons for the user once the Claim is approved. This Clams process is very different to the original Mtree claims process.

GROUP 2.
Listings are owned by a User prior to installing PaymentsPlus
In this situation the solutions can be very complex and extreme care needs to be taken so don't forget to BACKUP your database first.

Doing this globally for all imported and existing listings owned by different users that may use different Listing Types and or Products can require extensive additional work. This is because of the endless senarios that are possible, so,  it's impossible to write a one solution suits all.

The information below is given as a guide only and assumes that ALL the listings affected will have the same Listing Type AND the same Product ID.  If they are different to your situation then you'll need to create custom SQL statements and run them to suit your needs. Again this is a Guide ONLY not a How To or Tutorial.

The main problem with owned listings is that they will be mostly published and they need to be handled independently of Admin owned listings. Additionall you need to decide if the listings will be UN PUBLISHED to the equivilant of an expired status OR PUBLISHED with a globally set Publish Down Date (expiry date set for xxx date).  Below I will show two sample SQL statements.

From page 44 of the PaymentsPlus User Manual you can see the different statuses that can be applied. Both these senarios will apply one of these statuses.

Set User Owned Listings as UN PUBLISHED Status =  NEW LISTING
A New Listing Status would normally apply where a user creates a listing and this would be the most ideal starting point.  Being set like this you'll need to devise some way of contacting the user/s to invite them to confirm or purchase the listing because the listing will be un-published until the payment/confirm button is processed by the user an inturn approved by Admin.

Only ONE Admin:
We need to issolate any listings owned by Admin/s so with a slight to the above SQL's. We simply put an exclamation mark in front of the equals sign, this then reads as NOT EQUALS thus not including any listing that contains that User ID

UPDATE `jos_mt_links` SET `link_featured` = '0', `link_published` = '0', `link_approved` = '0',  `publish_up` = '0000-00-00 00:00:00', `publish_down` = '0000-00-00 00:00:00', `ipn_product_id` = '3',   WHERE `ipn_product_id` = '' OR `ipn_product_id` = 'NULL' AND `user_id` != '62'

More Than ONE Admin:
For each Admin you only need to add an OR clause for each additional Admin. Lets' say second Admin was User Id 63.

UPDATE `jos_mt_links` SET `link_featured` = '0', `link_published` = '0', `link_approved` = '0',  `publish_up` = '0000-00-00 00:00:00',  `publish_down` = '0000-00-00 00:00:00', `ipn_product_id` = '3',   WHERE `ipn_product_id` = '' OR `ipn_product_id` = 'NULL' AND `user_id` != '62'  OR `user_id` != '63'

This example will assume the listings are of a FREE type and their PaymentsPlus Product ID = 3. Obviuosly these may be different to your requirements and will need to be adjusted accordingly. This senario will unpublish all imported and existing listings prior to installing PaymentsPlus and set them as a New Listing. This will enable the Confirm Button to show for each listing which can be accessed from the My Page links after a user logs in.

Set User Owned Listings as PUBLISHED and Expiring in up to 60 Days. Status = RENEW NOW
This option will set the listing so it expires at some date in the future, so it will stay published til then. Note, this will only emulate that a subscription exists and an actual subscription will not be set up or saved in PaymentsPlus until a payment option is processed.

This example will assume the listings are of a STANDARD type (Paid Listing Listing Type = 2) and their PaymentsPlus Product ID = 5. Obviuosly these may be different to your requirements and will need to be adjusted accordingly. This senario will publish all imported and existing listings prior to installing PaymentsPlus and set them as a Listing about to Expire. This will enable the Payment Button options to show for each listing which can be accessed from the My Page links after a user logs in. Note you must set the expiry days to be LESS THAN 60 days otherwise the listing will show as current and not display the payment options.

Only ONE Admin:
We need to issolate any listings owned by Admin/s so with a slight to the above SQL's. We simply put an exclamation mark in front of the equals sign, this then reads as NOT EQUALS thus not including any listing that contains that User ID

UPDATE `jos_mt_links` SET `link_featured` = '2', `link_published` = '1', `link_approved` = '1',  SET `publish_up` = '0000-00-00 00:00:00',  `publish_down` = '0000-00-00 00:00:00', `ipn_product_id` = '3',   WHERE `ipn_product_id` = '' OR `ipn_product_id` = 'NULL' AND `user_id` != '62'

More Than ONE Admin:
For each Admin you only need to add an OR clause for each additional Admin. Lets' say second Admin was User Id 63.

For Dates to function you'll need to Set publish_up to yesterdays date and then set publish down to up to 60 days forward
Format is YYYY-MM-DD HH-MM-SS

UPDATE `jos_mt_links` SET `link_featured` = '2', SET `link_published` = '1', `link_approved` = '1',  `publish_up` = '2011-02-04 00:00:00',  `publish_down` = '2011-04-04 00:00:00', `ipn_product_id` = '5',   WHERE `ipn_product_id` = '' OR `ipn_product_id` = 'NULL'  AND `user_id` != '62'  OR `user_id` != '63'