open cart import/export tool Out of memory - memory

Question

I'm having problems with a free open cart module and was hoping to get some help.
While using the import/export tool I'm Getting the following error
"Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 268435456 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 25165824 bytes) in /home3/haas12/public_html/breslovcenter.org/system/PHPExcel/Classes/PHPExcel/Style/Supervisor.php on line 126"
I only have about 700 items and my xlsx file it is only 291k but it's saying 256MB in the error message.
I created a php info file and it is at:
http://breslovcenter.org/phpinfo.php
Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this? Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm guessing this problem has to be due to some bug that makes it leak memory. I'm kind of stuck and not sure what to do.

Answer 1

The file might be small, but PHP uses a lot of memory/processing to open the excel file. While it does seem like a lot of memory, it's pretty well known for having that issue and you will need to increase your memory limit or find a better way to import (there are numerous other ways to import, they're just not as convenient)

Answer 2

The error message:
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 268435456 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 25165824 bytes) ...
This says that Your Apache server has allowed memory size for PHP of 268435456 bytes (256 MB). This memory is shared between all possible threads Apache server may open. Your script is trying to allocate 25165824 bytes (24 MB) more (but this may differ per each request and depending on the loading file size).
PHPExcel, though excellent PHP extension for working with XLS(X) files, has one critical weakness - a requirement for lot of resources, especially memory. On a shared hosting with 32 or 64 MB of allowed memory size there is even no chance to run this extension.
The solutions
If You have the chance to modify the memory limit for Your PHP, then do so. Open up Your php.ini file and search for memory_limit setting. It should be now memory_limit 256M - change it to e.g. this value: memory_limit 350M or even to 512M if You want to be completely sure this won't happen in the future. If You have the possibility to modify the PHP settings from within the PHP scripts using the ini_set() directive, this may be even better to use only in the import script so that there is not so much useless memory allocated for each request: ini_set('memory_limit', '350M'); - it's best if You call this as the first line in Your import script.
If the option one is not possible (You do not have rights to access or modify the PHP settings on Your hosting) then the other possibility it to export the XLS(X) file into a CSV file and import the data from CSV which is maybe not so comfortable but for sure uses as less resources as possible.

Answer 3

As Jay Gilford says PHPExcel is well known for this issue. You can try either:
Editing the php.ini files
If your website is hosted on a shared server or you do not have access to the PHP Configuration you will need to amend two 'php.ini' files in your OpenCart installation. The first is in the root folder of your OpenCart installation and the second is in the '/admin' folder. Change:
memory_limit = 64M;
To:
memory_limit = 256M;
If you’re on a shared server there may be a limit imposed by your provider (from experience 1&1 is around 80MB) which would override these 'php.ini' files, in which case you may need upgrade to a dedicated server or VPS if you want to increase your PHP memory limit beyond this.
Increasing the PHP memory limit on your server
If you have access to the server PHP Configuration you can increase the PHP memory limit directly on the server through your Control Panel or via SSH. You will most likely need to restart your server for the changes to take effect.
Of course deleting some old products would do the trick and free up some memory usage, however you will encounter the issue again once you get back up to the same level. Alternatively you could try a different extension which is not so memory-hungry, however the import/export functionality of this extension still seems to be the best of its kind.