Title: Stop adding duplicate products
Last modified: December 2, 2017

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# Stop adding duplicate products

 *  [centturian](https://wordpress.org/support/users/centturian/)
 * (@centturian)
 * [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/stop-adding-duplicate-products/)
 * As an Amazon affiliate I’ve started filling my site with hundreds of different
   products. I can’t sit there until I complete the site or I’d be there the rest
   of my life.
 * Is it possible to to automatically keep track of the products already on the 
   site so when I go back and continue to add products I don’t accidently duplicate
   a product that I’ve already added.
 * Is there a plugin or piece of code I can add that prevents me from doing this.
   Its not only disheartening for me, but off putting for my customers to find two
   products exactly the same on one site.
 * Thanks a lot for your help.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/stop-adding-duplicate-products/#post-9744431)
 * Well, in a sense the DB keeps track of all products added. Getting it to tell
   you what you need to know can be a challenge. It’s possible to check for exact
   duplicates. A variation in the assigned title could result in the same product
   occurring twice because it’s not an exact match. Is there any field that unequivocally
   indicates replication? A SKU or product ID or the like? More generally, how can
   we know when a duplicate is being added? What can we use for reliable comparison?
 * A hook in the save product process could search for a match and kill the process
   when found. That would mean needlessly entering product data though. There is
   a process that runs to ensure the assigned slug does not exist, adding a sequence
   number if it exists. This could catch duplicates before much time is spent entering
   data. It’s harder to implement though. I don’t think there’s a handy hook. You’d
   need to add another callback to the Ajax request to do the search. I don’t know
   how a match would be communicated back.
 * Probably better is to do your own Ajax as soon as the field used to determine
   a match has data. Then your script can put up an alert box or something. Sorry
   for rambling solutions, thinking out loud as I type. I’m unaware of any plugins
   for this, but that does not mean there are none.
 *  Thread Starter [centturian](https://wordpress.org/support/users/centturian/)
 * (@centturian)
 * [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/stop-adding-duplicate-products/#post-9745057)
 * Firstly
    Thank you bcworkz for an expanded reply to my question. I think the 
   answer lies in the DB. If I can find something to watch the database and alert
   me w**DUPLICATION ALERT** when I get two products with the same description. 
   But what.
 * Perhaps the way to go is find a Coder and get him to knock up a bit of code for
   such an occasion.
 * Anyway thanks very much for stopping by and replying.
 *  Moderator [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * (@bcworkz)
 * [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/stop-adding-duplicate-products/#post-9746314)
 * You’re welcome. Getting a pro to work up something for you is always a good option.
   Just in case you need a couple ideas for where to find competent coders who know
   WP, you can try jobs.wordpress.net or jetpack.pro.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

The topic ‘Stop adding duplicate products’ is closed to new replies.

## Tags

 * [automatically](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/automatically/)
 * [duplicate](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/duplicate/)
 * [products](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/products/)

 * In: [Developing with WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/wp-advanced/)
 * 3 replies
 * 2 participants
 * Last reply from: [bcworkz](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bcworkz/)
 * Last activity: [8 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/stop-adding-duplicate-products/#post-9746314)
 * Status: not a support question

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