WiscWeb - Migrating a WordPress Site into WiscWeb
The following document will walk you through the process of exporting an XML file of a WordPress site in preparation for importing into your WiscWeb project.
Please Note: This process will likely not capture everything and you may need to rebuild some content. Also, this process will only work for WordPress sites. Drupal, Dreamweaver, and other sites cannot be imported into WiscWeb projects and must be manually rebuilt.
- Before you get started
- Preparing the XML File for export
- Requesting an import into WiscWeb
- Rebuilding content
Before you get started
Authors
If possible, make sure all of the authors from your old site are already users in your new WiscWeb project. As part of the migration, WordPress requests a 1-1 mapping of authors for posts. If the author does not exist in the new WiscWeb project, an existing author will be assigned to those posts. This may not matter for your organization, but if it does, this is a key first step.
Old content
If there is any old/outdated content on your existing site, now is a good time to clean it up. Delete any unneeded content prior to exporting your site.
Preparing the XML file for export
If you wish to export the contents of an existing WordPress project, please follow these steps:
- Login to your WordPress site
- Navigate to Tools > Export
- Choose which content you'd like to export (either choose all, or use the radio buttons to select which types of content)
- Choose Download Export File
- The XML file will be downloaded to your computer
- Save the file in a folder or on your desktop
Requesting an import into WiscWeb
If you'd like for your file to be imported into your WiscWeb project, you'll have to request this update from WiscWeb Support.
Attach the XML file to the email and let us know that you'd like to import it into a WiscWeb project. Make sure to include your WiscWeb project URL so we know which site it should be imported into.
Rebuilding content
It is important to note that there is a good chance that some content will not make it over to your new WiscWeb project and will need to be rebuilt. This could include full pages/posts, but primarily, these are the items that you will have to recreate:
Homepage
In the UW Theme, your home page is set in the Customizer. This data does not carry over and will need to be reset after import. For this, navigate to Appearance > Customize and choose the Homepage Settings option. Under the Homepage dropdown, choose the page you'd like to set as the homepage and click the Publish button.
Customizer content
Any information set in the Customizer section of the UW Theme will not carry over. This content will need to be recreated by navigating to Appearance > Customize and retyping the info. This includes things like footer content, Google IDs for analytics and search, menus, homepage settings, and site-wide color settings.
Media
Most images/docs will likely carry over, but some may need to be re-saved to your Media Library. If you notice something is missing, you will need to save them from your old site (by downloading directly from the page and saving locally) and bulk upload them to WiscWeb.
You will also need to update the media on all pages as it is likely referencing an old URL. To do so, navigate to the page and remove the link or image. Go into the Media Library, find that file, and re-add it to your page.
Navigation
Your navigation menus will need to be recreated in WiscWeb. Most pages should still exist but you will need to create a new Main Menu, the Utility Menu (if applicable), and any Group of Links or other menus.
Troubleshooting
- If you are looking for content after the migration and cannot find it, there's a good chance that it did not carry over with the import. This content will need to be manually rebuilt in WiscWeb.