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Import Data using the WP All Import Plugin in WordPress

The WP All Import plugin allows you to import posts based on a custom post type from a CSV file into your WordPress site.

What to install

WP All Import plugin and its Toolset Add-On allow you to import custom fields you created using the Toolset Types plugin.

You will need the following two plugins:

Please note that the WP All Import – Toolset Add-on used to be a free beta plugin. You can continue using that beta but it is not being maintained anymore and will receive no future updates.

WP All Import Pro and WP All Import - Toolset Types Add-On
WP All Import Pro and WP All Import – Toolset Types Add-On

Preparing the CSV file

Prepare a CSV file with the data you would like to import to your WordPress site.

  1. Include fields headings in the first row, one per column. The headings don’t need to match the names of the custom fields you have defined in Toolset Types plugin but it’s good if they correspond. It will be easier for you to map the columns of your CSV file to the custom fields of your WordPress site.
  2. In the rows that follow include your post data, one post per row.
CSV file
CSV file

The nice thing about WP All Import is that it doesn’t really care how the data is formatted. WP All Import can handle CSV, TSV, Excel, XML, JSON, SQL. You upload the file and WP All Import will parse it properly. If your file is one of the above formats you can just upload it to WP All Import. Here’s an example CSV file you can use (every column is a field, every row is a record).Here is an example of an imported post after successfully importing a CSV file:

Single movie post with fields after importing
Single movie post with fields after importing

Importing the data

  1. Go to All Import → New import
  2. Click on the Upload a file button and select your CSV file from your drive.
  3. In the Import data from this file into… choose whether you are adding a new post or updating existing ones and select your post type from the dropdown (“Movies” in our case)
  4. Click Continue to step 2
  5. On the next screen, you can review your data and set up filters if you need some
  6. Click Continue to step 3
  7. Map the fields from your CSV file to your WordPress fields by dragging the items from the sidebar to relevant fields.

In our example the field called “moviename” will become the post title, the other field will be mapped to Types custom fields.

Mapping the post title
Mapping the post title
Field mapping
Field mapping
  1. Click Continue to Step 4.
  2. Enter your unique identifier (the auto-detect button will help).
  3. Click Continue.
  4. On the last screen read the “Import Summary” and click Confirm and Run the Import.

If everything goes well your posts will be imported and you will see the “Import Complete!” message. Go ahead and visit of one your posts to check if everything got imported as expected. Refer to WP All Import documentation for further instructions.

Relationships

Now, you can also import your posts from a CSV file and maintain relationships between your post types. Read more about importing and setting up relationships between posts.

Updated
November 16, 2020