Xml – WordPress WXR Specification

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I'm trying to find a spec for the WordPress WXR import/export standard and I'm unable to find any official documentation from WordPress on the standard.

Does anyone know of an official resource that could tell me exactly how to produce a WXR file so it will automatically import into either WordPress.com or WordPress self-hosted sites?

I'm specifically trying to create a WXR export system for an existing CMS so that users can move to WordPress easily.

Best Answer

I posed this question to John O'Nolan, a WordPress core developer, who forwarded my question to core committer Aaron Jorbin. O'Nolan responded by saying (I'm paraphrasing) that there isn't any official documentation on the WXR standard, but that reverse engineering a WXR export should give me all the information I need.

O'Nolan also noted that data more complex than blog post content is likely best dealt with through a database conversion/migration, rather than an import. I tend to agree here.

I found these two links to be of some help in my effort to reverse engineer the WXR standard:

http://ipggi.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/the-wordpress-extended-rss-wxr-exportimport-xml-document-format-decoded-and-explained/

http://olalindberg.com/2008/write-your-own-wxr-file-to-migrate-custom-cms-to-wordpress/

The latter link specifically deal with attachments, something crucial for my current project.

I hope this helps anyone else who is curious about WXR.

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WordPress – install/update WordPress plugins without providing FTP access

WordPress will only prompt you for your FTP connection information while trying to install plugins or a WordPress update if it cannot write to /wp-content directly. Otherwise, if your web server has write access to the necessary files, it will take care of the updates and installation automatically. This method does not require you to have FTP/SFTP or SSH access, but it does require your to have specific file permissions set up on your webserver.

It will try various methods in order, and fall back on FTP if Direct and SSH methods are unavailable.

https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress/blob/4.2.2/wp-admin/includes/file.php#L912

WordPress will try to write a temporary file to your /wp-content directory. If this succeeds, it compares the ownership of the file with its own uid, and if there is a match it will allow you to use the 'direct' method of installing plugins, themes, or updates.

Now, if for some reason you do not want to rely on the automatic check for which filesystem method to use, you can define a constant, 'FS_METHOD' in your wp-config.php file, that is either 'direct', 'ssh', 'ftpext' or 'ftpsockets' and it will use that method. Keep in mind that if you set this to 'direct', but your web user (the username under which your web server runs) does not have proper write permissions, you will receive an error.

In summary, if you do not want to (or you cannot) change permissions on wp-content so your web server has write permissions, then add this to your wp-config.php file:

define('FS_METHOD', 'direct');

Permissions explained here:

R – Convert WordPress.com Hosted Blog to BlogEngine.NET

Are there any tools that will convert the wordpress file?

wordpress.com exports in XML, so that might be easier than using feeds or otherwise grabbing html and parsing it. Navicat supports XML into PHPMyAdmin, which exports SQL.

Is there a different blog that will natively import the wordpress file?

Are you open to using platforms other than BlogEngine?

Best Answer

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