WordPress Member Directory Plugin (CMED) - Import and Export With JSON And CSV

Import and Export

Back to User Guides

WordPress Member Directory plugin allows you to import and export the directory content to either JSON or CSV files. 

What is This Feature

Exported content includes every field of the items, even custom ones. Handling this data with external programs is useful for quick editing or to backing it up while making sure it can then be accessed from another location easily. 

Learn more about these two formats through their Wikipedia articles: JSON and Comma-separated Values (CSV).

To use this feature, navigate to Admin Dashboard → CM Expert Directory Pro → Import/Export.

JSON Import and Export

The Expert Directory content can be stored, exported, and imported back using a JSON file.

• Download Backup - Download the existing file from the last backup to your computer. If you want the latest content please do a backup first before downloading.
• Backup to JSON - Do a backup operation (without downloading). File will be saved at a specified URL.
• Export to JSON - Download the actual content to the JSON file.
• Import from JSON - Import a file which was saved using the JSON format. This is useful for moving your directory between servers or to restore an old copy.

CSV File Import/Export

CSV, or comma-separated values, are files that can be read by either Text Editors or Spreadsheet Editors, such as Microsoft Excel and Numbers. It is recommended to handle them as tables by opening them with a Spreadsheet Editor.

• Export to CSV - Download the existing file from the last backup to your computer.
• Import from CSV - Import a file which was saved using the CSV format. This is useful for moving your directory between servers or to restore an old copy. Note: "post_title" and "post_content" fields is required so please do not remove from CSV while import.

The plugin provides a sample file that you can download to test importing.

Notes on format:

• Files should be UTF-8 encoded (not UTF-8 BOM, ANSI, Unicode or others!)

• If you use MS Excel, please remember that by default it can't save proper CSV format (comma-delimited) - see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article
• All the fields which can contain commas must be enclosed in quotes! (To be 100% safe, enclose each field in quotes)
• The only mandatory fields are Title (post_title) and Content (post_content)

Example

File: You can download the example file: Sample file

Image: This is an excerpt of the file, with the first eight columns visible only.

Reset Queue

When you import experts from a CSV file, you can clear the table by clicking on the button Reset Queue. Note: this feature was introduced in version 2.1.2.

Auto Creation of the User Account in WordPress Member Directory Plugin

It is possible to automatically create user accounts for relevant expert pages while importing them from a CSV file.

The same as before, you need to choose the file for importing and click the button Import from CSV.

In the appearing list of new experts select the ones that you need to import. Under the list you will see a new checkbox that you need to check. Then click the button Import selected.

Now there will be automatically generated new user accounts for all imported expert pages that has a contact email. Important: your CSV file should have the field post_meta/cmed_bemail_contact for this. 

New owners of the imported expert pages will receive an email notifications. The notification contains a username and a link for setting up the password:

So now the user has his own WP user profile and Expert page. After setting up his password, he can login and edit his Expert page.

	More information about the WordPress Member Directory Plugin Other WordPress products can be found at CreativeMinds WordPress Store
	Let us know how we can Improve this Product Documentation Page To open a Support Ticket visit our support center