To develop sites on WordPress I often use the free plugin Types to create your own data types, You can read more about working with the plugin here. Creating your own data types. Types plugin for WordPress.

Today I will tell you how to work with the plugin Types, import data as CSV file. This format is the most convenient for importing..

Our data sample will include:

• Post title – standard post title in WordPress
• Property Description – WordPress post text
• Link to picture - custom field
• City - custom field
• Category – taxonomies
• Object area - custom field

Formatting a CSV File for WordPress Import

CSV importer plugin (CSV importer), which we will use, to import all data, has a very specific file format.

For import to work properly we have to organize the data in the columns of excel spreadsheet. The column headings will tell the plugin, what should it do with the imported data. All column headings must be on the first line (in cell A1). When saving a CSV file, the data is separated by commas. If your data, that need to be transferred to the site in Excel format, then you need to specify the CSV format when saving.

Here are the column headings, to be configured

Content	Column name	Where is it imported
name of the property	csv_post_title	Title records
Description of the property	csv_post_post	The body of the post
Object area	wpcf-property-area	Custom field that we will set up using the plugin Types. Prefix wpcf- typical for custom custom fields created based on the plugin types and is currently mandatory..
Image link	wpcf-link-to-image	Link to the image in the field that we will set up later in the lesson.
City	wpcf-city	wpcf-city custom field types
Category	csv_post_categories	post_category taxonomy - add csv_ prefix for taxonomy column.
Specifying the data type	csv_post_type	This field tells the CSV importer which column the record type is in.. In our case, we import into Posts.

note, what we keep talking about records, but import can be done in any content type WordPress. The database table into which messages of all types are imported is called wp_posts.

Let's see, what the prepared Excel file looks like for saving to CSV

Now, when the content file is ready, we need to create a custom data type.

Creating a CSV Import Data Type in WordPress

If you don't already have the Types plugin installed, then install it from official WordPress repository.

In this example, we are going to create a custom data type "Properties» and I point, that we use standard WordPress “categories” (Categories) for taxonomy.

Create custom fields to import content

Our example requires several custom fields, to do this, go to the menu Types ->Individual types and systematics add a new data type. Fill in all the settings in order in the first metabox. When filling Dynamic data field should always be in English, do not contain spaces or capital letters.

Below we note:

• in the block Select taxonomists -> Categories;
• in the block Display Sections add checkboxes next to the items Thumbnail and Individual fields.

Create custom fields to import content

Our example requires several custom fields, which have their own attributes. We will also create them, using plugin Types. Yet again, if you are using types for the first time, you can look at the tutorial creating custom fields using a plugin, it's actually in english, but I think it will not be difficult for you to understand, because with the help Plugin Types this is very easy to do.

Firstly, we will create a group for the new custom fields. As soon as we give the name of the group, we have to specify the type as shown in the picture below.

Further, we start adding fields to this group. We have to give the field names like this, as they were listed in the CSV, only without prefixes.

Object area

Object area is a custom field “Single line”.

Image link

Link to the image you need to create a field of the type “Image“. This will allow you to view images in your WordPress admin panel and conveniently display them on published pages., using types API (by writing PHP code) or with plugin views, without programming, but it's paid ..

I have one more lesson on working with the Types plugin (data types), it is useful for displaying data without views.

City

The City field must be made of the “Single line” type.

Import data from CSV

At this stage, you should already have a prepared CSV file. Let's check our file, it should be configured:

• correct column headers, corresponding to the machine names of each of the generated fields;
• custom post type, custom fields and taxonomies with correct machine names;
• plugin CSV importer activated on your site.

We are now doing the actual content import into WordPress.!

1. In the WordPress admin panel, go to menu (Tools) Tools -> CSV Importer.
2. Click Select a file (Browse) and point to your pre-created CSV file.
3. Don't choose import posts as drafts (Import posts as draft) and do not assign categories.
4. Finally, press the Import button (Import).

Once the import completes and if it succeeds, then we will have brand new WordPress posts. Just go and look at the entries in the Properties data type you created earlier..

The article was translated from the official website of the developers of the Types plugin:

https://wp-types.com/documentation/user-guides/how-to-import-content-into-wordpress-using-csv/

If you can't import with your data, try to do all the actions from the lesson step by step.

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