New to the community? Start here

What is the best CSV / Excel Import for WordPress?

I am looking for recommendation on the best CSV / Excel custom post type / custom field importer for WordPress. I would like support, as this will be used primarily by a client with little development experience. I have found 2 that I am considering and am interested in templates for import, along with file checking / data validation. The 2 plugins I’m considering are WP All Import (http://www.wpallimport.com/) and WP Ultimate CSV Importer Pro (http://www.smackcoders.com/wp-ultimate-csv-importer-pro.html). Has anyone used these, experienced support, etc?? Right now I am using CSV Importer (http://wordpress.org/plugins/csv-importer/) – which works well, but not for end users / clients.

Fri, 19 Jul 2013 15:45:13
  • Jack Kitterhing
    • Code Norris

    Hi there @applemarketing

    I hope you are well today and thank you for your question.

    I haven’t used the pro version of ultimate CSV importer, but I use the free version myself here http://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-ultimate-csv-importer/ and I find that to be fantastic for all CSV importing and most people find it easy to use (from a client’s view).

    What sort of end features are looking for within the plugin? :slight_smile:

    Thank you!

    Kind Regards

    Jack.

  • applemarketing
    • Site Builder, Child of Zeus

    @Jack Kitterhing

    Thank you for your response!

    End features would include:

    1. Templating of imports (pre-defined mappings – so they won’t have to map fields every import)

    2. Data Validation (check to ensure the data will not cause problems when imported) I know clients, and we all make mistakes, but would like to ensure the import is “good to go” before actually placing data in the database.

    3. The ability to export would be nice, but is not necessary. This would be especially nice on the front end if it could be triggered. Ultimately end-users will be creating a per-user list of “favorite posts” and I will need a solution for the members to extract their favorite posts to .csv or .xls/x on a regular basis.

    4. The ability to over-write prior imports is important – The client will be changing post status to show/hide posts on the site. (I might need to create a custom post status (active / expired vs published / draft) here – so it would need to be compatible)

    5. Logging – this will be important for me as an administrator – if the client has issues, I would like to be able to see what went wrong with the import / update.

    Thanks in advance!

  • Jack Kitterhing
    • Code Norris

    Hi there @applemarketing

    I hope you are well today and sorry for the extreme delay with my response, I had missed your previous responses.

    Thanks for the additional information, I think the CSV importer I linked to has most of them features, the only 1 I’m not over sure on if/what exactly is needed is the logging feature.

    Basically you need it to log any errors to be visible, almost like an error log?

    Thank you!

    Kind Regards

    Jack.

  • applemarketing
    • Site Builder, Child of Zeus

    Thank you Jack! After careful consideration and reading several reviews and articles – I ended up going with WP All Import. This plugin is incredibly robust and has all of the features I am looking for. Even had the opportunity to discuss with the dev at WordCamp SF this past weekend and he gave me some pointers on extending and advanced functionality.

    Again, thank you for the recommendation and following up.