The last couple months I’ve been very focused on adding the most requested feature, CSV Export, and I’m happy to announce that last week an update to Connections was released, version 8.5.6, which includes the last of the CSV Export tools-the CSV Category export tool. Just like the other CSV export tools added in the previous versions, it is as easy to use as clicking a single button. My test database of categories consists of nearly 2,000 categories and this tool is able to export them in mere seconds. The fields included in the export are the category ID, name, slug, description and parent. The parent field will even show you the ancestor categories if you have a nested category configuration.
As promised, this update also includes a CSV Category Import tool. A lot of work went into creating and testing this new tool and I believe it to be a very solid and robust tool that supports bulk importing of nested categories. One of my test CSV files was the US zipcodes, of which there are over 43,000. This import tool was able to easily import all of them and, more importantly, it was able to import all of them properly nested under their respective state!
Now, I do have to add a disclaimer. Just because you can import that many categories does not mean you should. If your site is not highly optimized and running on a robust server your site could suffer slower page load times on pages where all categories are needed to be displayed in the browser. This is not a Connections issue or bug. When dealing with that many post categories in WordPress there will be similar page loading issues if you are running your site on an inexpensive shared host. Now, a few hundred or a couple thousand should be plenty doable.
Disclaimer aside, if you would like to learn more about how to use the CSV Category Import tool, please check out the documentation. The documentation includes many examples, including example CSV files. I think you’ll find that this tool is not only robust but very flexible!
Awesome stuff, thanks!
Hello,
When using the import feature, I am unable to map my fields.
In the documentation: “The drop downs will contain the fields for categories. You’ll notice that these option names match the same fields names as found on the Connections : Categories admin page; Name, Slug, Parent and Description. For each column header found in the CSV file you would select the appropriate field in its corresponding drop down…” I can only select each item from the dropdown once but this does not work because I have more than 4 fields in my csv that need to be imported. Any suggestions? Should I try a different template
@ Bethany
There are only 4 fields available when adding a category. They are, Name, Slug, Parent and Description. It is not possible to map multiple fields in the CSV file multiple times to one of those four fields. If your CSV file has more than four fields, then either have to rework your CSV file so it can be mapped properly or not import whatever those extra fields are in the CSV file.
@ Bethany
Just to followup… the documentation is very extension with many examples on how to format your CSV file. It is well worth the read.
Hi,
Good day!
I have a concern about the import csv file to wordpress. My question is, why when I import the csv file to the wordpress using your plugin CSV import I got an error and it says “ERROR: Sorry, this file type is not permitted for security reasons.”? I need your opinion, what should I do or is there any other way that the file import successfully.
Thanks,
@ Julie
This is likely due to a the way the webhost has the server configured. Try renaming the file extension from
.csvto.txtand upload it. Hope that helps!ps. Please use the support forums for support questions. Comments are not a good way to get and receive support.