Exporting Data into an Importable Format

Now that we’ve set up Feed Me as our import tool, let’s focus on prepar­ing our source data for migra­tion into Craft CMS. Our goal is to for­mat the data in a way that Feed Me can accept.

Feed Me sup­ports sev­er­al formats:

• JSON
• XML
• CSV
• RSS
• Atom
• Google Spread­sheets

These for­mats can be accessed via a file on disk or through an API.

Export­ing data depends on the source CMS:

1. Word­Press:

   • Use the built-in WP JSON API (rec­om­mend­ed for cur­rent versions)
   • WP All Export plu­g­in (exports to XML)

2. Expres­sion Engine:

   • Use the tem­plate pro­vid­ed by Feed Me (may need tweak­ing based on your EE version)

3. Spread­sheets:

   • Export as CSV
   • Use Google Sheets sup­port in Feed Me

4. Oth­er sources:

   • Cus­tomize exist­ing RSS or Atom feeds
   • Cre­ate a cus­tom feed for migration
   • Devel­op cus­tom mid­dle­ware (e.g., using Lar­avel) to export JSON

Key ques­tions to ask:

1. Does the exist­ing sys­tem have a JSON API available?
2. Can we eas­i­ly export data in a for­mat Feed Me accepts?

If you’re los­ing access to the old data­base, request a JSON out­put accord­ing to your spec­i­fi­ca­tions from the data­base admin­is­tra­tor. Test this out­put with Feed Me to iden­ti­fy any nec­es­sary adjustments.

Data Inter­change For­mats: These are mid­dle for­mats that many sys­tems can process, typ­i­cal­ly in ASCII or plain text. They fol­low struc­ture con­ven­tions that tools can eas­i­ly out­put and import. JSON and XML are com­mon examples.

It’s not unusu­al for peo­ple to have data in spread­sheets as a edit­ing tool and import data from the spread­sheet. You can export the data as a CSV and import it, or use the Google Sheet sup­port in FeedMe.

If no export tools are avail­able (e.g., for a cus­tom CMS), you may need to access the exist­ing system’s data­base and cre­ate your own export using cus­tom middleware.

In the upcom­ing videos, we’ll cover:

1. Migrat­ing data from Word­Press to Craft using the WP JSON API
2. Export­ing data as XML
3. Writ­ing cus­tom middleware
4. Work­ing with Expres­sion Engine data

Next, we’ll start hands-on migra­tion from Word­Press to Craft. Stay tuned!