Import a WordPress site

The WordPress Importer module lets you migrate content from a WordPress site into Superlite CMS using a standard WordPress WXR export file.

The importer can migrate WordPress pages, posts, authors, images, categories, tags, publication dates and supported SEO metadata. Existing public URLs are preserved whenever possible.

The importer requires Superlite CMS version 0.9.0 beta.7 or newer.

Prepare WordPress

Log in to the WordPress site you want to migrate.

Go to Tools → Export.

Choose All content and download the export file.

WordPress creates an XML file in WXR format. This file contains the content and information needed by the importer.

The XML file does not contain the actual image files. If you want Superlite to import images, the original WordPress site must still be available so that Superlite can download them.

Keep the WordPress media available

Do not delete the old WordPress installation or its wp-content/uploads directory before the migration is complete. The WordPress export file contains references to images, but it does not contain the image files themselves. Superlite downloads these images from the original WordPress site during the import. Keep the old site and its media files publicly accessible until you have verified that all images have been imported into Superlite.

Prepare Superlite

Install and activate WordPress Importer.

If the WordPress export contains posts, you must also install and activate the Articles module before starting the import.

If you want WordPress authors to become author profiles in Superlite, install and activate Author Bio version 1.0.2 or newer. The importer can still migrate pages and articles if Author Bio is not installed.

Upload the WordPress export

Open WordPress Import in the Superlite administration.

Under Upload WordPress export, select the XML file exported from WordPress.

The maximum file size is 25 MB.

Click Analyze export.

Superlite now reads the file but does not import anything.

Review the analysis

After analysis, Superlite shows information about the WordPress site and how much content was found.

You can see the number of:

• Pages
• Posts
• Authors
• Media files
• Published items
• Draft and other items

Superlite also displays warnings when it finds something that may affect the migration.

Warnings can include unsupported WordPress content types, unsupported shortcodes, duplicate URLs, URLs already used by existing Superlite content, missing Articles support or missing Author Bio support.

Review these warnings before starting the import.

A content preview also shows the WordPress content type, status, title and public URL for the items that Superlite has found.

Choose the import settings

Before starting the import, you can choose three options.

Download WordPress images into Superlite Media downloads images from the original WordPress site and stores them in the Superlite Media library.

Import authors when Author Bio 1.0.2 or newer is active creates author profiles when the required Author Bio module is available.

Import non published WordPress pages and posts as drafts keeps unpublished WordPress content as drafts in Superlite instead of ignoring it.

All three options are enabled by default.

Start the import

Click Start import.

WordPress pages are imported as Superlite Pages.

WordPress posts are imported as Superlite Articles.

Categories and tags belonging to posts are transferred to Articles.

Published content remains published. Draft content is imported as a draft when that option is enabled.

The importer attempts to preserve the original public path for every page and article.

For example, a WordPress article at:

`/seo-guide/`

will continue to use:

`/seo-guide/`

instead of automatically being moved under the normal Superlite Articles path.

Existing Superlite URLs are never overwritten.

Keep the import page open

The importer processes a small number of items at a time so that it can work on normal shared hosting.

During the migration, the page shows the current phase and progress percentage.

The phases include authors, media, content and final processing.

Keep the page open until the import is complete. Superlite automatically continues through the import batches.

Images and media

When media downloading is enabled, Superlite downloads supported images from the original WordPress site and adds them to the normal Superlite Media library.

Featured images are connected to the corresponding Articles.

Images used inside WordPress content are also imported when possible.

Alt text from WordPress attachments is preserved when it is available.

The current importer only downloads media over HTTPS. Images that cannot be downloaded are reported as warnings or errors.

Imported content

WordPress content is converted into normal editable Superlite content.

Supported WordPress HTML is converted into Editor.js blocks, including:

• Paragraphs
• Headings
• Ordered lists
• Unordered lists
• Quotes
• Images
• Tables
• Horizontal rules

Formatting such as bold text, italic text and links is retained where supported.

Internal links that point to the original WordPress domain are converted to internal paths. External links are left unchanged.

Code and preformatted content may be converted to plain text because Superlite does not currently have a native code block.

SEO data

The importer recognizes supported metadata from common WordPress SEO plugins, including Yoast SEO and Rank Math.

When the relevant data exists in the WordPress export, the importer can transfer supported SEO title, meta description, canonical and social metadata into Superlite.

If the export does not contain supported SEO metadata, Superlite uses its normal SEO settings for the imported content.

Repeating an import

The importer stores information about the original WordPress source and WordPress content IDs.

If content from the same WordPress export has already been imported, Superlite can recognize it instead of blindly creating duplicate content.

Content using a URL that already belongs to unrelated Superlite content is skipped rather than overwritten.

Check the import result

When the process finishes, Superlite shows how many pages, articles, media files and authors were processed.

It also shows the number of published items, drafts, skipped items and errors.

Review the import log if errors were reported.

After the migration, open several imported pages and articles on the public site and check their content, URLs, images and internal links.

Undo an import

After a completed import, you can select Undo this import.

Content created by that import session is archived.

Imported media that is no longer needed is deleted when possible.

Imported author profiles created through Author Bio are also included in the rollback process.

Use this option if you want to remove the migration and correct problems before importing again.

Clear the importer session

Clear importer session removes the stored importer session and its progress information.

It does not remove content that has already been imported.

Use Undo this import if you want to remove imported content.