Academic Technologies

The purpose of this document is to visually demonstrate the basics of exporting and importing Commons sites for ESC studies. This is a simple and useful way to repurpose content developed in the Commons.

Exporting an Existing Site

The first step involves selecting the relevant site to export. In order to do this, login to http://commons.esc.edu/ and then go to the top left of the screen, where it says “ My Sites.” Select a site to export from the dropdown list.

After selecting a site to export, go to Tools (located middle-left of the screen) and click on the export function within Tools.

There are three export options in the Commons: The first option, all content, includes posts, pages, comments, custom fields, terms, navigation menus. The second option, posts, allows exporting only posts. The last option, pages, supports exporting only pages. Select the option that best meets your needs.  After choosing what to export, click on Download Export File.

The name of the export file will be the site name followed by WordPress and the date. For instance, mysite.wordpress.2012-08-09.xml. Make sure to save this xml file at a location that is easy to find.

 Importing a Commons Site

To import a Commons site, go to Tools (located middle-left of the screen) and click on the import function within Tools.

The import process has four basic steps. The first step, as demonstrated in Figure 6, asks the location of the import file. Since the Commons is based on WordPress, select the WordPress option on this screen.

The second step for importing a Commons site requests the file (e.g., mysite.wordpress.2012-08-09.xml), which was initially exported as an input. After selecting the relevant file from your machine, click on Upload file and import.

The third step involves importing authors from the original to the new Commons site, which makes it easier to edit and save the imported content.

The last step involves checking potential errors. The import and export functions may transfer images and external links from one site to another, but they may not transfer documents (pdf files, Word documents) and internal links as shown below.

Thus, internal links and documents may require manual set-up. For assistance on internal links, documents, and reusing previous content from an older Commons site, contact your faculty instructional technologist.