I have an old b2evolution blog (v1.10.2) over on a shared hosting account (w/ Plusmail).
I’m slowly migrating all my stuff to a new shared hosting account (w/ cPanel).
I want to export all blog data from my b2evolution and import into a brand new WordPress (v3.1) installation on the new server.
Both accounts have MySQL databases.
Most of the online stuff I’m reading about this have both blogs on the same server, the b2e blog version is much newer than mine, or the WordPress version is below 3.
I’m interested in anyone’s constructive suggestions regarding the most painless way to do this.
Thank-you!
EDIT
I ended up using a WordPress CSV import plugin. It’s a little tedious preparing your CSV file but it’s a rock solid method… you’ll get exactly what you put in your spreadsheet imported instantly into WordPress without disturbing any existing posts.
Here’s how I ended up converting this blog. The procedure below may seem like a lot of work but compared to the amount of time I spent looking for conversion scripts, it was a breeze. I only had to export/import 70 posts and 114 comments so your mileage may vary.
Export the MySQL database from the old b2evolution blog. You only need the table containing your posts (evo_posts). If you want to mess with comments, you’ll need that table too (evo_comments). Export those as CSV files.
Download & install CSV Importer plugin version 0.3.5 by dvkob into your new WordPress v3.1 installation. You do not need a fresh or empty WordPress blog… this import will not wipe out anything in WordPress… it will only adding more posts. Back-up your database to be safe. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/csv-importer/
Read the installation directions and follow them exactly. At first you may think you only have to move a single php file into your WordPress directory. In fact, you need to copy the plugin plus some stuff within a directory.
Read the documentation and look at the sample CSV files included with the plugin. It shows what column headings you’ll need and what each one means.
Open the CSV files you exported from the b2evolution SQL database in Excel. There you can just delete all the unused columns and clean up your data if necessary. Don’t forget to rename the column headings as per the CSV plugin requirements.
OPTIONAL: If you want to keep your comments intact and attached to each post, you’ll need to match up the post ID from the comment table to the post ID in your new spreadsheet. Each comment gets a new set of columns. One post of mine had 21 comments so I had to add 63 columns… each comment got a username, content, and date/time but you can do this any way you wish. Maybe write an Excel macro that handles this.
Once you get your data all cleaned up and formatted properly, save your Excel sheet as CSV (Windows) format. I tried CSV (comma separated) and it failed to import.
Log into your WordPress Dashboard and your plugin is located under Tools as CSV Import. Upload and hit import… that’s it. It took less than one second to add my 70 posts & comments.
NOTES:
Experiment with how this plugin creates your categories. It seems that it wants to create all new categories as a child of “uncategorized”. Even if the category already exists on the top level as a sibling of “uncategorized”, it still creates a duplicate as a child. Not a big deal, easy to change the categories around in the WP Dashboard after import.
It’s fussy about the CSV file format. From Excel, make sure it’s saved as CSV (Windows) format.
This may seem like a lot of work but the conversion alternatives caused me more trouble. A day and a half jacking around with trying to get php convertors to work and trying to get an old skin to display the b2e as MT format as compared to only about an hour messing around in Excel… this was a lifesaver.