Blogger import, possible from backup?

  • Unknown's avatar
    pklund · Member ·

    I assume the answer is “no” but I’ll ask anyway:

    I am having trouble importing my main blog from Blogger (the WordPress interface lists 0/0 posts for it.) I do have the whole blog as a backup on my computer, so it seems theoretically possible to…

    (a) reformat the blog backup on my computer (remove template HTML from all pages, add whatever markup is needed)
    (b) import to WordPress

    Is there a way to do this?

  • Unknown's avatar
    trent · Member ·

    Do you have the “new” blogger account or the “old” blogger account. The new upgraded Google blogger accounts can be imported directly by going to your wordpress.com Admin => Manage => Import = > Blogger.

    If you have old account that doesn’t work with this, upgrade to the new blogger and then import or post back. drmike might have a way to import off the old blogger post kicking around the forums here.

    Trent

    **EDIT**

    Here is a topic for the Old Blogger import

  • Unknown's avatar
    trent · Member ·

    Nevermind teh Old Blogger Importer. It is no longer supported. Upgrade to the New Blogger and use the importer in your wordpress admin!

    Trent

  • Unknown's avatar
    pklund · Member ·

    Thanks, Trent, but it doesn’t seem to work when I try it, as outlined here: https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic.php?id=8756&page&replies=8

    I see all my New Blogger blogs on the WordPress interface, and all posts and comments show the right number, *except* my main one which shows 0/0 posts and the right number of comments (should show 2,600+ posts). When I try to import, that is also what gets imported: no posts but all comments.

    I was told it was a problem with blogger making a change on their end without informing WordPress, so they are not able to make the corresponding changes in the importer.

    As far as I can tell, this may or may not be the problem in my case, since others seem to describe other problems (they can see the number of posts, but run into problem when trying to import them.)

    Again, any help with this issue or with importing from my backup (converting html to whatever code WP can read for import) would be greatly appreciated.

  • Unknown's avatar
    trent · Member ·

    As it is right now, the only other alternative would be to import into the other formats that wordpress.com can import from. This would be Typepad/Movable Type and LiveJournal. Other than those, it only does other WordPress blogs (which doesn’t help us here). I would suggest sending a feedback through your admin to Staff on this issue. Either through the admin, the “support” icon in the navigation of this forum or through an email to support at this domain.

    Trent

  • Unknown's avatar
    pklund · Member ·

    Thanks, I’ll try going through a third blogging service. I did send an email to staff but haven’t heard back.

  • Unknown's avatar
    pklund · Member ·

    Update: I found that for my blog, which is relatively large, the easiest approach is to display the posts in a browser, save them as a text file, and then import to a new blogging service from these. Initially I went through TypePad, but I discovered soon that it is easier to go directly to WordPress. If anybody else wants to try, here is how to do it:

    1. In Blogger, go to template > edit html, then select “revert to classic template” (if it isn’t already), save your current template and exchange it with the code below. This code outputs the Blogger blogs in the TypePad export format, which WordPress can import.

    2. Display your blog in your browser. For me, I found it easiest to display a year (or six months) at a time to prevent the files from being too large. Then view source, and save the source to your computer as a text file. Here is the URL for displaying six months at a time (change the beginning and end date in the URL to display other time periods): http://blogname.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2006-06-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&updated-max=2007-06-01T00%3A00%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=3000

    3. In WordPress, go to manage > import, and select the files you just saved.

    The only problem with this is that labels are not imported as categories into WP, since Blogger classical template cannot display labels. The way around it is to use the New Blogger template, and output the blog in the TypePad format this way, including the labels (I don’t know how to do that… wish I did.)

    Here is the template code for displaying Blogger blogs in TypePad export format:

    <Blogger>
    AUTHOR: <$BlogItemAuthor$>
    TITLE: <PostSubject><$BlogItemSubject$></PostSubject>
    STATUS: Publish
    ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
    CONVERT BREAKS: 0
    ALLOW PINGS: 1

    DATE: <$BlogItemDateTime$>
    —–
    BODY:
    <$BlogItemBody$>
    —–
    EXTENDED BODY:

    —–
    EXCERPT:

    —–
    KEYWORDS:

    —–

    <BlogItemCommentsEnabled>
    <BlogItemComments>
    COMMENT:
    AUTHOR:<$BlogCommentAuthor$>
    EMAIL:
    IP:
    URL:
    DATE:<$BlogCommentDateTime$>
    <$BlogCommentBody$>
    —–
    </BlogItemComments>
    </BlogItemCommentsEnabled>
    ——–
    </Blogger>

  • Unknown's avatar
    trent · Member ·

    That is great to hear! I will keep this one on memory as this is a great solution!

    Trent

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