Having Problems or Issues with XML Demo Content Upload? Try This Solution

[Hunch]

(sorry I know I said I would post it here last week, but only getting the chance)

Just a note for anyone having issues with uploading demo content.
Weeks ago I had to add the large file, and got errors so thought I would zip it and then had no problems. Thought I should come back and post in case it helps someone since so many of you have had trouble. It seems to help with failed upload errors, invalid post errors, timeouts etc. and for many themes – not just for this theme.

I turned the xml file into a .gz zip archive first to shrink the size and had no problems at all since.

• Download 7zip (click this link) to do this if you don’t have it. Install, then you can right click on the xml file you want to zip.
• Make sure to select gzip or .gz extension in the Archive Format dropdown.
• Hit OK (or is it Run?) and it will save your xml file wih a .gz extension
• When you are ready to import, you select the .gz file – make sure you tick the download media box while importing (see below)

————————–

For those of you that want to avoid multiple menu items (from previous failed import attempts) and want to import the demo content fresh, you can use the handy “WordPress Database Reset” plugin (free) to strip it back to a basic fresh install state. There’s no need to manually re-install everything.

To get the demo content looking like it should, the following process should work:

• Make necessary recommended PHP memory limit settings on server as per the documentation first – if installing into a sub-folder I recommend ensuring that your changes are recursive as hosting companies seem to differ in whether this is default.
  If you don’t know how to do this, speak to your hosting company.
• Install & run the “WordPress Database Reset” plugin (if it’s not your first try at importing the demo content)
  (Select All for clean slate)
• Go to Appearance > Themes: select Theme (not the child version)
• Set permalinks: Settings > Permalinks (I used Post)
• Set up WooCommerce > Settings
  Catalog Tab: change images to same size as per the documentation
• Set up Revolution Slider as per the documentation, including the text file.
• Tools > Import: upload the .gz zip version of the .xml you wanted
• Check the “Download and import file attachments” box. In the Neighborhood theme you can leave the rest (users etc) as the default
• Cross your fingers. Wait & let it work its magic uninterrupted.
• Go to Appearance > Menus. Set Main Menu as the main menu for this theme.

Visit the site and if all went to plan then Voila! It should work.
It should be same, same but different. Images, slider images, posts, pages & all.

To make it easier you can also then visit Settings > Media: untick the monthly dated folder storage for images “Organize my uploads into month- and year-based folders” to save to a central upload folder, and make your other changes. Hopefully this works for you. 🙂

[Swift Ideas – Ed]

Thanks Hunch, have stickied this!

– Ed

[s2dgn]

Hi,

Impossible to upload the demo content. Even following your steps.

I already tried every single possibility, any ideas?

Thanks

[westcoastsurf]

yeah same here, I am currently have to break down the xml file into about 70 parts and import those individually. But just to confirm, is this what I need in the xml template for it to import correctly?


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<!-- This is a WordPress eXtended RSS file generated by WordPress as an export of your site. -->
<!-- It contains information about your site's posts, pages, comments, categories, and other content. -->
<!-- You may use this file to transfer that content from one site to another. -->
<!-- This file is not intended to serve as a complete backup of your site. -->

<!-- To import this information into a WordPress site follow these steps: -->
<!-- 1. Log in to that site as an administrator. -->
<!-- 2. Go to Tools: Import in the WordPress admin panel. -->
<!-- 3. Install the "WordPress" importer from the list. -->
<!-- 4. Activate & Run Importer. -->
<!-- 5. Upload this file using the form provided on that page. -->
<!-- 6. You will first be asked to map the authors in this export file to users -->
<!-- on the site. For each author, you may choose to map to an -->
<!-- existing user on the site or to create a new user. -->
<!-- 7. WordPress will then import each of the posts, pages, comments, categories, etc. -->
<!-- contained in this file into your site. -->

<!-- generator="WordPress/3.5.2" created="2013-07-15 11:05" -->
<rss version="2.0"
xmlns:excerpt="http://wordpress.org/export/1.2/excerpt/"
xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"
xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"
xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
xmlns:wp="http://wordpress.org/export/1.2/"
>
<wp:wxr_version>1.1</wp:wxr_version>
<channel>

*ADD ITEM CONTENT HERE*

</channel>
</rss>


[Hunch]

@SwiftIdeas – Ed: good idea. No worries 🙂

@s2dgn
– which file were you uploading?
– what host are you with?
– Is your wordpress install in the root folder or a sub-folder?

@westcoastsurf: yes everything between the <channel> tags is considered the body of the xml file. To make it cleaner you could remove the unnecessary text so it looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>

<rss version="2.0"

	xmlns:excerpt="http://wordpress.org/export/1.2/excerpt/"

	xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/"

	xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/"

	xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"

	xmlns:wp="http://wordpress.org/export/1.2/"

>

<wp:wxr_version>1.1</wp:wxr_version>

<channel>

*ADD ITEM CONTENT HERE*

</channel>

</rss>

Though you prob already know, incase others don’t and are doing the same: don’t forget to always save it in a UTF-8 text format with .xml extension.
You can validate your XML’s using something like this if you just want to check it before you upload or gzip it (validator mostly works).

[westcoastsurf]

http://rangerpretzel.com/

WordPress WXR File Splitter (RSS XML)

trying this out.

/edit – it worked great.

[s2dgn]

I’m uploading the full xml but .gz as you explain.

DigitalPacific is my host company and I already contact them to be sure my PHP settings are correct.

And I’m putting in the root folder.

Takes for ever to import…. loadign and loading…. I’m not sure what else can I do..

Thanks for your reply.

[hustle1]

When the xml file is uploaded correctly. the page will look exactly like the demo? Because I uploaded the xml file, I received some of the images from the demo. My page is developing well despite minor issues with product IDs and sizes and colors. But I would like to make sure if it installed correctly.

[s2dgn]

Any other ideas on how to install?

I´ve tried different browsers, different Systems…

[Hunch]

@westcoastsurf: yes that utility is handy and saves lots of time to do manually.

@hustle1: if all goes to plan it and it works properly it should look exactly like the demo.
If you are unsure about doing this on top of the work you have already done, then you could always install WordPress into a subfolder with this theme, and import the demo content to this separate theme install if all you want is to reference it & deconstruct.

[Hunch]

@s2dgn:

Sometimes it depends on your server (shared, not shared, etc) too. Some hosts will override the settings that you change in php.ini but yours don’t seem to at least. [Changes to the .htaccess file, to dictate the recommended values can get around this, but I’d generally try that last].

If you change it yourself, create or edit the php.ini settings file, make any changes and save, then uploading it to the wp-admin folder may make all the difference. It may not be recursive.

Also if you are getting time out errors or similar you could also try to increase this additional part of your php.ini file:

default_socket_timeout = 700

which can help if your upload bandwidth is being iffy.

You could also increase the rest of the settings by even more than what was recommended in the theme documentation and see if it makes a difference. You can always change them back later (after import done). Try doubling it or using the following values:

default_socket_timeout = 700
max_execution_time = 7000
max_input_time = 7000
memory_limit = 512M
upload_max_filesize = 200M

Then use the “WordPress Database Reset” plugin and start over as above.

If that doesn’t work (which if all things are correct it really should), you can alternately split the XML file using the windows based program as mentioned above.

[s2dgn]

Thanks Hunch!

I’m not an expert in websites and all that stuff,for that I bought a template 😉 but I’ll try to follow more or less what you said, first i have to understand a few things 🙂

Thanks for your help, much appreciate!!

I’ll let you know if I have any success.

[s2dgn]

Impossible! Not working at all…. is becoming a nightmare for me.

Could be my server? Is a new plan, I just got the server 3 days ago, just to install this template in a complete new website.

Could be the virtual memory of the server? I have 256 MB of virtual memory, is that enough?

Is some kind of technical support who can set up the template for me?

Thanks for your help.

[Melanie – SUPPORT]

Hey s2dgn, have you already contacted the hosting company to increase your max upload file size limit? Is that what you’re referring to by 256mb? If you set the file size yourself you might want to talk to your hosting company, some hosts don’t allow user-modifications of that kind.

If you could open a new thread you can attach your wp-admin and FTP login details via a private reply. I will then be more than happy to check your installation out and upload the files for you. Just mention my name in your ticket and that I offered to intall it for you and I’ll be at your service 🙂

To anybody who wonders if the theme will look exactly the same as the demo after uploading the demo content: I’m afraid you will always have to continue setting the theme up after you uploaded the demo content. You will still have to define your homepage, blog page and assign custom menus to theme locations.
So make sure you grab the documentation to continue the setup after installation 🙂

All the best!

PS thanks Hunch! You’re a hero!

[myuption]

I have always wondered why is it that there is no quickinstall versions in wordpress premium themes.

Instead of using the WordPress import, can’t we use phpmyadmin to install sql content?

Then just you need to pull the images from another file and put it into a folder.

Maybe I’m missing something… guess you can add some ideas.

Either way, still trying to import demo. :p