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silly question on export

  1. edposton
    Member

    Howdy - I have what is probably a "silly" question on exporting what I've created (as a personal backup). I go to Export on the Dashboard, pick the free option, then choose "All data" and download it. I get an XML file that has all kinds of info in it as to links, CSS stuff, and other, what to me is, "garbage," everything EXCEPT the actual words I labored over producing on my posts and pages! What is the trick to actually getting a backup to what you've done on writing your posts and pages? There is NO way, going from just the XML file downloaded, to re-creating what I've done. Maybe WordPress could use some of the links to read in the Posts and Pages I've created, but that does me absolutely no good! This is NOT a backup to me of my work. Thanks for any response....

    The blog I need help with is eglennposton.wordpress.com.

  2. absurdoldbird
    Member

    The trick to doing this is not to open the file!

    It's intended to be imported, as it is, into a blog. It's done automatically.

    Go to your dashboard for the blog whose content you want to export, look down the left side til you see 'Tools'. From Tools, choose Export. Click on 'Export' (the free option). Next, choose 'All Content'. Next, click the 'Download Export File' and find somewhere on your computer for it to go (unless you've already got an area designated for downloads in which case it'll probably do it automatically).

    Go to the dashboard for the blog you want to import the content into. Go to Tools and choose Import. Click on Import. From the list of Blogs to import to, choose the platform it's on (ie, if it's on WordPress choose WordPress, if it's on Blogger, choose Blogger) then just follow the instructions and wait til the blog imports all the content. Depending how much you've got, it might take quite a while. Usually you're sent an email when it completes, but if you've only got a small amount of content, sometimes it completes before you get the email. I find the best way to check on that is to go to 'All Posts' and see how many have arrived there in the new blog.

    As an actual backup for just one blog, you don't have to do anything with the back up file unless you have the misfortune to lose your blog's contents, then you can just use import to put them back there.

    I back up all my blogs from time to time, just in case, but I've not yet had need to use them as actual back ups, I use them instead to transfer some content from one to another blog.

    I hope this helps.

    For the support documentation about these, see:

    http://en.support.wordpress.com/import/

    http://en.support.wordpress.com/export/

    and, in case it's applicable:

    http://en.support.wordpress.com/moving-a-blog/

  3. absurdoldbird
    Member

    PS, providing you choose the 'all content' option everything is there, but in a form that you can't read. It's not there as text or images, it's code.

  4. edposton
    Member

    So I was right - WP uses some "link" to read in from some "archive" they have the actual words and images of the HTML of my blog. It's a "backup" only as long as WP is around! That is not a backup! The HTML of my blog exists -

      that
    is what I want. If I had WP.org's WP installed on my machine, could I import the XML file into that to get the HTML of my blog? I'd almost be willing to put up with such a shitload of work to get a silly little backup to my blog! It's obviously set up this way simply to increase the fact that people are more "locked into" WP and couldn't easily switch to somewhere else.

  5. timethief
    Member

    You are completely misunderstanding this. It would not matter if you used the exporter on a WordPress.org install or the one on the WordPress.com blog. The result will be the exported content in an XML file. I'm flagging this so Staff give you a sophicated response so you comprehend that blogs don't site on shelves looking as they do when we view them through browsers.

  6. edposton
    Member

    I didn't say "export" on the WP.org's version of WP! I said "import." All I can get from WP right now is an XML file that doesn't have my blog in it except in a way WP itself can make use of, in its "import" function - I was asking, well, could I then go to importing with WP.org's version of WP the XML file it gives me to get the actual HTML of the blog on my machine! Sure, it's a crazy amount of work to go through for a simple backup, I agree - maybe that's why you think I'm probably totally confused! Maybe I am. It does sound to be ridiculous.

  7. timethief
    Member

    Not to worry as Staff will explain this to you as soon as they can.

  8. absurdoldbird
    Member

    @edposton - Before staff arrive to explain about the XML file - hopefully in a way you'll understand better than I or Timethief can tell you - I'd just like to tell you that if you ONLY want the text of your posts (but this won't work for the images) there is a way you can do it and that is the way I've sometimes done it for myself in the past. I'll explain this for Windows operating system as I don't have a Mac, but if you do you can adapt it.

    If you go to your blog settings and set your blog (the one with the posts you want to back up) to show 50 posts per page, then go to the first page (home page of the blog where you normally see the most recent posts) and click on the the first word of your most recent post, then while you're clicking, scroll right down to the bottom of the page and release the mouse button, you'll be able to copy and paste all that content to notepad on your own computer.

    To get to the next 50 posts, add /page 2/ to the end of your blog's URL or just click the 'earlier posts' link (or whatever it's called for the theme you're using). Click and drag from top to bottom and paste into notepad again (remember to save what you've put in notepad). Just continue like this til you've copied all your posts to notepad. Then save the notepad file to your computer.

    This is a 'workaround' by the way, it's not nothing to do with WordPress, it's a very simple way to back up anything on the computer or online that has text content and which can be copied and pasted into a text document.

    I suspect this is what you want, anyway. So maybe this will be a better way for you to do it. But anyway, with luck Staff will come by soon and explain the WordPress way of doing things too.

    Good luck.

  9. edposton
    Member

    Thank you so much for your input. It actually was a response that perfecting matches my question. I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone! I pretty much figured out that the only way I'm going to get a true "backup" to my work is along the lines of the way you detailed so well. Just put the editor in HTML mode, copy everything, and paste it into some editor to save! That just seemed to be such a ridiculous amount of work to go through, and WP isn't some chintzy outfit, I assumed there would be some mechanical way to do it! There SHOULD be. Thanks again!

  10. macmanx
    Staff

    As mentioned above, the only export option we offer is as an XML file via Tools -> Export in your blog's Dashboard.

    The result is exactly the same whether you export from a WordPress.com blog or a WordPress.org blog.

    This XML file can be imported into any WordPress.com/.org blog and a variety of other blogging platforms that support our format.

  11. edposton
    Member

    Yeah, I got that. Say, it's not that important to me, but why in HELL is that the only option offered? I can't believe I'm the only person in the world who would like an easy way to "backup" in a normal manner!
    I understand that the XML file created when you're exporting in WP is exactly the same under WP.com and WP.org. That has nothing to do with my original question.

  12. macmanx
    Staff

    Well, to most folks "backup" is just to get all of the content in a format that can be easily and efficiently re-imported into the software, which is what we provide.

    What you're looking for is a way to archive your blog and view it offline. This is not really a form of backup, as it can never be restored to the software as content.

  13. timethief
    Member

    Excuse me for entering this conversation again but generating and using XML files to backup blogs is normal and what you are requesting is not normal. This discussion resembles the kind of circular discussions we have had with people who do not undertsand that blog editors and word processors like microsoft WORD do not operate in the same way. In fact, microsoft Word is not web compliant http://en.support.wordpress.com/microsoft-word/

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