Import & Export
Overview
Cards → Import & Export moves your cards in and out of the site:
- Import a spreadsheet of programs, services or resources to add them all at once, or to update descriptions and links across the whole list.
- Export every card as a spreadsheet (CSV) to edit or keep, or as a JSON file to copy them to another Dirigible site.
You can also get there from the Import and Export buttons beside Add New Card at the top of the cards list. If you renamed cards under Cards → Settings (Card Name (Plural)), the menu and the screen use your names.
You need an Editor or Administrator account. Importing also needs permission to upload files, because images are downloaded into the Media Library.
Export
- Go to Cards → Import & Export and stay on the Export tab.
- Choose Spreadsheet (CSV) to open the file in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets, or JSON to import it on another Dirigible site.
- Turn on Include drafts and private ones if you want those too. Off, the file holds only published cards.
- Select Download export file.
Import a spreadsheet
The quickest start is Download a blank spreadsheet on the Export tab: it has every column with the right header. Or export your current cards, edit them, and import the file back.
- Fill in one row per card. Only Title is required. Leave out any column you don't need.
- Save it as CSV (in Excel: File → Save As → CSV UTF-8).
- Go to the Import tab and drop the file on the box, or select Choose a file.
- Nothing changes yet. You see every row with what will happen to it:
- New: the card isn't on this site, so it's added.
- Update: it's already here and the row has changes. The list names them (Description, Link, Image…).
- Skip (No changes): it's already here and nothing differs.
- Error: the row can't be imported, for example because its title is empty.
- Untick any card you don't want brought in.
- Choose what happens to cards already on the site: Update it from the file, or Leave it as it is (only add new ones). If the file has no Status column, choose whether new cards are added Published or as Drafts.
- Select Import. Keep the page open until it finishes. If it's interrupted, open the page again and select Resume import: nothing is added twice.
Columns
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Title | The card's title. Also read from a column called Name, Program, Resource or Service. |
| Display Title | A different name to show on the card. Leave it empty to use the title. |
| Description | The short summary on the card. Also read from a column called Summary. |
| Link | Where the card's button goes. example.org/apply works too. An address that isn't a web link is left out, and the preview says so. |
| Link text | The button label. Leave it empty to use the Cards block's Link Text. |
| Open link in a new tab | Yes or No. |
| Content | The longer copy, shown when the block's Content is Content. Written exactly as you'd paste it into the editor. |
| Categories | Names separated by ` |
| Image | The web address of the card's image. It's downloaded into the Media Library. An image already in this site's Media Library is reused. |
| Image alt text | Describes the image for screen readers. |
| Status | Published, Draft, Pending or Private. |
| Slug | The card's web address name, used when Card Pages gives cards their own pages. Leave it out to have it made from the title. |
Column headers can be in any case, and a small typo is fine: the preview tells you how each header was read, and lists any it ignored.
Link text and Open link in a new tab need a Link: a card with link text but no address gets no link, as in the editor, and the preview tells you.
Updating cards that are already on the site
A row updates an existing card when it has the same web address (Slug), then the same title. The preview shows which card each row matched and why.
Only what's in the spreadsheet changes. An empty cell never clears anything, so you can import a sheet with just titles and new links without touching any images or descriptions. To clear a field, edit that card.
Updated cards keep their status and web address.
What isn't imported or exported
Parent and Order from the Page Attributes box. The Cards block always lists cards A–Z by title, so neither changes what visitors see.
Copy cards to another Dirigible site
Export as JSON on one site and import the file on the other. A JSON file carries everything above: content exactly as written, images, links and categories. Images are downloaded from the site the file came from, so that site needs to be online. A link to a page on the old site still points there; edit it if that site's address is changing.
Undo an import
When an import finishes, select Undo this import. It deletes the cards that import added, the images it downloaded and the categories it added, and puts every card it updated back exactly as it was. A card edited after the import is left as it is and listed, and an image or category that something else now uses is kept. Undo stays available for 7 days.
