Import & Export
Overview
Portfolio → Import & Export moves your portfolio in and out of the site:
- Import a spreadsheet of projects to add them all at once, or to update subtitles, excerpts and collections across the whole portfolio.
- Export every work as a spreadsheet (CSV) to edit or keep, or as a JSON file to copy your portfolio to another Dirigible site.
You can also get there from the Import and Export buttons beside Add Work at the top of the works list. If you renamed works under Portfolio → Settings (Projects, Case Studies…), the screen uses your names.
You need an Editor or Administrator account. Importing also needs permission to upload files, because featured images are downloaded into the Media Library.
Export
- Go to Portfolio → 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 works visitors can see.
- 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 portfolio, edit it, and import it back.
- Fill in one row per work. 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 work isn't on this site, so it's added.
- Update: it's already here and the row has changes. The list names them (Subtitle, Collections, Featured 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 work you don't want brought in.
- Choose what happens to works 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 works 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 work's title. Also read from a column called Name, Project or Client. |
| Listing title | The sidebar Title: a different name to show on collection cards. Leave it empty to use the work's title. |
| Subtitle | The sidebar Subtitle: the second line on Collection cards, lists and overlays. |
| Collections, Filters | Names separated by ` |
| Featured image | The web address of the image cards use. It's downloaded into the Media Library. An image already in this site's Media Library is reused. |
| Featured image alt text | Describes the image for screen readers. |
| Excerpt | The one-line summary on cards, sliders and collection pages. |
| Content | The case study. Plain text works: leave a blank line between paragraphs. |
| Order | A number, for collections sorted in a custom order. |
| Parent work | The work this one sits under, by its name or the last part of its web address. Leave it out for a top-level work. A parent added by the same spreadsheet is found too. |
| Status | Published, Draft, Pending or Private. |
| Slug | The last part of the work's web address. 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.
Updating works that are already on the site
A row updates an existing work when it has the same web address (Slug), then the same title. The preview shows which work 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 subtitles without touching anyone's images or case studies. To clear a field, edit that work.
Updated works keep their status and web address.
What isn't imported or exported
- The old Image and Excerpt sidebar fields. Older sites had these; the plugin has already moved them to the featured image and excerpt, which do travel.
Copy works to another Dirigible site
Export as JSON on one site and import the file on the other. A JSON file carries everything above: case studies exactly as written, featured images, collections, filters and order. Images are downloaded from the site the file came from, so that site needs to be online. Images placed inside a case study still point at the original site; replace them in the editor if that site is going away.
Undo an import
When an import finishes, select Undo this import. It deletes the works that import added, the images it downloaded and the collections and filters it added, and puts every work it updated back exactly as it was. A work edited after the import is left as it is and listed, and an image or collection that something else now uses is kept. Undo stays available for 7 days.
