Import & Export
Overview
Publications → Import & Export moves your articles in and out of the site:
- Import a spreadsheet of articles to add a whole issue at once, or to update excerpts, authors and categories across many articles.
- Export your articles 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 at the top of the Articles list. 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 Publications → 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.
- 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 articles, edit them, and import them back.
- Fill in one row per article. Only Title is required.
- Save it as CSV (in Excel: File → Save As → CSV UTF-8) and drop it on the Import tab.
- Check the preview. Every row says New, Update (naming what changes), Skip or Error, and you can untick any of them.
- Select Import. Keep the page open until it finishes. If it's interrupted, open the page again and select Resume import.
Columns
| Column | What goes in it |
|---|---|
| Title | The article's headline. |
| Authors | People from People, by name or the last part of their web address, separated by ` |
| Issues | The issue the article belongs to, by name, like Fall 2026. An issue the site doesn't have yet is added. |
| Categories | Names separated by ` |
| Featured image | The web address of the article's image. 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 short summary shown on article cards. |
| Content | The article. Plain text works: leave a blank line between paragraphs. |
| Order | A number, for the order articles appear in an issue. |
| Status | Published, Draft, Pending or Private. |
| Slug | The last part of the article'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.
Issues
An article belongs to one issue: its web address is built from it (/issues/fall-2026/article-name/). If a row lists more than one, the preview warns you, and the first one is used.
Only the issue's name travels. Its cover image, title, volume, number, date and description stay on the site they were made on. When an import adds a new issue, go to Publications → Issues afterwards and fill those in.
Updating articles that are already on the site
A row updates an existing article when it has the same web address (Slug), then the same title. Magazines often repeat a title in every issue ("Letter from the Editor"), so when a row finds an article by its title in a different issue, the preview says so. If it's a new article, untick the row, or give it its own Slug and import again.
Only what's in the spreadsheet changes. An empty cell never clears anything. Updated articles keep their status and web address.
What isn't imported or exported
- The issue's own fields (see above).
- The page options in the article's sidebar (title display, sidebar, seamless header) and its SEO title and description.
Copy articles to another Dirigible site
Export as JSON on one site and import the file on the other. It carries each article's content exactly as written, its featured image, issue, categories and authors. Featured images are downloaded from the site the file came from, so that site needs to be online. Authors are matched to people on the other site by their web address, so copy your People first.
Undo an import
When an import finishes, select Undo this import. It deletes the articles it added, the images it downloaded and the issues and categories it added, and puts every article it updated back exactly as it was. Anything edited after the import is left as it is. Undo stays available for 7 days.