Import and export

Signocore Slate can move three kinds of data from one site to another: your Customizer settings, your content and your widgets. You import them on the Signocore Slate → Import screen or in the Customizer, and you can script the same steps with WP-CLI.

The Import screen and the Customizer's Import / Export section are available to administrators.

Signocore Slate does not ship a demo site to import. To start a site from ready-made sections and pages, insert them from the pattern library, see Blocks and the pattern library.

Export your Customizer settings

1. Go to Appearance → Customize → Import / Export.
2. Under Export, click Export. A file named slate-theme-export.dat downloads.

The file holds:

• every theme setting of the active theme, such as the header and footer layouts, typography and the post and page layouts,
• the other Customizer settings that WordPress stores as site options, such as the global color palette,
• the CSS from Additional CSS.

The site title, the tagline, the homepage settings and the widgets are not included.

Menu locations and the site logo are saved as references to menus and images on the site you exported from. On another site they point to different items or to nothing, so check them after you import.

Import Customizer settings

You can import a settings file in two places. They accept different files:

To import in the Customizer, choose the file under Import, click Import and wait for the Customizer to reload. If the file was exported from another theme, an alert says so and nothing changes.

To import on the Import screen, choose the file under Customizer settings (.dat) and click Import settings. If the file cannot be imported, for example because it is damaged or comes from another theme, the notice says why and nothing changes. Afterwards, open the Customizer and check that your colors, fonts and layouts changed.

Both imports work the same way:

• Settings in the file replace the current values. Settings the file does not contain keep their current values.
• Images that settings refer to by URL, such as a header background, are downloaded into your media library.
• Additional CSS in the file replaces your current Additional CSS.

Move settings from Signocore Slate to a child theme

WordPress stores theme settings per theme, so a child theme starts without the settings you made while Signocore Slate was active. Because both imports accept files exported from Signocore Slate, you can carry them over:

1. With Signocore Slate active, go to Appearance → Customize → Import / Export and click Export.
2. Activate your child theme.
3. Go to Signocore Slate → Import, choose the file under Customizer settings (.dat) and click Import settings.

Reset the Customizer settings

Appearance → Customize → Import / Export → Reset removes every theme setting of the active theme and the global color palette. The site goes back to the theme defaults.

1. Export your settings first, so you can restore them.
2. Click Reset and confirm. The Customizer reloads with the defaults.

Important: A reset cannot be undone without an export file. It also removes the menu location assignments and the site logo, because WordPress stores those with the theme's settings.

Import content

Export the content on the old site with Tools → Export in WordPress. With All content selected, the file contains posts, pages, media records, categories, tags, menus and the entries of custom post types. Then, on the new site:

1. Go to Signocore Slate → Import.
2. Under Content (WXR / XML), choose the .xml file.
3. Leave Download referenced attachments on to copy the images and other media files from the old site. With it off, media items are skipped.
4. Click Import content.

The notice afterwards counts the new pages and posts, and how many errors occurred.

Before a large import, keep in mind:

• Media downloads from the old site. The new site fetches each file from its original URL, so the old site must be online and reachable.
• Existing posts are skipped. A post that already exists on the site is not imported twice, so you can run the same import again after an interruption.
• Authors become users. For each author in the file whose username does not exist on the site, the import creates a user account.
• Everything runs in one request. A big file can hit your server's upload size or time limit. Import it with WP-CLI instead, which has no time limit.

Import widgets

1. Go to Signocore Slate → Import.
2. Under Widgets (.json), choose a .json or .wie file in the Widget Importer & Exporter format.
3. Click Import widgets.

If the file cannot be read, the notice says so and no widgets are added. The import adds each widget to the matching widget area. It does not remove widgets that are already there. A widget that already sits in the same area with identical settings is skipped, a widget type that is not available on your site is skipped, and widgets for an area Signocore Slate does not have go to Inactive Widgets under Appearance → Widgets.

WP-CLI commands

The same imports and exports run from the command line, which suits large files, staging workflows and deploy scripts. The Customizer commands work on the settings of the theme that is active on the site.

# Copy content and media from an export file
wp slate import wxr ./site-export.xml --fetch-attachments

# Import widgets
wp slate import widgets ./widgets.json

# Save the theme settings to a file
wp slate export customizer ./site-settings.dat

A few differences from the screens:

• Without --fetch-attachments, wp slate import wxr skips media items. The Import screen downloads them unless you turn the option off.
• wp slate export customizer saves the theme settings, the global color palette and Additional CSS, but not the other Customizer settings stored as site options. The file has the same format as a Customizer export, so the import rules above apply to it.
• wp slate import widgets stops with an error and a non-zero exit code when the file cannot be imported, so a deploy script can catch it.
• wp slate reset customizer does not ask for confirmation. Run wp slate export customizer first if you may want the settings back.