Before You Begin
It is not required that you use an XML file in your website. This file is provided as a convenience for those who wish to exactly duplicate our theme demo. But for most cases it is far more work than needed because you can just start adding your own real content to your site rather than uploading placeholder content and then replacing it with genuine content.
If you are going to use the XML import, please make sure you have Genesis, your child theme, and your plugins all loaded and activated before you start.
Using a Genesis Theme XML File
- Download the fernando-xml.zip file (aka the demo data) from your My Account page.
- Unzip the file
- Read the Readme file in the unzipped folder to see what files are contained therein.
- Log into your WordPress admin panel (as an administrator).
- Install the Genesis framework.
- Install your Genesis child theme and activate.
- Install and activate any required plugins used in the demo/exporting site.
- Go to Tools –> Import.
- Choose “WordPress” from the list of available data options.
- If the WordPress Importer is not already installed on your WordPress install, follow the instructions for installation.
- There are two XML files in the zip file above
- First upload the fernando.xml file via the importer’s instructions. Don’t worry, this part is really easy. You just need to know where you saved the XML file on your local computer.
- Map the authors in this XML file export to a user on your installation. For each author, you may choose to map to an existing user or create a new user.
- You will then have the choice to import attachments. Say yes to this so you import content images, as well as home page sliders.
- WordPress will then complete the import process by populating pages, posts, categories, tags, comments, images, and menus.
At this point you have the content, but you are not finished. You need to assign menus, configure widgets, and populate any theme settings.
Something is Wrong! Nope Not Really
The thing to remember is that the WordPress (not Genesis) XML export process only includes menus, pages, posts, categories, tags, comments, and images. It does not include widget settings, menu assignment, or theme settings. You have to configure this yourself. This is not an issue with Genesis or the theme, but a constraint of WordPress itself.
Also, if you don’t have the required plugins activated then the import may leave out some important parts. For example if the exporting site uses an image slider on the home page, has an event calendar or a store, these content types will be in the XML file. Unless those corresponding plugins are activated in your importing site those content types cannot be successfully imported.
Importing Widget Settings
With Fernando we have included a way to import all the widgets and settings from our Demo theme install. Here are the instructions to do that
- First install and activate the Widget Data – Setting Import/Export Plugin
- Next go to Tools –> Widget Settings Import
- Select the widget_data.json file from the fernando-xml.zip file mentioned above
- Import the widgets you wish to have configured like our theme demo
This should import and configure the widgets we have in our theme demo. There are a lot of variables that may cause undesirable results. For example if you do not have a plugin installed then any associated widgets for that plugin will not be imported. However, assuming it works for you, this is a much faster way to get the same widgets as used in the demo configured for your site than was previously available.
