SEO/SEM Downloads and Other Tools

A lot of probloggers love Wordpress since it is a very robust blog software. But just to create a quick blog, sometimes we make it in Blogger thinking that moving to Wordpress will not be hard anyway since the import function works like a charm. But the problem is if you have upgraded your Blogger account to the New Blogger Beta, or your Blogger account is relatively new, when you do the Import function on Wordpress from a Blogger account, you will get some kind of error like this:

Warning: curl_setopt() [function.curl-setopt]: CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION cannot be activated when in safe_mode or an open_basedir is set in /home/username/public_html/path/wp-admin/import/blogger.php on line 99

Warning: Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/username/public_html/path/wp-admin/import/blogger.php:99) in /home/username/public_html/path/wp-includes/pluggable-functions.php on line 269

When I first saw the problem, I told myself, how can that be? Wordpress works flawlessly, and I have not edited the files in anyway for it not work. I checked it out further, CURL is enabled and so was open_basedir. And I knew from there that it was Blogger that was not allowing the import function because New Blogger Beta changed a lot on how it was running. And there were no updates yet for Wordpress to import the new Blogger accounts.

But I really needed to do this for one of my blogs and I could not wait. My blogger account had 166 post already and I was not going to manually import them, so I came up with my own Blogger Beta to Wordpress importer, BB2WP. And since it help solve my problem, I decided to share it too to help solve the problems of others. This may not have the most user-friendly procedure, but it is better than having no way to import Blogger Beta all. Anyway, my instructions will be given in detail so you wont get lost in importing Blogger Beta to Wordpress.

BB2WP (Blogger Beta to Wordpress) by Ituloy AngSulong

1. Install Wordpress - First is you need Wordpress already installed and running. Please also note that it is best to back up everything you have before attempting anything.
2. Create a folder named bb2wp under the root URL of your Wordpress blog - For example:

   Your Blog URL is:
   http://www.domain.com/blog
   Then create a folder:
   http://www.domain.com/blog/bb2wp

   Your Blog URL is:
   http://www.domain.com/
   Then create a folder:
   http://www.domain.com/bb2wp

   Your Blog URL is:
   http://blog.domain.com/
   Then create a folder:
   http://blog.domain.com/bb2wp

   I guess this is clear enough already.

3. Download bb2wp - Extract the file import.php and upload to the created bb2wp.
4. Edit Publishing Settings - Login to your New Blogger Beta account and go to the publishing settings and set the FTP to upload in the created wp2bb folder. Assuming your blog URL is http://www.domain.com/blog/, most probably, your blogger settings might look like this (click on the image to view a larger view):
   
   When done, click on Save. You do not need to republish this yet. Proceed first to the next step. Also note that not all servers are not setup the same way. The FTP settings may not look the same on a different webhost. If you have any problems with the settings, ask your web hosting company about it.
5. Edit Archiving Settings - Go to the Archiving settings of your Blogger Beta account and set it to archive daily, and set the archive to also be in the same location as what you set in publishing, and keep the archive file as archive.html. Using the same example above, assuming your blog is http://www.domain.com/blog, you settings should look something like this (click on the image to view a larger view):
   
   When done, click on Save. You do not need to republish this yet. Proceed first to the next step.
6. Edit Formatting Settings - Go to the Formatting settings. You don’t need to change much here but except for the Date and Time formats and the Convert Line Breaks. Set the convert line breaks to Yes, and choose the date and time formats similar to this format: MM/DD/YYYY Hr/Mn/Sc AP. Your settings should look like this (click on the image to view a larger view):
   
   When done, click on Save. You do not need to republish this yet. Proceed first to the next step.
7. Edit Comments Settings - Go to the Comments settings. Like in formatting, you just need to change the date format: MM/DD/YYYY Hr/Mn/Sc AP.
   
   When done, click on Save. You do not need to republish this yet. Proceed first to the next step.
8. Edit Blogger Template - The last step that involves Blogger is go to the Template section under Edit HTML. You will use the code below for the template and turn off the Blogger Navbar.
   

   Simply copy the code above and paste it in your blogger template code.

9. Save and Republish your entire blog - The larger your blog, the more time you may need to wait.
10. Make sure everything is all set before running - Before proceeding, note that this script I made worked for me and has worked flawlessly. But I am not taking any responsibility for any loss that may happen on your blog. Lost content, lost comments, lost links, mixed up post, added content, added comments, added links, wrong authors, whatever. The moment you hit the link to run import tool, that means you agree to my terms that I have no responsibility on whatever happens to your blog that you did not want to happen.Now you really don’t have to get scared since it worked for me so it might work for you too and as I advised, back your blog first before doing this so if ever something goes wrong, at least you have everything backed up. Now by the time you get to this step, open up in your browser import.php. If your blog is http://www.domain.com/blog/ then import.php should be on http://www.domain.com/blog/bb2wp/import.php Please note also that it is important not to click stop, the back button, or refresh during the import. Please wait until the page is fully loaded to avoid any importing problems. Make sure you are all done with all steps above, if all steps done, checked and double checked, then open up import.php and everything should be easy from there. Please also note that it is way safer to delete import.php once the importation is done. Since accidentally refreshing of visiting the page may give your blogs double entries as the blog post get imported again.

Since I am not giving any guarantees, if ever Blogger comes with a new update and this does not work again, it will depend on my mood if I want to fix it or not. And if some people want me to come up with a more improved, more user-friendly one, I do not thing that is going to happen because by the time I come up with a better version, maybe the newer releases of Wordpress has already solved the problem.

Posted in Wordpress Plugins and Mods |

Posted on Monday, January 8th, 2007 at 1:35 am under Wordpress Plugins and Mods. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.