Import / Export - Plugixa Testimonial

Move testimonials in and out of the plugin in two formats: JSON and CSV. Useful for migrating from other testimonial plugins, backing up content, syncing staging and production, and bulk editing in a spreadsheet.

Export

From the admin

1. Go to Plugixa Testimonial → Testimonials.
2. Select the rows you want (or don’t select any to export all).
3. Bulk actions → Export (JSON or CSV).

Formats

Format	Use case
JSON	Full fidelity - every field, every custom field, every translation link. Import it back for a loss-less restore.
CSV	Spreadsheet-friendly - for bulk editing in Excel or Google Sheets, then re-importing.
PDF PRO	A formatted document to send to a client or attach to a proposal. Export only; see PDF export.

JSON structure

{
  "version": "1.0",
  "exported_at": "2026-04-17T10:30:00Z",
  "plugin_version": "1.x.x",
  "categories": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "name": "Product Reviews",
      "slug": "product-reviews",
      "description": "...",
      "display_order": 0,
      "translation_group": "abc-123...",
      "language_code": "en"
    }
  ],
  "testimonials": [
    {
      "id": 42,
      "client_name": "Jane Doe",
      "client_role": "CEO",
      "client_company": "Acme Inc",
      "testimonial_text": "<p>Excellent service...</p>",
      "rating": 5,
      "is_featured": true,
      "video_url": "https://youtu.be/...",
      "website_url": "https://acme.com",
      "status": "approved",
      "display_order": 0,
      "source": "manual",
      "categories": ["product-reviews", "enterprise"],
      "custom_fields": {
        "industry": "SaaS",
        "team_size": "50-200"
      },
      "translation_group": "def-456...",
      "language_code": "en",
      "created_at": "2026-01-15T10:30:00"
    }
  ],
  "custom_field_definitions": [ ... ]
}

CSV columns

Default columns:

client_name, client_role, client_company, testimonial_text, rating,
website_url, video_url, status, is_featured, display_order,
source, language_code, translation_group, created_at,
categories   (pipe-delimited slugs, e.g. "product-reviews|enterprise")

Plus one column per custom field: cf__{field_key} (e.g., cf__industry).

Import

From the admin

1. Go to Plugixa Testimonial → Testimonials → Import.
2. Upload a JSON or CSV file (drag-and-drop or file picker).
3. Review the preview - you’ll see how many items will be created vs updated.
4. Click Import.

Import behavior

• New items - created with status = draft by default (override in the import dialog).
• Existing items - matched by translation_group (JSON) or by exact client_name + testimonial_text match (CSV). If a match exists, the row is updated.
• Categories - auto-created if a slug in the file doesn’t exist.
• Custom fields - values are set for existing field definitions; new keys create new text definitions (rename the type afterwards).
• Translations - translation_group UUIDs are preserved so links survive the round-trip.
• Video URLs - copied as-is.

Conflict handling

Conflict	Behavior
Duplicate slug (category)	Suffixed with -2, -3, etc.
Missing category	Created.
Missing custom-field definition	Created as text type.
Invalid HTML in testimonial_text	Stripped via wp_kses_post.
Photo URL	Not imported - photos must be re-attached manually from the Media Library.

REST API

# Export JSON
GET /wp-json/plugixatestimonial/v1/import-export/export?format=json

# Export CSV (specific category)
GET /wp-json/plugixatestimonial/v1/import-export/export?format=csv&category_id=5

# Import
POST /wp-json/plugixatestimonial/v1/import-export/import
Content-Type: multipart/form-data
# field "file" containing the JSON/CSV

All endpoints require the admin capability. CSV and JSON export are in the free build; only PDF export needs Pro.

Migrating from other testimonial plugins

Source plugin	Approach
Strong Testimonials	Export via its native CSV, rename columns to match Plugixa’s, import.
Easy Testimonials	Export as CSV, map person_name → client_name, person_company → client_company, import.
WP Customer Reviews	Most data lives in wp_comments - export with WP-CLI, transform to JSON, import.
Custom post type testimonials	WP-CLI: wp post list --post_type=testimonial --format=json → transform to Plugixa’s JSON shape → POST to /import.

For all migrations, we recommend:

1. Stage on a dev site first.
2. Back up the DB before running a production import.
3. Review a sample batch (20–50) before full import.
4. Photos must be re-attached - do that last, after content is imported and approved.

CLI (advanced)

If you have WP-CLI access:

# Export all testimonials to JSON
wp plugixa-testimonial export --format=json > testimonials-backup.json

# Import
wp plugixa-testimonial import testimonials-backup.json

CLI commands are registered when the plugin boots in CLI context.

Hooks

There are no import or export hooks. The plugin fires eight filters in total and no actions; see the Hooks Reference for the full list and what each one can change.

Troubleshooting

Import stopped midway

Large imports time out. Split into smaller batches (< 500 rows per file). The process resumes cleanly on the next run - no duplicates if translation_groups are present.

CSV with non-English characters mangles

Re-save the CSV as UTF-8 with BOM in Excel (or --encoding=utf-8 in LibreOffice). The importer assumes UTF-8.

Export returns 500 / blank

Most often a memory or timeout issue with large exports. In wp-config.php, raise WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT to 512M and PHP max_execution_time to 300. For truly large datasets (10k+ rows), export per-category or per-language.

Photos are missing after import

Photos are not part of import/export - they stay in the Media Library as WP attachments. After importing testimonials, re-attach photos manually by editing each testimonial.

For a photo-preserving migration, you need to also export/import wp_posts rows with post_type=attachment and the wp-content/uploads directory separately.

Related

• Testimonials Management
• Categories
• Custom Fields
• Hooks Reference