Thread

So, I’m trying to import the attached file into Expression Engine. I get the message, “Unable to import entries.” I’ve searched the forum and none of the other posts with this problem seem to have helped. I’m probably not including or doing something that’s required, but I have no idea what. Just so that you don’t have to download the file if you don’t want to, here’s a sample of what’s in it:

TITLE: November, 1999
AUTHOR: none
DATE: 11/01/1999 00:00:00
--------
TITLE: December, 1999
AUTHOR: none
DATE: 12/01/1999 00:00:00
--------
TITLE: January, 2000
AUTHOR: none
DATE: 01/01/2000 00:00:00
--------

Except 111 of them.

EDIT: Here’s the build # we’re using: 20091002

Interestingly, if I use the version of the import file that’s attached to this post, I get the following response instead:

You have successfully completed importing your entries!
Total number of section entries entered: 0
Total number of comments entered: 0
Total number of trackbacks entered: 0

Here’s what’s in this import file:

TITLE: November, 1999
AUTHOR: none
DATE: 11/01/1999 00:00:00
BODY:
none
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
none
-----
--------
TITLE: December, 1999
AUTHOR: none
DATE: 12/01/1999 00:00:00
BODY:
none
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
none
-----
--------
TITLE: January, 2000
AUTHOR: none
DATE: 01/01/2000 00:00:00
BODY:
none
-----
EXTENDED BODY:
none
-----
--------

But, again, 111 of them.

ALWC, I so rarely do MT imports, it can be hard to spot what’s wrong.. just wanted to let you know this may end up being a howto issue when we start diving into this.

Sue, that would be very helpful, as the documentation on this feature seems to be very sparse, despite the fact that you think it would be a very popular feature. When you combine that with very uninformative result messages, it can become a real headache. Even a list of requirements and limitations on the import utility would be very helpful. As long as it was extensive, even if it wasn’t exhaustive, it would at least eliminate many possibilities.

You have to make sure that you include all of your custom_fields, or it will not import correctly. What custom_fields are you using for the weblog you are importing into?

More info on custom fields, here.

Thanks!

Hi, Adam. I am using no custom field set for the weblog I’m trying to import into.

Hi ALWC,

I’m looking into this for you.

Cheers

Greg

The MT Import File format is quite finicky. You need to get the number of dashes and the line breaks exactly right. You should have a BODY field, too, even if it’s empty.

TITLE: January, 2010
AUTHOR: none
DATE: 01/01/2010 00:00:00
-----
BODY:
-----
--------

Something like this. The newline is part of the separator, so don’t forget one on your very last line. Moving to Howto.

Ingmar, thanks for your tips. As you can see above, I have already tried a version with a BODY field, but still without luck. Nevertheless, it’s helpful to know that that’s required. Also, the last line includes a final newline at the end of the eight dashes. So I still have no idea what the problem is.

I am still waiting to learn “how to” get the MT Import to work.

Notice this post is getting a little old and you have probably moved on but thought i would reply.  I was having the same problem even though i have done MT Imports before.  I finally figured out what my problem was.  I was trying to import into a weblog that had Wygwam as the field type.  It seems the import only works with text area or text.  Since what i was importing was already in html I was able to just switch the field type back to wygwam after the import.  The latest version of wygwam also has a setting for converting current entries which may help in other cases.  Only really annoying part about it is it drops EE’s email script format.  Which is not surprising really but now i will need to go back and manually re add those emails.

Phil, thanks for describing your solution. We were only using textarea and text fields, so that wasn’t our problem. We eventually ended up using CSVGrab:

http://www.brandnewbox.co.uk/articles/details/csvgrab_expression_engine_plugin/

It had its hiccups too, but unlike MT Import, it eventually did import that data.