User Import Export Plugin for WordPress – User Guide

This documentation guides you on the setup and usage of the free User/Customer Import Export Plugin for WordPress.

• Make sure mbstring is enabled on the server.
• Supports only CSV file formats.
• Download:Sample User CSV
• CSVs should be in UTF-8 format.

To begin with the plugin, install and activate.

You can install the plugin either from the WordPress plugin directory or as a zip downloaded from the WordPress.org website. You can learn more about the installation procedure by reading the article How to Install a Free Plugin from WordPress.

To get started with the plugin you can navigate to WebToffee Import Export (Basic) tab from your WordPress dashboard.

The plugin is divided into five different tabs – Export, Import, History, Logs, and General Settings,. Each of which is explained in the following subsections.

From this window, you can export or download users/customers from your WordPress website/WooCommerce store. 

Choose user/Customer from the drop-down and click Select an Export Method.

Here you have three options available for export. Quick export, Pre-saved template, and New export.

The below sections will explain how each of the export is done.

Quick Export

With the Quick Export option, you can only export the basic/standard fields of the respective post type. You do not get to selectively filter the columns with this option.

Now you can either click the Export button to start the Export or go to the Advanced options/Batch export window to enable batch export of users.

Export in batches of – Here, you can give the number of records the server will process for every iteration within the configured timeout interval. If the export fails, you can reduce this number and try again. Defaulted to 0 records.

Once you have completed the configurations, click the Export button.

Pre-saved Template

Using a pre-saved template retains the previous filter criteria and other column specifications as per the chosen file and export data accordingly. You can also edit this file in the process and export it accordingly or export straightaway.

When this option is selected, you can select a previously saved template from the Export template drop-down menu.

Once you select the template you can either edit its filters by clicking the Filter data button or go straight with Export.

Advanced Export

Advanced export will take you through the entire process of filtering/column selection/advanced options that may be required for your export. You can also save this file for future use.

Now go to the next step, Filter data.

User Email—Here, you can enter customers’ or users’ emails to export the data pertaining to them alone.

User roles – Choose or input user roles to export information pertaining to them alone.

Customer Registration – From Date – Choose a specific date to export the customer/user data (who registered) on and after the specified date.

Customer Registration – To Date – Choose a specific date to export customers/user data (who registered) up to the specified date.

Total number of users to export – Enter the total number of users/ customers you wish to export.

Skip first n users – Here, you can specify the number of users you wish to skip from the beginning of export. If you entered the total number of users 500 in the above field and are skipping 10 you will be exporting users up to user ID 510 in total.

Sort columns – Sort exported data based on the selected columns in the order specified. It is defaulted to ascending order.

Sort by – It defaults to ascending, but you can also change it to descending. It is applicable to the above-selected columns.

Proceed to the next step by clicking the button Map and Re-order export columns.

The default export column names can be seen in the above screen. You can edit these if required. If you have chosen a pre-saved template you can see the preferred names and choices that were last saved. You may also drag the columns accordingly to reorder them within the output file.

Now, you may go to the Advanced options/batch export window.

Here the following options can be configured:

• Export guest users – Enable to include guest users during export. This feature requires the store settings to allow guest user checkout. Minimal guest user details are fetched from the order details. For these users, the columns like password, username, user created date, etc will be empty.
• Export in batches of – you can give the number of records that the server will process for every iteration within the configured timeout interval. If the export fails you can lower this number accordingly and try again. The default number of records is 0.
• Delimiter – The delimiter allows changing the column separator for columns in the CSV file. Assumes comma by default.

Now if you wish to save the configured settings for export, you can click the Save template button. It opens a popup to add a name for the template.

After naming the template click the Save button. Now the saved template will be visible on the previous templates list for you to choose from.

In this section you can import users/customers to your site.

You can start by selecting User/Customer as the post type. Now hit the Select import method button to proceed with the next step.

Here you can choose an import method, upload the CSV to be imported from your computer, and choose a delimiter (which is selected comma by default).

Let’s go through each of the import methods.

Quick Import

Quick import only imports the fields from the input file that conforms to the specific column headers as required by the plugin. You do not get to selectively filter the columns with this option. Use this option primarily when your input file was exported using the same plugin.

After selecting Quick Import as the import method, you can either start the Import or go to Advanced Options/Batch import to import users in batches.

If the user exists in the store – If the CSV contains matching users you can either skip them or update the user data.

Retain user passwords – Here you can select ‘Yes’ if you wish to retain user passwords as per the input record.

Import in batches of – Here you can specify the number of records that the server will process for every iteration within the configured timeout interval. If the import fails you can lower this number accordingly and try again. It’s defaulted to 100 records.

Now you can click Import to finish with the import of users/customers. Once the import is completed you will be displayed a pop-up showing import status which contains the number of successful imports and failed imports (if any).

Or you can view a detailed log from the History section by clicking on the link.

Pre-saved Template

By choosing to import with this method, you will be able to use a pre-saved template and retain the previous filter criteria and other column specifications as per the chosen file and import data accordingly. You can also edit this file in the process and import it accordingly or import straightaway.

New Import

A new import will take you through the entire process of filtering/column selection/advanced options that may be required for your import. You can also save this file as a template for future use.

Once you choose New Import as the import method, your next step will be to Map import columns.

Here you can map the standard columns with your CSV column names.

Columns are mapped automatically only if a matching header name is found in the input file. If not the value is left blank. If your input file header does not have exact names or if you need to edit the existing mapping you can simply click on the respective value fields corresponding to each row. Furthermore, you can also assign expressions based on the existing input file columns.

Now you can proceed to the next step which is for configuring batch import. Click the Advanced options/batch import button.

If the user exists in the store – If the input file contains existing users in the store, you can either choose ‘Skip’ to retain the users in the store as is or ‘Update’ the existing users.

Retain user passwords – You can choose ‘Yes’ if you wish to retain user passwords as per the input record. ‘No’ will encrypt the password, use this option particularly while using a plain text (unencrypted) password.

Import in batches of – Here you can specify the number of records that the server will process for every iteration within the configured timeout interval. If the import fails you can lower this number accordingly and try again. It’s defaulted to 100 records.

Now you can click the Save template button if you wish to save the configured import settings for future use.

Click the Import button to finish the import process.

The History tab lists the runs and the status corresponding to every import/export with options to :

• Re-run: re-runs the action by taking the user to the respective screen.
• View log: view a detailed import log
• Delete: deletes the entry
• Download: This option appears only for export action type. Here, you can download the generated export file.

Also, you have different filters available to sort the list. You can sort the data on the basis of action type (ie; all/export/import), status ( all/finished), date ( ascending/descending), and by the maximum records to be included in a page.

It lists developer logs mostly required for debugging purposes. Options to view detailed logs are available along with the delete and download options (that can be shared with the support team in case of issues).

The general settings window is further divided into :

• General
• Help Guide
• Pro Upgrade

In this section, you will be able to configure certain settings that applies to all the features of the plugin.

• Default Export batch count : Here you can give the default count for the records to be exported in a batch.
• Default import batch count : Specify the default number of records to be imported in a batch.

Advanced options

• Maximum execution time: Increasing the time will avoid uninterrupted data transfer. To remove the time limit, set value to zero. Default value is 600 seconds.
• Generate Import log : Here you can choose ‘Yes’ to generate the import log as a text file and to make it available in the log section.
• Default Export method : Here you can choose a default export method from the three given options:
  1. Quick export (chosen by default).
  2. Pre-saved template
  3. Advanced export
• Default Import method : Choose an import method from three options Quick import, Pre-saved template, and advanced import. 
• Default Export method : Choose an export method from three options Quick export, Pre-saved template, and advanced export. 
• Auto-delete history: You can auto-delete the history by choosing ‘Yes’. 
• Maximum entries : Here, you can specify the maximum records to retain in history. It will limit the number of records with the status ‘Finished’. E.g: if you input a count of 50 the system will retain only the most recent 50 number of records with the status ‘Finished’. All other records of any other status will not be impacted by this count.

Import export pre-saved templates

This section lists all the pre-saved templates that were saved during an import-export process. You can delete the template file if not needed.

Click on Update Settings to save changes.

Here you can find the links to the documentation and support of the plugin.

From this tab, you can upgrade to the premium version of the plugin.

Know more about the plugin.