While WordPress is a widely used CMS, unfortunately we don’t use it for most of our own web projects. We have a totally custom built system that we’ve been constantly tweaking and evolving for three years to fit our exact needs — internally, we call it Haydn (after Joseph).

So how were we going to make link between Haydn and Jumpchart?

The first thought was to make a private ‘Export to Haydn’ function inside Jumpchart. It sounded logical and simple enough, but there was something even simpler. When we stopped to think about the opportunities the WordPress export format gives us, it was clear where we should head. Put simply, a WordPress export is a regular XML file with all the flexibility of XML. It’s universally simple, and it can be read and parsed by virtually any programming language.

We write PHP here at Paste, and we took advantage of the built-in DOMDocument class, which makes coding look a lot like the old-school Javascript (remember element.getElementsByTagName?). Besides being easy, the nostalgia of it all was pretty fun.

$Document = new DOMDocument(); $Document->load(‘wordpress-export.xml’);

?>


We wanted an import function that was specifically tailored to our needs. Figuring out what would work and what wouldn’t was the most difficult part. Once we nailed that thought process down, the rest sort of fell into place. And we can’t wait to see how it’s going to affect the efficiency of our workflow from here on out. Something we thought would be difficult and time consuming turned out to be easier than planned, and will hopefully prove more useful than we ever imagined.

After a couple of hours and a little more than 100 lines of code, we have our new Jumpchart importer inside our custom CMS. Cool, fast and fun. If you’re like us, and have a custom CMS, give writing your own importer a try. It’s easier than you think.

First, a bit of context. The guys and gals over at WordPress have created a specific file format for data that is exported out of (and into) a WordPress installation. This format is called .wxr, but at its heart it’s really just an XML file with a few WordPress specific tags. When you select “Export to WordPress” in Jumpchart you will be prompted to download a folder. The contents of this folder are pretty spare; just a simple theme, a special Jumpchart install file to speed you through the process and an XML file. The XML file is the most important part of your export, it’s the WordPress .wxr file, and it contains all the content for all the pages you have created. We won’t go into the specific process of moving your content into a fresh WordPress install (you can see that info here) but, suffice to say, WordPress has done an incredible job of streamlining the process for importing these XML based files.

As a result of this ease-of-use and of the popularity of WordPress, this simple format has been adopted by many of the most popular and widely used content management systems out there, including Typepad, Expression Engine, Drupal and Joomla. Which means the folder you download when you export your Jumpchart is actually a highly portable method for taking your site’s content from organization and planning in Jumpchart straight through into the build phase using your favorite CMS.

So how, exactly, does this impact your workflow? As the name indicates, we’ve optimized this process for WordPress, so let’s talk about the sweet stuff that you get when you export your Jumpchart using the WordPress export option. As we mentioned already, the folder you download contains the XML file with all your content and a few other things. One of those things is our clean, simple and (mostly) design agnostic WordPress theme, so no more looking at that big blue header when you’re starting up. The other file in the folder is one called jumpchart-wordpress-install.php. This file is a simple script that we’ve written to take care of some pre-configuration of your site. The impact on your workflow is that you can now take a finished Jumpchart to a content laden WordPress installation in just a few minutes. Which leaves only the customization of the theme files before you’re ready for delivery. No more retracing your steps to make sure you haven’t missed any content!

Learn more about WordPress Export and check out working examples.

Check out our detailed support article on Exporting for WordPress

Jumpchart is all about content organization and planning, but we realize that Jumpchart is only a stepping stone in the process of building a fully functioning and deliverable website. The harder it is to get your organized content into your platform of choice quickly and easily, the less likely you are to use Jumpchart in the first place. The Export to WordPress option has significantly lowered the amount of time and effort it takes to get your content out there on the web, where it belongs.