This blog post might be of use to you if you, like me, you are migrating your Blogger blog to WordPress. As you may have read I am having to move my blog because Blogger is removing it’s publish by FTP feature.
When you first try and migrate your posts it will fail. After a bit of head scratching I realised that this was because the WordPress “import” migration relies on the blog being hosted on a “blogspot.com” address and not on a custom domain. You can easily change this temporarily without affecting your current blog. Just clock the appropriate option under “Publishing” from the blog’s “Settings” tab.
If you then want to edit your old template to redirect the old URLs to the new ones, or are just testing the migration process, you will need to switch back to FTP. This would not be a problem if Blogger had not removed the FTP option already, but they have, so it is. Fortunately the feature is still active and it is just the link that has been removed.
So, to switch back now you need to look at the address of the page when you are creating a post or editing blogger settings. Make a note of the “blogID” from the line. Then paste the following in the address bar replacing XXXXXXXX with the blogID value.
http://www.blogger.com/blog-publishing.g?blogID=XXXXXXXX&publishMode=PUBLISH_MODE_FTP
You can then check all the details, enter the captcha, and save the setting to get back to where you were before. I hope this is of help.
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Hello Alistair,
Thank you for this Blogger FTP switch back insight.
I see that you have two blogs at two different directories off of your main URL. I am in a similar situation of FTP hosted blogs on Blogger. Some of these websites I have switched using the Blogger FTP migration tool. However, there are others that I too am thinking of switching to WordPress.
I noticed that you have your blogs published as .php file names, just like mine at: http://www.jimwarholic.com. I was wondering what you are going to do with the file names, and if the export feature from Blogger, will keep the PHP file names of the original files hosted via FTP with .php file names when switching to a Blogspot address just prior to importing into WordPress? Are you planning on doing some special .htaccess rules in order to go from the files and postings you currently have with Blogger, and switch them to the default WP format?
In essence, what is your game plan if I may ask?
I know there are some specific addons to WP that can help with this conversion process, but there are still some things that need to be done at the .htaccess area. Also, I have the main domain on mine as a Blog, plus several others off the main at the subdirectory levels. I have switched some of the subdirectories to sub domains using Blogger, but I am considering switching to WordPress at the root (public_html) level.
By-the-way, I have CPANEL access with the automated Fantastico installer available. I want to make sure that the following does not occur. If I use the automated Fantastico program to install WordPress at the public_html folder directory, will that wipe out the public_html folder directory?
Thank you for any insight you have in this area.
Regards,
Jim
Hi Jim,
I plan to keep the same file name structure so each blog post will have the exact same URL. I have produces an SQL script to do this in conjunction with the WordPress permalink options. There are a few URLs that will need to change because of name clashes, but I have a script to check for these, and the old ones will be directed to the new ones. The archive and label pages will move, but I am fixing this with a simple htaccess to do the 301 redirections (Actually with two files to to reduce the long term impact on the server). I will share all these files along with my other notes what I have finished my migration, hopefully later this week for this blog.
As for the CPannel question, I don't know, but if all goes wrong you can always republish the full blog from Blogger. My suspicion is that it will overwrite the index file. Personally I am testing on a new sub-domain and then move it across when it is done. Again there is a little SQL, but again I will be publishing this.
Alistair
That sounds like a good idea to place the .htaccess files at the directory level where required, as apposed to the root level. Here is a link to a number of articles regarding Blogger to WP that the author has collected. I've read most of the information in the links, and watched a video from another person. Though the video is missing some of the exact details of what files need to go where, there seems to be some good information in many of those articles about the way to do switch from Blogger to WordPress. You probably have read some of those already.
I'm looking forward hearing more about your test case, and what you come up with in your .htaccess redirect files. Feel free to contact me via email if you wish to compare notes. My email address link, which I am not going to publish here, can be found on the right side of my website, about midway down.
Thank you for sharing this FTP Blogger to WordPress information.
Regards,
Jim
One word of warning, when switching these publishing modes some settings can be lost so remember to backup first.
Hi Alistair,
It looks like you got it to work. I double checked a few of your archive paths and your labels to categories, (old file names to new) and it seems to all function. I’m looking forward, with bated breath, to view your solution to the problem. Cool!
It also looks like you retained the .php for the articles, but removed the .php file endings on the archives and the labels/categories.
What did you do in your .htaccess files?
By-the-way, I agree about a backup. Also, when you installed WordPress in your blog directory, did you remove the files in the directory to begin with?
Also, what other issues did you face?
Regards,
Jim
It all went surprisingly well and I am writing it up now. I will probably get it finished and published tomorrow.