Exporting

What this feature does

• The tool exports all posts (titles, body of posts, comments, and categories), both published & drafts, by last saved date/time in txt file or Atom XML formats. You can then:
  • Save the export file on your local machine as a personal back up file (your posts will be published in the same category structure you defined on your Sun blog)
  • Import the txt file into a WordPress or Movable Type blog
  • For the advanced users, you can leverage the Atom XML output any way you'd like

• The tool also creates an export file (.zip) of all resource files you have uploaded to your blog via the "Create & Edit" -> "File Uploads" feature.

What this feature does not do

• The tool does not export tags associated to your posts
• The tool does not export new posts created since you last ran the export tool. It's all or nothing.
• The tool does not export just your published posts. It creates a single file of your published and draft posts. Upon import into Moveable Type or WordPress, it publishes your published posts and saves your drafts as drafts.
• The tool does not support ongoing cross-posting new posts on your Sun Blog and non Sun blog
• The tool does not export your theme whether it's customized or standard
• The tool does not export your blogroll, bio blurb, or blog theme image

Other things to know before using this feature

1. We realize the passion that goes into creating blog content and know that it's a valuable part of your digital footprint. While Sun sites are diligently backed-up, the above features enable you to store your own copies of your content if you'd like. Saving your own copy of your blog is entirely optional.
2. Exporting is easy and can be done in a matter of minutes. Importing your Sun blog content into a non Sun blog is also not complicated, but will take some time and elbow grease. Before attempting importing, ensure you have some time to allocate to the task. We've tried to make this process as smooth as possible, but we can only control the functionality on the Sun side.
3. WordPress can be picky when it comes to image tag formatting (example: attributes must be space delimited). If it doesn't like the formatting you have provided, it's best to open the blog post w/ the affected link, click on the "link" button, then redefine the recently uploaded file/image URL, the click "Update Post".
4. While the instructions on this page reference "WordPress" the .txt file is in a format that will likely work nicely with Moveable Type and TypePad – we just haven't thoroughly tested nor documented those steps.

How to export your blog posts to simply back-up the content

1. Login to your blogs.sun.com blog
2. Navigate to the "Create & Edit" tab and click on the "Export" sub tab
3. Leave the "Base Resource URL" field blank
4. Select either of the Moveable Type Import options for a txt file or the Atom Syndication option for an Atom XML file
5. Click on the "Export Entries" button
6. This will create a .txt file or an .xml file that contains all of your published and draft posts in last saved date/time order (including titles, body of the posts, and comments). You can then store the file for back-up purposes on your local machine. Links pointing to files/images on your Sun blog will remain the same (ex: http://blogs.sun.com/123/resource/sunflowers.jpg)
7. Click on "Export Resources" to create a zip file that contains all the files you uploaded to to your blog (images, etc.)

How to export your blog posts for importing into a WordPress.com blog

1. Create a WordPress.com blog if you haven't done so already.
2. Login to your blogs.sun.com blog
3. In the "Base Resource URL" field, you will need to define the new base URL for posts in your Sun blog that point to resource files/images that are currently stored on your Sun blog, but will move moved to your WordPress blog. Upon importing of your resource files, blog posts a reference a Sun blog resource file will be automatically updated to point to the same resource files that are copied to your WordPress blog.
   For example, this Sun blog entry has a sunflower image that is currently stored on the Sun blog site. In this process, we will copy the blog entry and the image to the new WordPress blog. So, instead of the link pointing to the image on the Sun blog site (http://blogs.sun.com/123/resource/sunflowers.jpg), it will point to the image on the WordPress blog instead (http://your-handle-here.wordpress.com/files/yyyy/mm/sunflowers.jpg)
   In the "Base Resource URL" field, enter the following: http://your-handle-here.wordpress.com/files/yyyy/mm/ You will need to replace "your-handle-here" with your WordPress blog handle, replace "yyyy" with the current year and replace "mm" with the current month. This the the standard URL format WordPress uses for resource files that are uploaded for blog entries.
4. Select either of the Moveable Type Import options (one replaces line breaks with spaces, the other does not)
5. Click on "Export Entries" to create a txt file that contains your published and draft posts (titles, entry body, & comments) and updates your resource file links to point to your new WordPress blog instead of your Sun blog.
6. Click on "Export Resources" to create a zip file that contains all the files you uploaded to to your blog (images, etc.)

How to import your blog posts into a WordPress.com blog

1. Login to your WordPress blog
2. Navigate to the "Tools" menu option then select "Import"
3. Select "Moveable Type and TypePad" from the list of import options (this will work for WordPress importing)
4. Click "Browse" & navigate to the txt file you exported from your Sun blog
5. Click "Upload file and import"
6. Select yourself as the author & click "Submit". This step could take several minutes or more if you have a lot of blog posts. For group blogs, the author selection feature is not ideal as WordPress can only assign a single author to a a single import. Alternatively, each group blog member could import into their individual blogs, then delete the posts they didn't author.
7. Upon successful import, you'll see a numbered list of your blog entries titles and a message that states "All done. Have fun." Click on the "Have fun" link to see your blog and newly imported content. Your blog posts with images won't show the images because you haven't uploaded them just yet.
8. At this point, your published and draft posts are present in your WordPress blog in the categories in which you defined when you created them on your Sun blog. Now, you will need to manually upload each of your resource files/images. Sorry there isn't an easier way to do this.

How to import your resource files (images, etc.) into a WordPress.com blog

1. In a directory on your local system, extract the .zip file you created in the "Export Resources" step above.
2. Login to your WordPress blog
3. Click on "Media", then "Add New"
4. Click on "Select Files", then browse to the first resource file/image you'd like to upload
5. You will be prompted to complete optional fields (caption, description, etc.), do so if desired
6. Click "Save all changes"
7. The image should show up in the post, but if it doesn't, the cause is likely due to an image attribute that is formatted in a way that WordPress does not like. It's best to open the post, click on the "link" button, then redefine the recently uploaded file/image URL, the click "Update Post"