Here are some frequently asked questions about the GatherContent-WordPress integration. If you have any other questions please get in touch or contact us using the blue chat bubble at the bottom right of the screen.
What if my website is password protected?
(This relates to Step 1: Install and Configuration)
When you have HTTP authentication enabled for your WordPress site, you'll need to ensure that you complete the HTTP Authentication Credentials section by adding the username and password details. This will allow the plugin to bypass the password and import content.
Tip: If you're having issues connecting your HTTP auth credentials, try disabling password protection.
Changes made to a GatherContent Item are not showing as updated in WordPress
It may be that you've made the changes very recently, so the plugin may need a few minutes to sync. You can also press the 'refresh' button to manually sync GatherContent and WordPress to pick up your changes.
Can I update the status of a GatherContent Item on import to WordPress?
Yes, you can š Ā From the Template Mappings screen of the plugin, click 'Edit' against the Template Mapping you want to update. Navigate to the 'Mapping Defaults' tab.
Here you'll be able to map each individual GatherContent status to a WordPress status, and optionally, change the GatherContent status when your Items are imported to WordPress.
Is there metadata support?
The plugin comes with built-in support for mapping your GatherContent fields to WordPress Custom Fields, and Yoast SEO fields. There are also many hooks and filters for developers to hook and map their own meta fields.
Is hierarchy supported?
No, items are imported as a flat structure.
Is there Multisite support?
GatherContent can work with Multisite. For this to work youāll need to configure the settings on each site and do the imports per site.
Does GatherContent work with WPML?
For translations, the integration creates an entirely new post (page, custom post-type, etc). Right now, you could feasibly create your WordPress content, including translations, then push to GatherContent and continue managing that way, but there is no way to do an initial GatherContent import in a way that would connect the translations.
Also, this means you would need a 1-1 relationship with the WordPress posts with GatherContent Items, so one GatherContent Item per translation. We will explore a more elegant way of supporting this in the future.
Does GatherContent support inline images?
Not at the moment, but we do have a workaround for supporting āContent Imagesā mapping in GatherContent. For this, you will need to use shortcodes referencing the images saved in your attachment field. These will need to be placed where you will be wanting to paste your images.
Here are some example shortcodes you could include in your GatherContent text editor:
[media-1 align=right linkto=attachment-page]
[media-2 size=medium]
[media-2]
The media number references the order in which the files have been uploaded to your Attachment field.
The shortcode syntax is: [media-$position align=left|right|center|none linkto=file|attachment-page size=thumbnail|medium|large|etc]
To explain:
the minimum required is [media-$position] where $position is the number of the image.
align defaults to nothing, so the default image output. See here: https://codex.wordpress.org/Inserting_Images_into_Posts_and_Pages#Image_Alignment
link to defaults to no media link. You can wrap your shortcode in a link if you want to link externally, e.g. <a href="google.com">[media-1]</a>. The other options are āfileā, which links to the full image file, and āattachment-pageā, which is a WordPress specific attachment page. See here: https://codex.wordpress.org/Inserting_Images_into_Posts_and_Pages#Image_Link
size defaults to āfullā which means the uncompressed, non-cropped version of the image, but you can use any registered media size, including the default WordPress sizes. See: https://codex.wordpress.org/Inserting_Images_into_Posts_and_Pages#Image_Size However, youāre not limited to the WordPress default sizes. If you know the other registered sizes, you can use those. See: https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/add_image_size/
Images are not syncing from WordPress to GatherContent
Currently, it's not possible to import/sync images from WordPress to GatherContent. This is something we are working on, so watch this space! š
Images will need to be added to the items in GatherContent then mapped to the post in WordPress. This will then replace the current image (even if it's the same image).
Going forwards you'll be able to manage all your Content Operations in GatherContent as any image changes made there, will automatically be reflected in WordPress when the item is moved to the published workflow status.
Does the integration support Gutenberg?
No, the GC-WP integration isn't compatible with Gutenberg unfortunately.
A workaround exists whereby installing both the WordPress Classic Editor and Gutenberg, allows you to switch between Gutenberg and the Classic Editor.
You can then import content from GatherContent into a Classic Editor post and the content will be imported as expected š
What are the reasons a push or pull of content can fail and what are the error messages?
When pushing or pulling content between GatherContent and WordPress, there may be times where the content doesn't arrive in the end location successfully. This could be for several reasons, as listed below:
WordPress already has the most recent changes from the Item in GatherContent.
The error message will show as WordPress has the most recent changes for $item_name (Item ID:$item_id)An error occurs when trying to map post IDs. This is only possible if using the WordPress filters in code.
The error message will show as: Cannot override post IDsAn error occurs if you try to map a GatherContent field to the WordPress 'post_date', 'post_date_gmt', 'post_modified', 'post_modified_gmt' fields, but the value coming through from GatherContent is not numeric OR a string.
The error message will show as: $field_type field requires a numeric timestamp, or date string (where $field_type represents 'post_date','post_date_gmt', 'post_modified', or'post_modified_gmt'). This must be plain text in GatherContent, in the format YYYY-MM-DD.An error occurs when trying to map a post format to an incompatible post-type. This is only possible if using the WordPress filters in code.
The error message will show as: The $post_type post-type does not support post-formats.If WordPress fails to fetch an item from the GatherContent API.
The error message will show as GatherContent could not get an Item for that item id: $item_idAn error occurs when trying to push a WordPress Item that is already the same version of that in GatherContent.
The error message will show as No update data found for that post ID: $post_idAn error occurs if there is an issue in the GatherContent API when trying to create a new Item.
The error message will show as: No item found or created for that post ID: $post_idAn error occurs when pushing a post from WordPress to GatherContent, if the Template Mapping used has mappings set up for more than one GatherContent tab. No error message is shown, but no content will be pushed to GatherContent, so the Item appears empty. Change the settings of the other tabs to 'Don't use' on the Template Mapping to get around this issue.
When importing content, it gets stuck at 25%. Help!
This can sometimes be caused by firewall issues. Check if you have any sort of firewall plugin enabled. You may have to add an exception for the GatherContent plugin to your firewall.
Another thing to check is for any plugins that might be blocking calls to WP-admin/admin-post.php. Deactivate them temporarily to see if it resolves this.
When importing content to our local development server (password protected), it gets stuck at 1%. Help?
Due to the way the requests are made to the GatherContent API, the plugin doesn't work properly when the site is password protected. Try temporarily disabling your password for the import.
Is there a way to export your mapping settings so you can import them from your local computer to your development server?
The WordPress import/export tool will work as mappings are simply a post-type. But you will need to enter their GC connection credentials manually. If you go to Tools > Export, then select āTemplate Mappingsā in the export radio options, it will export all your mappings, then you can re-import on the other side (Tools -> Import -> WordPress Run Importer).
I'm having trouble importing a lot of items into WordPress. Help?
Try importing in smaller batches of less than 200 items per migration.
Can you sync GatherContent fields to taxonomies in WordPress?
Yes, you can. When creating the template mapping, select Taxonomy/Terms as the field type, and there you can choose from:
Categories
Tags
Post formats
If you're using a GatherContent checkbox field or radio button field for these values, ensure they correctly match the name value of the corresponding category/tag in WordPress. If the names aren't identical, the values won't map correctly.
Can you map multiple GatherContent fields to one WordPress field?
Yes, you can map multiple GatherContent text fields to a single WordPress field.
However, to be able to push your WordPress content back to GatherContent, fields need to be mapped one to one.
Can you sync GatherContent to multiple WordPress instances?
Yes, you can š
What is the Support page?
Under the GatherContent menu item, you will see a Support page. On this page, youāll find a large text area filled with technical information about your server, browser, plugin, etc. This information is very useful when debugging, and the GatherContent support team may ask you for it at some point.
Below the text box is a button that will allow you to simply save all of that information to a .txt file. This allows you to easily deliver it to anyone who needs it.
Note: This information contains potentially sensitive data. Please be careful with where you post it. Do not post it in the WordPress support forums.
How can I edit an existing Template Mapping in WordPress?
From the Template Mappings area of the GatherContent-WordPress plugin, click 'Edit' against the Template Mapping you want to update.
Does the plugin work with ACF (Advanced Custom Fields)?
The GatherContent WordPress plugin does not 'officially' support ACF (Advanced Custom Fields), although it is generally used with ACF. We can provide you with guidance on ACF queries, however, we aren't able to directly assist you with troubleshooting any issues you encounter.
Guidance on using ACF with the GatherContent plugin
When selecting the 'Custom Fields' field type on the Template Mapping screen in the GatherContent plugin, you can either choose an existing custom field name from the cached list or manually type in a new one. The cached list shows field names that exist in the database. If you've used a custom field name previously but have not saved any content to it, it won't appear in the cached list to choose from.
If you're typing in a new field name manually, the custom field name will save once you press 'Enter'.
Hereās a gif below to demonstrate how to add a new custom field name.
Mapping to ACF date fields
When mapping a date in a text field in GatherContent to an ACF date field, you should enter the date into GatherContent in the format 'YYYY-MM-DD. Ā This text field in GatherContent must be plain text.
Does the plugin work with custom post types?
Yes! If you've already created your custom post type in WordPress, and it will appear as an option to map to when you're selecting the 'Post Type' on the Mapping Defaults tab of the Template Mapping.