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WordPress Integration: FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
WordPress Integration: FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

Frequently asked questions about the Content Workflow-WordPress integration.

Bruno Wilson avatar
Written by Bruno Wilson
Updated over a week ago

Here are some frequently asked questions about the Content Workflow-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 Content Workflow 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 Content Workflow and WordPress to pick up your changes.

Can I update the status of a Content Workflow Item on import to WordPress?

Yes, you can 👍  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 Content Workflow status to a WordPress status, and optionally, change the Content Workflow status when your Items are imported to WordPress.

Is there metadata support?

The plugin comes with built-in support for mapping your Content Workflow 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?

Content Workflow can work with Multisite. For this to work you’ll need to configure the settings on each site and do the imports per site.

Does Content Workflow 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 Content Workflow and continue managing that way, but there is no way to do an initial Content Workflow import in a way that would connect the translations.

Also, this means you would need a 1-1 relationship with the WordPress posts with Content Workflow Items, so one Content Workflow Item per translation. We will explore a more elegant way of supporting this in the future.

Does Content Workflow support inline images?

Not at the moment, but we do have a workaround for supporting ‘Content Images’ mapping in Content Workflow. 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 want to paste your images.

Here are some example shortcodes you could include in your Content Workflow 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:

Images are not syncing from WordPress to Content Workflow

Currently, it's not possible to import/sync images from WordPress to Content Workflow. This is something we are working on, so watch this space! 👀

Images will need to be added to the items in Content Workflow 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 Content Workflow 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 Content Workflow into a Classic Editor post and the content will be imported as expected 👍

What are the reasons a push or pull of content can fail and what are the error messages?

When pushing or pulling content between Content Workflow 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 Content Workflow.
    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 IDs

  • An error occurs if you try to map a Content Workflow field to the WordPress 'post_date', 'post_date_gmt', 'post_modified', 'post_modified_gmt' fields, but the value coming through from Content Workflow 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 Content Workflow, 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 Content Workflow API.
    The error message will show as Content Workflow could not get an Item for that item id: $item_id

  • An error occurs when trying to push a WordPress Item that is already the same version of that in Content Workflow.
    The error message will show as No update data found for that post ID: $post_id

  • An error occurs if there is an issue in the Content Workflow API when trying to create a new Item.
    The error message will show as: No item found or created for that post ID: $post_id

  • An error occurs when pushing a post from WordPress to Content Workflow, if the Template Mapping used has mappings set up for more than one Content Workflow tab. No error message is shown, but no content will be pushed to Content Workflow, 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 Content Workflow 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 Content Workflow 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 “Template Mappings” 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 Content Workflow 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 Content Workflow 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 Content Workflow fields to one WordPress field?

Yes, you can map multiple Content Workflow text fields to a single WordPress field.
However, to be able to push your WordPress content back to Content Workflow, fields need to be mapped one-to-one.

Can you sync Content Workflow to multiple WordPress instances?

Yes, you can 👍

What is the Support page?

Under the Content Workflow menu item, you will see a Support page. On this page, you’ll find a large text area filled with technical information about your server, browser, plugin, etc. This information is very useful when debugging, and the Content Workflow 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 Content Workflow-WordPress plugin, click 'Edit' against the Template Mapping you want to update.

Does the plugin work with ACF (Advanced Custom Fields)?

The Content Workflow 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 Content Workflow plugin

When selecting the 'Custom Fields' field type on the Template Mapping screen in the Content Workflow 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'.

Here’s 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 Content Workflow to an ACF date field, you should enter the date into Content Workflow in the format 'YYYY-MM-DD.  This text field in Content Workflow must be plain text.

Does the plugin work with custom post types?

Yes! If you've already created your custom post type in WordPress, it will appear as an option to map to when you select the 'Post Type' on the Mapping Defaults tab of the Template Mapping.

Articles on the WordPress integration:

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