Importing posts from WordPress or Friendster to Blogger

Blogger is currently working on an Import/Export tool. As of now, it only works within the Blogger family and does not work with Friendster or WordPress exports.

Meanwhile, after a lot of research I learnt about a Java application that can migrate WordPress posts to your Blogger. Now, the export of a Friendster blog is fully compatible with this application since Friendster blogs are based on WordPress.

How do you use this application? It's quite simple but not really for novices. If you're quite bad at using computers, you'd be better off asking your closest geek to help you out. Of course, show him/her this post!

First, you need to make sure that the latest version of JRE or JDK is installed on your computer. JRE means Java Runtime Environment (or quite simply Java). JDK means Java Development Kit (you will only be installing this if you're programming in Java). If you have JRE, that's fine. You don't need JDK.

Now you need to find out if typing "java" will work in the command prompt, no matter which folder you are in. Just open Command Prompt, type in "java" and press Enter. You should see a bunch of options and usage instructions. Skip the next two paragraphs

But if you see something along the lines of 'bad command' or 'not recognized.' It's time to find out where Java is hiding. Open up "C:\Program Files\Java" and you should see one or more folders. Depending on what you did in the past, there maybe jre folders and jdk folders.

Choose the folder (jre or jdk) with the highest version and open it. There should be a 'bin' folder inside. Open it. Now you need to copy the full path of this 'bin' folder. You will need this later. It would be something like: "C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_07\bin"

Next, let's go get the Java app. It's called BlogSync and it can be downloaded here. If you want to read the FAQ, it's here. Note that the FAQ says you need JDK, but JRE alone is enough.

Extract the downloaded ZIP file (version 0.3 at the time of writing) and open the file "run.bat" in Notepad. [You guys with Mac or Linux has to deal with "run.sh"] Now there's a line "set path=e:/jdk1.5.0/bin" and there are two cases. If you skipped two paragraphs quoted above, simply add a "rem" command to change this line to "rem set path=e:/jdk1.5.0/bin". This disables the line.

But if you found out the location of the bin folder, do not add rem command. Instead change it to a line like this:

set path=%path%; C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.0_07\bin

But make sure you insert the location of the bin folder you found out earlier, instead of the example I have shown you here.

Save the file and close Notepad. Now double-click run.bat to execute it. If everything goes well, you should see this window:

I've only shown part of the window here. Now click Accounts and enter your Blogger username, password and blogid in the boxes towards the bottom. Best practice is to import posts from an XML file, especially for Friendster, so leave the WordPress settings as they are. [Feel free to try it though, if you use WordPress.]

The blogid can be found out from the Blogger Dashboard. Links like 'Layout,' 'Settings'  etc. that directly correspond to your blog can give you the blogid. Just check the URL of one such link, and there should be a variable in the URL that gives you the blogid.

Now is the crucial part. After you click the Save button in Accounts dialog, and click OK to the pop-up message, you must exit BlogSync. Then run it again by double-clicking "run.bat". Never click the "Save Options" button between this process. [This process needs to be done due to a bug in BlogSync.]

Ok, assuming you have already logged in to WordPress or Friendster and exported all your posts as an XML, you may click the "Choose Rss File" button and browse to/open that downloaded file. [To export in Friendster, go to "My Blog Home > Manage > Export."]

Then adjust the numbers (0 is the oldest post, but the numbers are not always continuous) in the two number boxes below, then click Read From RSS. I suggest you test the import first using just one or two posts. You may choose to import comment, but I cannot guarantee its functionality.

Once you see the posts on right side, you may delete what you don't need by selecting them and then right-clicking them. If you're ready, click the "import" button. Keep an eye on the log below.

Here's the catch about the whole thing. Blogger allows only 50 posts to be imported per user account everyday. So if you have a lot of posts, you need to import a set of 50 today, then do the next 50 tomorrow, and so on.

To repeat the import process, simply adjust the numbers below "Import Comment" checkbox to select a set of 50 posts. Then click the "Read from RSS" button and the "import" button. The number you enter corresponds to postid on the Sync box.

That's it. Yes, if you have some 1500 posts, it's going to take you a month, but it works! It's the only thing that works right now when you want to move your blog from Friendster to Blogger or WordPress to Blogger.