New Beta version of Docs to WordPress

I’m working on a new version of the Docs to WordPress plugin and would love it if a few people could field test it to make sure I didn’t screw anything up. There were mostly a few simple fixes, though I added a new extender that allows you to use a delimiter (by default a |) in your doc to set the headline. The plugin also uses the WordPress HTTP API instead of CURL. Please check it out at http://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/docs-to-wordpress/trunk/

Still to come before the next full version: Image support and (hopefully) a better way to authenticate into Google.

8 thoughts on “New Beta version of Docs to WordPress”

  1. I have just managed to get the new version to work, sort of.
    I haven’t gotten the cron stuff going, just inserted the custom import code into my page and reloaded.
    It has managed to import the docs, with images included (amazing).
    It does not seem to have moved the doc from source to destination folder either.
    But very promising results so far.

  2. Hi William! Great work. I was wondering if you had any updates of the docs to WP in the works? Also, do you have any suggestions to automate moving docs from one folder to another (ie. stared docs move to a specified folder). We would like to stay away from Google Apps if possible. Thanks!

    Andy Ellsmore

  3. Hi William P. Davis,

    I am a noob regarding WordPress & even website development, however I put together a couple of different CMS type sites, by struggling through the process and getting what I wanted displayed and useable.
    I’m trying to get up/develop a news site (that serves a large online community here in Calif.), I have discovered that when people are selling WP News themes there is little to no News backend features to help process RSS news feeds which will be about 80% of the site content. Trying to solve that problem I found “Lauren Rabaino’s” 2011 article talking about your effort moving BDN to WordPress and allowing anyone interested in seeing behind the scenes some of the process, WP plugins either used or developed, etc. I am reading your Dev blog regarding the process. If you don’t mind I have some questions.
    1. How did you get the stories into Google Docs, did you use Google News reader, and if you did use Google news reader, what are your options since Google announce they will shut down Google News Reader July 1?
    2. Is there a WP CMS that you started with?
    3. Since I’m a noob and can barely do html requiring a WYSIWYG html editor, no CSS or PHP abilities. Is there a reasonable project developer that you could recommend? Honestly since this is all startup, I’m on very limited budget and the costs come out of my pocket.
    4. BDN desktop version currently isn’t a “responsive/flexible” screen width, yet I checked on my phone, the site does have a mobile version + app. What did you use to develop the mobile version?
    I know these questions are to WP elementary for such a busy guy as yourself, however any direction you provide will be greatly appreciated.

    Thank you,

    Dennis Wade
    yocalif@gmail.com

  4. Just came across this fantastic site and process via Google. Our company does eight monthly papers for our active adult communities, and I am beyond eager to implement this setup for us. However, I’m worried that there haven’t been any posts in a year. Is this still being developed and supported?

  5. I just installed this on a test blog and it works wonderfully. Some questions:

    1. The plugin is clever about linking “usernames” in WordPress and “usernames” in Google Docs. But, AFAIK, a Google username is an email address, which might not include a gmail domain. So if the Gmail address is “joe.random@somedomain.com”, does that correspond only with a WP username of “joe.random”?

    2. The documentation also has “If a doc is in a collection and there is a corresponding category in WordPress”. Is this based on a correspondence – case sensitive – between the name of the Google Doc folder (vs. the url fragment identifier) and the category name (vs. numeric category id or slug)?

    3.How is the link between the Google Doc and the WP post (for updating purposes) maintained? I see that if I retitle the Google Doc, the corresponding post is renamed. It also appears that if I delete the Google Doc, the post stays in WordPress. Is there any way to “break the link” between the Google Doc and the WP post without deleting the Google Doc?

    Great stuff. Thanks.

    1. Hey Chris, sorry for the slow response.

      In order:
      1. If you use a custom domain, the username will correspond just to joe.random (without the custom domain)
      2. The corresponding category is based on the name of the folder and the name of the category. It’s case sensitive. So, for example, if a doc is in a folder called News and you have a News category, the plugin will automatically put that draft in that category. If the folder is called News and the category is news, it won’t match up.
      3. What exactly do you mean by break the link? As long as the doc is in folder you have designated to send stories to WordPress it will be updated. If you want to make a change to the doc but not to the post in WordPress, make sure the doc isn’t in that folder.

      Will

  6. Hi Will,

    We are still using Docs-to-Wordpress every day without fail or problem. But since Google now plans to deprecate the Docs API in favor of Drive API, etc., as of April 20 (http://googleappsupdates.blogspot.com/2014/12/reminder-to-migrate-to-updated-google.html), I was wondering if any update to the plugin is in your plans. If not, it would be helpful to know soon, since we’re not as good at this as you are and we will need to find help.

    Thanks,

    Roger

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