How to import the Disqus XML Exported Comments to WordPress WXR

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I currently moving my comments system back to default WordPress comments. I was using Disqus before but I decided to move back. Disqus provides a tool that you can export all your comments but unfortunately, they will provide you with XML format. The worst thing is WordPress only reads WXR file format.

My solution to this is i should manually rewrite what Disqus gave me (I mean the XML file i exported from disqus) to WordPress WXR file format. My problem is that I don’t know what is the basic structure of the WordPress comments required.

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You can view the Disqus Exported XML file here!
My only concern here is i just need a template or format which I can follow on how to write a correct WXR file comments so that I can import it directly in my WordPress using the Import Tool. By the way, when I try to upload the XML file to WordPress, I get this error:

Invalid file. Please upload a valid Disqus export file.”

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4 comments

  1. The Disqus WordPress plugin includes a sync feature which will sync your comments from Disqus back to your WordPress installation. It can be located on the Advanced Options tab inside the plugin.

  2. Instead of trying to generate a WXR file format it may be easier to parse the Disqus XML file and insert the comments you extract from there directly to the wp_comments table in your wordpress database. At least this way you have better control of the process.

    The above plug-in may not work because Disqus changes from time to time the export format (strangely you cannot even use the exported file to import your comments back to Disqus again).

    For my service I had to rewrite already twice the parser to adapt it to the small but annoying variations of Disqus XML

  4. i have the same problem with importing disqus comment to my new website.
    Recently i figured out some way to do the parsing and insert the comments into wordpress database, all is written only in PHP please refer to this this link, any feedback is welcome

    here is the code

    //    start to count the timer

$start        = microtime( true );

$max_duration = ”;

//    get content of file and parse the xml

$xml = simplexml_load_file( ‘yourmxlfilesource.xml’ );

//    initiate database connection

$database_info[ 'hostname' ] = “”; //    database hostname

$database_info[ 'database' ] = “”; //    database name

$database_info[ 'username' ] = “”; //    database username

$database_info[ 'password' ] = “”; //    database password

$database_connect = mysql_pconnect( $database_info[ 'hostname' ], $database_info[ 'username' ], $database_info[ 'password' ] ) or trigger_error( mysql_error(), E_USER_ERROR );

mysql_select_db( $database_info[ 'database' ], $database_connect );

$i = 0;

//    get all the comment from xml file

$comments = get_post();

//    get all the post title array from xml file

$post_title = get_post_title_array();

$comment_result = array( );

$temp           = array( );

//    create loop to convert from xml comment into wordpress-format comment

foreach ( $comments as $comment ) {

$start_sub = microtime( true );
$comment_result[ 'comment_post_ID' ]      = get_post_id( $comment->thread->attributes( ‘dsq’, TRUE )->id );

$comment_result[ 'comment_author' ]       = $comment->author->name;

$comment_result[ 'comment_author_email' ] = $comment->author->email;

$comment_result[ 'comment_author_url' ]   = ”;

$comment_result[ 'comment_author_IP' ]    = $comment->ipAddress;

$comment_result[ 'comment_date' ]         = sanitize_date( $comment->createdAt );

$comment_result[ 'comment_date_gmt' ]     = sanitize_date( $comment->createdAt );

$comment_result[ 'comment_content' ]      = strip_tags( mysql_real_escape_string( $comment->message ), ‘<br><img><a>’ );

$comment_result[ 'comment_karma' ]        = 1;
//    check if comment is spam, deleted or approved
if ( $comment->isSpam == ‘true’ ) {

$comment_approved = ‘spam’;

} else if ( $comment->isDeleted == ‘true’ ) {

$comment_approved = ‘trash’;

} else {

$comment_approved = 1;

}
$comment_result[ 'comment_approved' ] = $comment_approved;

$comment_result[ 'comment_agent' ]    = ”;

$comment_result[ 'comment_type' ]     = ”;

$comment_result[ 'comment_parent' ]   = ”;

$comment_result[ 'user_id' ]          = ”;
//    store the wordpress format comment into temporary variable
$temp[ $i ] = $comment_result;
//    insert the wordpress format comment into wp database

insert_comment( $temp[ $i ] );

$duration[ $i ] = microtime( true ) – $start_sub;
$i++;

}

echo ‘max duration : ‘ . max( $duration ) . ‘<br/>’;

echo ‘min duration : ‘ . min( $duration ) . ‘<br/>’;

echo ‘average duration : ‘ . ( array_sum( $duration ) / count( $duration ) ) . ‘<br/>’;



//    show the total duration of process

echo ‘total duration : ‘ . ( microtime( true ) – $start );

/////////    define function here

function insert_comment( $comment )

{

global $database_connect;
//    function to insert the comment into wp database
$field  = ”;

$values = ”;
foreach ( $comment as $key => $value ) {

//    create sql query to insert the comment

$field .= ‘`’ . $key . ‘`’ . ‘,’;

$values .= ‘”‘ . $value . ‘”‘ . ‘,’;

}
$field  = rtrim( $field, ‘,’ );

$values = rtrim( $values, ‘,’ );
//    insert the comment into the database
$query = “INSERT INTO `wp_comments` ($field) VALUES ($values)”;

$query_result = mysql_query( $query, $database_connect ) or die( mysql_error() );

}

function sanitize_date( $date )

{

//  remove the additional string from the date
$date = str_replace( ‘T’, ‘ ‘, $date );

$date = str_replace( ‘Z’, ‘ ‘, $date );
return $date;

}

function get_post_id( $thread )

{

global $post_title, $database_connect;

//  get wordpress post id from disqus thread id
$thread_title = find_thread( ‘id’, $thread, ‘title’ ); //  get the title of the post
$thread_title = explode( ‘/’, $thread_title );

$thread_title = $thread_title[ count( $thread_title ) - 1 ];

$thread_title = str_replace( ‘-’, ‘ ‘, $thread_title );
$thread_title = str_replace( ‘.html’, ”, $thread_title );
$post_title_closest = get_closest_post_title( $thread_title, $post_title );
//  get the wordpress post id from the title of the post
$query = “SELECT `ID` FROM `wp_posts` WHERE `post_title` = ‘$post_title_closest’ LIMIT 1″;

$query_result = mysql_query( $query, $database_connect ) or die( mysql_error() );
$query_result_row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $query_result );

return $query_result_row[ 'ID' ];
}

function get_closest_post_title( $input, $words )

{

// no shortest distance found, yet

$shortest = -1;
// loop through words to find the closest

foreach ( $words as $word ) {
// calculate the distance between the input word,

// and the current word

$lev = levenshtein( $input, $word );
// check for an exact match

if ( $lev == 0 ) {
// closest word is this one (exact match)

$closest  = $word;

$shortest = 0;
// break out of the loop; we’ve found an exact match
break;

}
// if this distance is less than the next found shortest

// distance, OR if a next shortest word has not yet been found

if ( $lev <= $shortest || $shortest < 0 ) {

// set the closest match, and shortest distance

$closest  = $word;

$shortest = $lev;

}
}

return $closest;

}

function get_post_title_array( )

{

//  get wordpress post id from disqus thread id
global $database_connect;
//  get the wordpress post id from the title of the post
$query = “SELECT DISTINCT(`post_title`) FROM `wp_posts`”;

$query_result = mysql_query( $query, $database_connect ) or die( mysql_error() );
$query_result_row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $query_result );
$i = 0;
do {

$result[ $i ] = $query_result_row[ 'post_title' ];

$i++;

} while ( $query_result_row = mysql_fetch_assoc( $query_result ) );
return $result;
}

function find_thread( $category, $source_value, $return_category )

{

//    function to get thread information
global $xml;
foreach ( $xml->children() as $row ) {
if ( (int) $row->attributes( ‘dsq’, TRUE )->id == (int) $source_value ) {

return $row->$return_category;

}

}
}

function get_post( )

{

//    function to get all post from xml data
global $xml;
$i = 0;
foreach ( $xml->children() as $key => $value ) {
if ( $key == ‘post’ ) {
$result[ $i ] = $value;

$i++;

}

}
return $result;

}