You may need to export data from a specific widget instance, without regard to content on the rest of the Site. There are many widgets that let you export or import their data individually:
- Blogs
- Bookmarks
- Dynamic Data Lists
- Forms
- Knowledge Base
- Message Boards
- Web Content
- Wiki
- And more
Exporting widget data produces a .lar file that you can save and import into
another widget of the same type. To import widget data, you must select a .lar
file. Be careful not to confuse widget-specific .lar files with Site-specific
.lar files. See the
Importing/Exporting Pages and Content
article for information on importing/exporting Site page data.
There are two ways to export/import widget content. You can navigate to the widget’s administrative area located in the Product Menu, or you can visit the widget on its page. Both export/import menus work the same, but the administrative area may hold content different from its widget counterpart (e.g., Web Content Admin in Product Menu and Web Content Display widget do not offer same content for export/import), so be wary of your selection.
To export or import data from the widget’s administrative area, follow the steps below.
-
Navigate to the widget’s designated area in the Product Menu. For example, if you plan to export Web Content data, navigate to Content → Web Content.
-
Click the Options button (
) from the top right of the page and select Export/Import.
-
Select the Export or Import tab to begin configuring the respective process.
Figure 1: You can access a widget's administrative *Export/Import* feature by selecting its Options menu.
To export or import data from a widget, follow the steps below:
-
Ensure the widget you’re exporting/importing from is available on a page. You can add widgets from the Add (
) → Widgets menu.
-
Select the widget’s Options button (
) and select Export/Import.
-
Select the Export or Import tab to begin configuring the respective process.
Figure 2: You can access a widget's *Export/Import* feature by selecting its Options menu.
Now that you know how to navigate to the Export/Import menus, you can explore the export process.
Exporting Widget Data
To export widget data, create a new export process by selecting the New Export Process tab (default). You have several export options to configure.
First, you can choose to export your widget’s configuration settings. This exports your customized settings from your widget’s Options → Configuration menu. For some widgets, the configuration export might also include content. For example, a Web Content Display widget that shows a web content article also exports the article when exported, even though no content is selected. This applies when publishing a Web Content Display widget too; the configured article is published with the widget.
Next, you can select a Date Range of content that you want to export. Content
added to your widget within your specified date range is included in the .lar
file. The following date range choices are available:
All: Publishes all content regardless of its creation or last modification date.
Date Range: Publishes content based on a specified date range. You can set a start and end date/time window. The content created or modified within that window of time is published.
Last…: Publishes content based on a set amount of time since the current time. For example, you can set the date range to the past 48 hours, starting from the current time.
By checking the Content box, you can choose specific content you want to
export. When you check the Content box, more options appear, letting you
choose specific kinds of metadata to include. For example, if you have a wiki
page with referenced content that you don’t want, check the Wiki Pages
checkbox and uncheck the Referenced Content checkbox. Another option is the
selection of content types. Two familiar content types in your Liferay instance
are Comments and Ratings. If you want to include these entities in your
.lar file, select Change and select them from the checklist. For more
information on managing content types, see the
Managing Content Types in Staging
article.
Next, you can choose to export individual deletions. This lets delete operations performed for content types be exported to the LAR file.
Finally, you can choose whether to include permissions for your exported content. The permissions assigned for the exported widget window are included if you enable the Export Permissions selector.
After you’ve exported your widget’s data, switch to the Current and Previous
tab to view ongoing export processes and the history of past exports. You can
also download the exported .lar file from this tab.
Importing Widget Data
To import widget data, you can select the LAR using your file explorer or by dragging and dropping the file between the dotted lines.
Figure 3: When importing widget data, you can choose a LAR file using the file explorer or drag and drop the file between the dotted lines.
Your LAR file is uploaded and displayed to you for review. Click Continue.
Now that you’ve uploaded and confirmed your LAR file, you’re given a similar screen to what you’d be offered during export. Several of these options are covered in great detail in the Importing/Exporting Pages and Content tutorial. There are some additional options available: Update Data and Authorship of the Content. Here’s options and descriptions for each section:
Update Data
Mirror: All data and content inside the imported LAR is newly created the first time while maintaining a reference to the source. Subsequent imports from the same source updates entries instead of creating new entries.
Mirror with overwriting: Same as the mirror strategy, but if a document or an image with the same name is found, it is overwritten.
Copy as New: All data and content inside the imported LAR is created as new entries within the current Site every time the LAR is imported.
Authorship of the Content
Use the Original Author: Keep authorship of imported content whenever possible. Use the current user as author if the original one is not found.
Use the Current User as Author: Assign the current user as the author of all imported content.
Once you’ve selected the appropriate options, select Import and your widget’s data is imported and ready for use.