Quick Start Guide

The vast majority of imports can be converted to work with Super Speedy Imports quickly and easily. This guide covers the general workflow that applies to any import — Posts, WooCommerce Products, or Custom Post Types. If you are specifically importing WooCommerce products, see the more detailed Quick Start Guide: Importing Products for product-specific fields, stock handling, and variations.

Table of Contents

1. Before You Start
2. Upload Your CSV File
3. Create Your Import
4. Configure Your Field Mappings
5. Configure Your Taxonomies
6. Configure Your Meta Fields
7. Save the Import
8. Run the Import
9. Schedule Your Imports

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Before You Start

Prepare your CSV file

Your CSV should have column headers in the first row. Super Speedy Imports currently reads comma, tab, or semicolon separated files. (JSON and XML can usually be handled with a workaround — come and chat on Discord.)

Choose a unique identifier

Every import needs a column that uniquely identifies each row so that re-running the import updates existing records instead of creating duplicates. For products this is usually the SKU; for posts it may be a slug or an external ID. See Choosing your unique identifier before you build your import.

Create custom taxonomies (only the taxonomies, not the terms)

Super Speedy Imports does not register new custom taxonomies for you. If your data uses a taxonomy that does not exist yet — for example WooCommerce product attributes like Size or Colour — register the taxonomy first (for product attributes, go to Products > Attributes).

You do not need to pre-create the individual terms (e.g. “red”, “white”, “large”). Terms are created automatically during the import — for both flat and nested taxonomy paths — and assigned to each record.

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Upload Your CSV File

Go to Super Speedy > Super Speedy Imports in your wp-admin sidebar and expand the Upload Files section. Choose your CSV file and upload it.

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Create Your Import

After uploading, the Create Import section becomes available. Fill in:

• Import Name — a name to identify this import.
• CSV field separator — comma, tab, or semicolon, matching your file.
• Decimal point — the decimal character used for numbers in the file (e.g. . or ,).
• Import Type — choose the template for what you are importing. The built-in types are Posts, Products (WooCommerce), and Custom Post Types.

Then click Create New Import. The import opens with the mapping interface for the template you selected.

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Configure Your Field Mappings

Map each core field to the CSV column it comes from. The fields shown depend on the Import Type, but they always cover the main WordPress post fields, for example:

• post_title — the title of each record.
• post_content — the main body / description.
• post_excerpt — the short description / excerpt.

You only need to map the fields you actually have data for; the rest fall back to sensible defaults (for example, post status defaults to published and the slug is generated from the title).

Using a PHP function instead of a column

Any field can be driven by a small PHP function instead of a direct column mapping. Switch the field’s dropdown from CSV Field to PHP Function and paste a callable. This is how you transform values, combine columns, or apply conditional logic. The function receives the current row and a header map:

return function($data, $h) {
    // $data = array of values from the current CSV row
    // $h    = array mapping column names to their index
    if ($data[$h['In stock?']] == 1) return 'instock';
    return 'outofstock';
};

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Configure Your Taxonomies

Click Add New Taxonomy, then choose which taxonomy you want to populate and which CSV column it maps to. Repeat for each taxonomy.

Remember: the taxonomy itself must already exist, but the terms are created for you automatically during the import.

Nested category paths

For hierarchical taxonomies you can supply a full path in one column (for example Clothing > T-Shirts). The whole path is created automatically.

Assign every category level (v2.55.9): New imports include an Additional Option called “Assign every category level (not just the deepest)”, and it defaults ON. With it on, a record in Clothing > T-Shirts is assigned to both Clothing and T-Shirts, so the record appears on the parent category page, breadcrumbs render the full path, and layered-navigation filters include the parents. Turn it off to assign only the deepest (leaf) term. Imports created before 2.55.9 keep their previous leaf-only behaviour until you switch it on.

For more advanced cases — multiple taxonomies, multiple paths per row, or pipe-separated multi-value terms — see Mapping hierarchical and multi-path taxonomies.

Variable products

If you are importing WooCommerce product variations, set the Variable? dropdown to “Yes” on the attribute(s) that drive variations. The plugin works out which products are simple or variable based on these fields. See the product quick start for the full variations workflow.

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Configure Your Meta Fields

Meta fields hold everything that isn’t a core post field — for products that means SKU, prices, stock levels and so on; for posts and custom post types it is any custom field your theme or plugins use.

Click Add New Meta Field, type the meta key you want to set, and choose which CSV column (or PHP function) it comes from.

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Save the Import

Click Save Import. At the top of the import you’ll see the generated WP-CLI command, shown as:

wp ssi <import_id>

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Run the Import

Log onto your server and run the generated command from inside your web root:

wp ssi <import_id>

If you aren’t comfortable with WP-CLI, ask your host — it is an excellent tool for managing WordPress. You can also click the Run Now button beside the CLI command in wp-admin, but a browser-driven run can time out on large files, so WP-CLI is recommended for anything sizeable.

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Schedule Your Imports

Once your import is working the way you want, schedule it so it runs automatically. The simplest approach is cron — run crontab -e on your server (or use your host’s cron manager) and schedule the same wp ssi <import_id> command on whatever interval you need.

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Next Steps

• Quick Start Guide: Importing Products — product-specific fields, stock, variations, and images.
• Choosing your unique identifier — pick the right column to avoid duplicates.
• Mapping hierarchical and multi-path taxonomies — nested and multi-value taxonomy mapping in depth.

For support, visit the Super Speedy Plugins Knowledge Base.