A demo import turns an empty install into the site you saw on the demo page, so you edit something finished instead of building from nothing. This page explains what the importer is and how it behaves. The step by step guide is separate.
#It is our own importer
The theme does not depend on a third party import plugin. In a purchased package the import module ships with the theme. In the free edition the same module arrives with the companion plugin from WordPress.org.
The algorithm and the interface are identical in both cases. What differs is which demos are available to you and which features they use, not the import process itself.
A generic demo importer will not unpack our demos correctly.
The content is built for this importer, and another one produces a half assembled site: menus unassigned, settings missing, and images that never arrive.
#Selective by design
You choose which data types to bring in rather than accepting the whole thing. That is the difference between a demo import as a starting point and a demo import as a takeover.
The importer also looks at your current site as it goes. It checks the environment before it starts, tolerates being run more than once, and recognizes entities it already created so it does not duplicate them on a second pass.
That last property is what makes a stopped import recoverable. If a run breaks partway through, running it again continues rather than doubling everything.
#What an import can bring
The exact set depends on the demo, and the categories are consistent:
- Posts and pages
The demo content, including its front page and its inner pages.
- Media
Images from the demo, downloaded into your media library.
- Menus and widgets
Built and assigned to the theme's locations.
- Theme settings
Colors, typography and layout choices that make the demo look like the demo.
- Plugin content
Where a demo depends on an integration, the content that integration needs.
#Free and paid demos
Free demos are the ones that render without Pro features. Demos built on Pro functionality need the Pro plugin and an active license, and the demo list shows which is which before you commit to anything.
There is no separate technology behind that split. It is the same importer reading a different set of packages.
#Settings, separately from demos
Two related operations live near the importer and are easy to confuse with it:
Reset clears the theme settings back to defaults. It does not touch content, and it does not undo an import.
Export and import of settings carries a configuration between sites. Useful when you have tuned one site and want another to match.
None of the three has an undo, so take a database backup first.
A demo import, a settings reset and a settings import all write in one pass and none of them can be reversed from the admin afterwards.
#Common questions
Will an import delete my existing posts?
No, it adds its content alongside yours, which is exactly why it is a poor fit for a site that already has real content on it.
Can I import two different demos?
Technically yes and the result is usually a mess, since the two bring their own front pages, menus and settings, so pick one and adapt it.
How long does it take?
Usually a few minutes, with the media download as the slow part, so it depends on your server and the size of the demo more than on anything else.
Can I undo an import?
Not from the importer, and restoring the backup you took beforehand is the only way back, which is the whole reason to take one.
An import stops partway through
Do not start over from a clean install, because running the same import again picks up what already exists and continues from there. If it stops in the same place twice, the demo import troubleshooting article explains what that stopping point tells you.
#Still stuck
Open a support ticket with the demo name and where the run stopped.
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