WordPress XML to CSV Processor

A tool that processes WordPress XML export files and extracts content into a structured CSV format for further processing, AI ingestion, or content migration.

Overview

The processor script (xml_to_csv.py) parses WordPress export XML files and extracts the following information for each post:

• Title: The post title
• Slug: The URL-friendly slug of the post
• Content: The main content of the post (cleaned of HTML tags and shortcodes)
• Date: The publication date
• URL: The full URL of the post
• Status: Publication status (published, draft, etc.)
• Category: Categories assigned to the post
• Tags: Tags assigned to the post

Getting the WordPress Export File

In your WordPress admin: Tools → Export → Posts → Download Export File

This generates the XML file to place in your Raw_XML/ directory.

Project Structure

text-processing/
├── LICENSE           # MIT License
├── README.md         # This documentation file
├── Raw_XML/          # Directory for WordPress XML export files (not included)
├── requirements.txt  # Project dependencies (none required)
└── xml_to_csv.py     # Main processing script

Requirements

• Python 3.6+
• Standard library modules only (no external dependencies required)

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/rosenadvertising/text-processing.git
cd text-processing

No additional installation steps required.

Usage

1. Create a Raw_XML/ directory and place your WordPress XML export files inside it
2. Run the script:

python xml_to_csv.py

By default, the script will:

• Look for XML files in the Raw_XML/ directory
• Output the processed data to processed_content.csv

Custom Paths

python xml_to_csv.py --input-dir /path/to/xml/files --output-file /path/to/output.csv

Output Format

Column	Description
Title	Post title
Slug	URL-friendly post name
Content	Cleaned post content (HTML and shortcodes removed)
Date	Publication date (YYYY-MM-DD format)
URL	Full post URL
Status	Publication status (published, draft, etc.)
Category	Comma-separated list of post categories
Tags	Comma-separated list of post tags

Notes

• Only processes items with post_type set to post (skips pages, attachments, etc.)
• HTML tags are stripped from content; HTML entities are decoded
• WordPress shortcodes (e.g. [gallery], [caption]) are removed from content
• Categories and tags are extracted as comma-separated lists
• Multiple XML files in Raw_XML/ are processed in alphabetical order

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see the LICENSE file for details.