In one word, the answer to this question is – JConverter
JConverter is a Joomla component which allows importing a WordPress blog into a Joomla installation. Though WordPress is more popular than Joomla, surprisingly we came across more clients with a preference for Joomla and many of them had a WordPress based site with which they were not fully satisfied. The most general feedback we got from clients regarding WordPress is that it’s not ideal for non-techie, someone who doesn’t know basics of HTML, CSS and PHP.
If you are a non-techie and have used both WordPress and Joomla then you probably already know what we are saying. Joomla is better at plug-and-play compared to WordPress which many a times require lot of tweaking even after installing and configuring a plugin. Some people will probably argue however we too found Joomla better for users having zero to very limited technical knowledge of HTML, CSS and PHP.
Some clients asked us to convert their WordPress site to Joomla and after doing it a few times manually, we thought why not automate the process to some extent? And this thought resulted in JConverter which allows importing posts, pages, links and even users from a WordPress blog into a Joomla installation. Since we developed this application initially for our own purpose, we didn’t make it very user friendly as it was supposed to be a developer tool (even now it is). However when we noticed it has really made WordPress to Joomla conversion a snap, we decided to make it public and offered is as FOSS.
Lot of people tried it and gave their feedback. We later added a new feature for importing comments from WordPress blog to Joomla which made JConverter even more popular. For importing a WordPress blog/site to Joomla, simply follow the steps below.
- Install Joomla 1.5 without any sample data
- Download and install JConverter
- In Jconverter configuration, provide database access details of your WordPress site
- Click Import. That’s all!
