Importing Blogroll Links into WordPress from an Outlook 2007 OPML Export

If you’d like to import your RSS feeds from Outlook 2007 into your WordPress blogroll, you can use the Tools / Import capability, as outlined in this WordPress support article.  However, when I went to do this, no matter how many times I tried it, it wouldn’t work.

I finally exported my existing blogroll from WordPress and compared the OPML files.  Turns out that you need to do two search and replaces in your Outlook-generated OPML file for the import to work:

1. Replace all type=”RSS” with type=”link”
2. Replace all xmlUrl= with htmlUrl=

So, for instance:

<outline text=”Heather Solomon – MVP, WSS – SharePoint Branding and Design”
type=”rss” xmlUrl=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/HeathersBlog”/>

becomes

<outline text=”Heather Solomon – MVP, WSS – SharePoint Branding and Design”
type=”link” htmlUrl=”http://feeds.feedburner.com/HeathersBlog”/>

 

p.s. Yes, I know that all of my links are now to the RSS feeds and not the sites themselves.  All the better to subscribe to!

Carsten Keutmann’s SharePoint Manager 2007

I’ve followed Carsten Keutmann’s blog on and off over the last few years.  When he writes, he writes great stuff.  (Write more often, Carsten!)

I had previously plugged Carsten’s  SharePoint Manager 2007 tool, and he’s released updates to it since I’ve last looked at it.  This is a must-have tool for serious developers.  It lets you explore the object model with a nice Windows-based interface and even make changes to the data.  THIS IS A SERIOUS TOOL.  Don’t try to use it if you don’t understand the SharePoint Object Model very well, as any changes you make could render your application unusable.

Carsten’s description:

The SharePoint Manager 2007 is a SharePoint object model explorer. It enables you to browse every site on the local farm and view every property. It also enables you to change the properties (at your own risk). This is a very powerful tool for developers that like to know what the SharePoint holds of secrets.