Directorist Business Listings – Bulk Edit, Export, Import

Directorist is a WordPress business directory plugin that allows you to create listings with classified ads. However, the bulk actions are really limited, so we will show you how to bulk edit business directory listings in a spreadsheet.

We will use the WP Sheet Editor – Post Types plugin, which allows you to view and manage your WordPress posts, pages and custom post types in a spreadsheet on WordPress. In this case, it will allow you to bulk manage your business directory listings from the Directorist plugin.

With WP Sheet Editor – Post Types, you’ll be able to:

• Edit any field of your directory listings in the spreadsheet.
• Bulk edit and field on thousands of business directory listings.
• Duplicate directory listings easily.
• Export business directory listings to a CSV file
• Import business directory listings from a CSV file.

After completing the payment process, you will get a zip file that you need to install as a plugin on your website.

1. Go to Plugins > Add New Plugin.
2. Click on Upload plugin.
3. Click on Choose file.
4. Locate the file on your computer.
5. Click on Install now.
6. Click on Activate plugin.
7. Enter your license and click on Activate License.

After installing and activating the plugin, you can start generating the spreadsheet to bulk edit your business directory listings.

Generate the Directorist business listings spreadsheet

To generate the Directorist spreadsheet, go to WP Sheet Editor > Setup spreadsheet.

Once there, select Listings and click on Save.

You need to select which fields/columns you want to see in the spreadsheet (Enabled) and which columns you want to hide (Disabled).

Once you’re done, click on Save.

You’ll see all your Directorist listings displayed in the spreadsheet. Every row is a listing and every column is a field.

Edit Directorist business listings in the spreadsheet

With WP Sheet Editor, you can edit any field of your Directorist business listings in the spreadsheet. Each column and cell works according to the field type, so you can edit all the data in your listings intuitively.

a) Text editor fields

If you want to edit values in text editor fields, you can open the text editor in a popup by clicking the edit text button.

Here below you can see the text editor displayed in a popup. You can edit the text and formatting, as well as add images and media files.

b) Date fields

If you want to edit date fields such as creation date, listing expiration date, etc., you can easily do so by clicking on the cell, which will open a popup that allows you to select the date and time you want.

c) Taxonomy term fields

If you want to edit listing categories, listing locations, listing tags, and any other taxonomy term, you can do it by double-clicking the cell. You just need to start typing the term name, and the field will show you taxonomy terms that match with your search. You can select every term you want, and you can remove by clicking on the “x” in each term.

d) Dropdown fields

If you want to edit values in the dropdown fields, you just have to double-click the cell and the dropdown will show the options so that you select any option you want.

e) Checkbox fields

You can check or uncheck checkbox cells to change values.

Once you’re done editing your Directorist business listings, you need to click on Save to apply the changes.

Search for Directorist business listings based on any field

With WP Sheet Editor, you can use any field as a search filter to find specific groups of listings. You can search for business listings by title, category, status, location, tag, price, price range, location, etc.

To run a search, you need to start by opening the Search tool.

In this example, we will search for our listings by location and category.

To do this, we need to enter the taxonomy terms in the Enter Listing Locations/Categories field, and click on Run search.

After running the search, you will see all the listings matching your search terms displayed on the spreadsheet.

Bulk edit Directorist business listings

In addition to editing multiple fields in multiple listings using the spreadsheet, you can edit one field in hundreds or thousands of listings using the Bulk Edit tool.

This allows you to bulk delete listings, move listings from one category to another, bulk edit listing pricing, bulk edit listing locations, etc.

In this example, we will edit price range in all the listings from the search we run in the previous section of this tutorial.

Let’s start by opening the Bulk Edit tool.

Now we need to select these values in order to bulk edit price range on all the selected listings:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search
• What field do you want to edit: Price range
• Select type of edit: Set value
• Replace existing value with this value: Select the option you want.
• Click on Execute Now.

Duplicate business directory listings

Want to create copies of your listings? You can do it with the Duplicate tool.

After opening the Duplicate tool, you need to select these values:

• Duplicate this item: You can enter one item or multiple items here to create duplicates.
• How many copies do you want: You can add any number here. In this example, we will create 3 copies of each item.
• Click on Execute.

As you can see in the screenshot below, we have created 9 duplicates, 3 of each listing. You can use these duplicates as master listings and edit them to create new listings by editing some values in the spreadsheet.

Delete duplicate listings

Want to remove all duplicates easily? You don’t have to manually remove the duplicate listings because you can do it easily with the Bulk Edit tool.

Once you’re in the Bulk Edit tool, select these values in order to bulk remove the duplicate business listings:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search
• What field do you want to edit: Title
• Select type of edit: Remove duplicates
• Which duplicates do you want to delete: You can delete the newest items and keep the oldest, or vice versa.
• Click on Execute Now.

As you can see in the screenshot below, we have removed the duplicates we created in the previous section and just have kept one version of each listing.

Export Directorist business listings to a CSV file

WP Sheet Editor allows you to export your Directorist business listings to a CSV file.

You can start by opening the Export tool.

Once you’re in the Export tool, you need to select these values in order to export your Directorist business listings:

• What columns do you want to export: Select the columns/fields you want to export.
• Which rows do you want to export: All the rows from my current search.
• What app will you use to edit this file: In this example, we will select Microsoft Excel (Office 365)
• Name of this export: You can add a name and reuse these settings in the future.
• Click on Start new export.

After running the export, you will download a CSV file containing the data of your business directory listings.

Edit Directorist business listings in a CSV file

This is what the CSV containing the listings’ data looks like. You can add new listings, edit existing listings, etc.

Import Directorist listings from a CSV file

You can import your directory listings from a CSV file.

Just start by opening the Import tool.

Now you need to select the following values in the Import tool:

• Source: CSV file from my computer.
• Click on Choose File and locate the CSV on your computer.
• Click on Next.

You can Import all the columns or Select individual columns to import.

Now you have to select if you want to import all the rows as new, create new rows and update existing rows, only create or only update.

If you select any option to update existing rows, you need to match the data in the CSV with the data on WordPress using any field as an identifier.

In this example, we will create and update listings, so we will match the existing listings by ID.

Finally you’ll see a preview. If everything is OK, you need to click on The preview is fine, start import.

This is how you can easily bulk edit, export and import Directorist listings with WP Sheet Editor. You can save a lot of time and boost your productivity by viewing and managing your business directory listings in a spreadsheet on the wp-admin dashboard.