MB Custom Post Types & Taxonomies – Bulk Edit, Export, Import

MB Custom Post Types & Custom Taxonomies is a WordPress plugin by Metabox.io, which allows you to create custom post types and custom taxonomies for your WordPress website. However, bulk actions are too limited, and that means that you have to spend a lot of time if you want to edit multiple posts for a given custom post type added with this plugin.

That’s why, in this tutorial, we will show you how to bulk edit custom post types, as well as export and import any custom post type using CSV files. Bulk managing custom post types added with the MB Custom Post Types & Custom Taxonomies plugin allows you to save a lot of time and boost your productivity.

Install WP Sheet Editor – Post Types

To bulk edit post types added with the MB Custom Post Types & Custom Taxonomies plugin, we will use the WP Sheet Editor – Post Types plugin, which allows you to view and manage WordPress posts, pages and custom post types using a spreadsheet on the wp-admin dashboard. This plugin has advanced search, bulk edit, duplicate, export and import tools designed to boost your productivity.

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.

Set up the spreadsheet

After installing the plugin and activating your license, go to WP Sheet Editor > Setup spreadsheet to generate a spreadsheet for your MB Custom Post Types.

Once there you need to select the post type for which you want to generate a spreadsheet.

For this example, we have created a post type called “Essays”, so we need to select Essays and click on Save.

Now you can select which fields/columns you want to view in the spreadsheet (Enabled) and which you want to hide (Disabled). Once you’re done, click on Save.

You’ll see all your posts displayed in the spreadsheet:

Edit posts in the spreadsheet

Once you generate the spreadsheet for any post type added with MB Custom Post Types & Custom Taxonomies, you can start editing your post data.

The best part is that the spreadsheet displays the columns/fields according to the field type. So in addition to being able to edit text fields and number fields, you can edit other types of fields such as text editors, checkboxes, dropdown fields, file fields, taxonomy term fields, etc.

For example, text editor fields allow you to open the editor in a popup. Just click on the edit text button.

You will see the text editor displayed in the popup, in which you can easily edit the content of the post without having to open new pages or new tabs.

The date fields will allow you to select the date and time using a popup.

The drop-down fields will allow you to easily select the option you want.

Checkbox fields allow you to check or uncheck the checkbox.

File fields allow you to paste file URLs by double-clicking the cell or upload/select the file by clicking on the Upload button.

If you click on the Upload button, you’ll see the Add media popup, which will allow you to upload the files or select them from the WordPress media library.

Taxonomy term fields allow you to select terms easily.

Once you’re done editing values in the spreadsheet, you need to click on Save to apply the changes.

Search for posts based on any field

WP Sheet Editor contains an advanced search tool that allows you to search for posts using any field as a search filter.

For example, you can search for posts by category, status, author, empty featured image, etc.

To do this, you need to open the Search tool.

In this example, we will run a combined search to find posts that match these parameters:

• Category = Education
• Status = Published
• Date range = September 1 to September 30 of 2024

To do this, you need to select the following values in the Search tool:

• Enter essay categories: Enter the category here; in this case, we will enter Education.
• Tick the Enable advanced filters checkbox and select these values:
  • Field: Status
  • Operator: =
  • Value: Published
• Date range from: 09/01/2024
• Date range to: 09/30/2024
• Click on Run search.

Once you run the search, you’ll see all the posts matching the search filters displayed in the spreadsheet.

Bulk edit posts with a few clicks

If you want to bulk edit your posts, you can do it using the Bulk Edit tool, which allows you to bulk update values in any specific field on thousands of posts at once.

This tool allows you to bulk edit all posts, all the results from a specific search, or all manually selected posts.

You need to start by opening the Bulk Edit tool.

In this example, we will assign the Pending status to all the posts that we found in the search of the previous section. To do this, we need to select the following values in the Bulk Edit tool:

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

This is just an example of hundreds of bulk edits you can apply to all your posts.

Export posts to a CSV file

If you want to download the data of your posts to a CSV file, you need to open the Export tool.

Once you’re in the Export tool, you need to select these values in order to export your MB Custom Post Types posts:

• 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.

This is what the data of our posts looks like in the CSV file. We can edit the data using Excel, Google Sheets or any other CSV editor.

Import posts from a CSV file

If you want to create new posts or update existing posts using a CSV file, you need to 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.

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 bulk edit posts added with the MB Custom Post Types & Taxonomies plugin, using an intuitive spreadsheet on your WordPress site.