Toolset – Bulk Edit Post Type Relationships in a Spreadsheet

In a previous tutorial, we showed you how to bulk edit Toolset post types using an intuitive spreadsheet. In this tutorial, we will show you how to bulk edit post type relationships created with the Toolset plugin.

For example, we have created two related post types. One post type is for events, and the other is for speakers. We have created a one-to-one relationship in which we can assign a specific event to a speaker and vice versa.

Taking this example, we can assign a speaker to several events with a few clicks using the WP Sheet Editor – Post Types plugin. It allows you to view and edit any post type in an intuitive spreadsheet.

You can do advanced searches using any field value as search term, and apply bulk changes quickly to all the search results. You can also export and import posts using CSV files to update your custom posts or create them.

After installing the plugin, you need to install WP Sheet Editor – Toolset extension. It will make WP Sheet Editor – Post Types fully compatible with the Toolset plugin, so each field will appear according to its type on the spreadsheet. Also, the related post type will appear as a field in the spreadsheet, so you will be able to edit it.

Once you install the plugin and the extension, you can proceed to generate the spreadsheet for your post types.

1- How to view and edit post types in a spreadsheet

To view and edit post types in a spreadsheet, go to WP Sheet Editor > Setup Spreadsheet.

Once there, tick the post type you want to edit in a spreadsheet and click Save.

For example, let’s tick Events and click Save.

Now you will see the columns that you can display in the spreadsheet. If you want to disable certain columns, just move them from Enabled to Disabled and then scroll down and click Save.

After that, you’ll see that the spreadsheet will display all your posts from the selected post type. Every row is a post and every column is a field.

If you scroll to your right, you’ll see that the custom fields created with Toolset will be displayed in the spreadsheet according to their field type. Also, you’ll see the relationship fields displayed in the spreadsheet. In this case, we can see the Speaker column, where we can assign a speaker to a specific event.

You could manually apply changes as you do in Excel or Google Sheets and then click Save, but you can also bulk edit posts as we’ll see in the next sections.

Important. You can generate the spreadsheet for any post type following the steps in this section.

2- How to bulk edit post relationships for Toolset post types

Once you have generated the sheets for your Toolset post types, you can quickly edit the related post types.

a) Bulk edit all custom posts and change related post

For example, if we want to assign the same speaker to all events, we can easily do so.

We just need to open the Bulk Edit tool with a click.

Now we need to select these values to assign the same speaker to all events:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (including non-visible rows)
• What field do you want to edit: Toolset: Speakers
  • Note: Here you need to select the other post type that is related to the post type you’re editing.
• Select type of edit: Set value
• Replace existing value with this value: Write the title of the other post type post you’ll assign to the selected posts. For example, we’ll assign the John Stone speaker to all our events.
• Click Execute Now.

b) Filter and bulk edit posts to change related post

If you want to filter the posts instead of editing all of them at once, you can easily do it. Just open the Search tool with one click.

Now you will see the following search filters:

• Contains keyword: You can enter a specific word here, and the plugin will filter all the posts containing it in their titles.
• Enter Categories: This field will depend on the taxonomies you have created for your posts. If you have created categories and tags, you can use this field to search for posts using any of these two search parameters. If you create custom taxonomies, they will be listed in this post as well.

However, you can tick the Enable advanced filters to, for example, search events by price. Just select these values:

• Tick the Enable adcanced filters checkbox.
• Field: Toolset: Price
• Operator: =
• Value: 150, for example.
• Click Run Search.

Important. The options in Field will depend on the custom fields available for the current post type.

Now you’ll see all the posts that meet the search criteria displayed in the spreadsheet. You’ll also see the applied search filters above the spreadsheet’s content:

Now you can open the Bulk Edit tool to edit all the filtered posts.

Once you open the Bulk Edit tool, you can select the following values to edit the related post content:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (including non-visible rows)
• What field do you want to edit: Toolset: Speakers
  • Note: Here you need to select the other post type that is related to the post type you’re editing.
• Select type of edit: Set value
• Replace existing value with this value: Write the title of the other post type post you’ll assign to the selected posts. For example, we’ll assign the John Stone speaker to all our events.
• Click Execute Now.

If you want to replace a specific speaker, you can select these values:

• Select the rows that you want to update: Edit all the rows from my current search (including non-visible rows)
• What field do you want to edit: Toolset: Speakers
  • Note: Here you need to select the other post type that is related to the post type you’re editing.
• Select type of edit: Replace
• Replace this: Enter the post you want to remove.
• With this: Enter the other post.
• Click Execute Now.

Bulk editing Toolset post relationships is really simple with WP Sheet Editor!

As you can see, it’s really simple to bulk edit post relationships with WP Sheet Editor. Now you can apply the same changes to the other sheet. For example, instead of assigning speakers to events, you can assign events to speakers. Just follow the same steps as explained in this tutorial, but applied to the Toolset custom post type sheet you want to edit.