Importing and Exporting Data
Download your organization's content as a file, and bring content into an organization from one
Importing and Exporting Data
The Import / Export page lets you "transfer content between organizations for testing or migration". You can download your organization's groups, menus, pages, calendar events, registration forms, messages and settings as a single file, and load a file like that into an organization -- this one or another.
Find it in the sidebar under Admin › Settings › Import / Export (/dashboard/admin/settings/import-export). The page has two cards: Export and Import.
Before You Start
The page requires the organization Admin role. If you open it without that role, you'll see:
You don't have administrator privileges in this organization. If you believe this is an error, please contact your organization administrator.
Ask an existing organization administrator to grant you the Admin role, or to do the export or import for you.
Warning: Read this before you import anything.
- An import cannot be undone. There is no undo button. To reverse an import you delete what it created, one item at a time.
- Create all makes duplicates, and they are live straight away. Pages keep the published or unpublished state they had in the file, so published pages appear on your website at once; public events appear on your website and in calendar subscription feeds; and registration forms are open or closed just as they were in the file.
- Uploaded files are not carried over. Logos and event attachments (including links) are left out of the file and have to be added again.
- Export this organization first. Before you import into an organization, export it with every type ticked and keep that file as a record of what you had -- in particular your Org Settings, which an import overwrites. Importing that file does not undo an import: it adds a second copy of everything in it. To be able to put your settings back, also export a file with only Org Settings (metadata) ticked.
What an Export Contains
The Export card lists eight kinds of data, each with a checkbox:
| Checkbox | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Groups | Groups and their configuration |
| Menus | Navigation menu definitions |
| Menu Items | Individual menu links and hierarchy |
| Pages | CMS pages and their content -- your website's pages |
| Calendar Events | Calendar events including recurring series |
| Registration Forms | Registration/signup form definitions (not responses) |
| Messages | Announcements and communications |
| Org Settings (metadata) | Branding, timezone, calendar settings, footer, top nav menu |
Messages are exported with their full subject and text. Registration forms are exported as form definitions only -- the questions and settings, never anyone's answers.
What It Leaves Out
An export never contains:
- People's accounts and the member list -- member records, with their email addresses and phone numbers.
- Organization roles, group roles and group memberships.
- Registration responses.
- Payment records.
- Feature settings (feature flags).
- Uploaded files. The Binary files are not included box on the Export card lists them: the organization logo, group logos, menu logos and event file attachments. Event attachments are dropped entirely -- links as well as uploaded files. You will need to add them again after an import.
The file is not free of personal details, though. Messages sent to named people include those people's names, and contact addresses typed into your settings and registration forms (your organization's contact email, a form's registration contact email, the sign-in email hint) are included. It also holds the full text of your messages and your organization's settings. Store it the way you would any private document, and delete copies you no longer need.
Exporting
- Open Admin › Settings › Import / Export.
- On the Export card, tick the kinds of data you want. Everything starts ticked; use Select all and Clear to change many at once.
- Click Export. The button shows how many types you picked, for example Export (8 types). It is greyed out when nothing is ticked.
- Your browser downloads a file named
org-export-YYYY-MM-DD.jsonwith the date, and the page shows "Export downloaded successfully."
Importing
- Open Admin › Settings › Import / Export in the organization you want to import into.
- On the Import card, under Export file, choose the file you downloaded. Only files exported from Hubara work; anything else shows an Invalid file error.
- Import Preview appears. Nothing has been saved yet. It shows the identifier of the organization the file came from (Source org), when it was exported (Exported at), and a badge for each kind of data with how many items the file contains. Files exported from older versions of Hubara may also show a line such as "Feature flag overrides: 3 will be ignored (no longer imported)" -- that part of the file is skipped, and you don't need to do anything. If the file contains scheduled messages, a line says how many will be imported as drafts.
- Choose how to handle Conflict handling (see below).
- Read the Review before importing box.
- Click Import Data.
- When it finishes, Import Complete lists what happened for each kind of data -- for example "Pages: 12 created, 2 skipped", or "Groups: 3 skipped (already exist)" when nothing new was created. Older files may also show a line ending "ignored (no longer imported)". If any scheduled messages were converted, it lists them with their original send times.
- Don't click Import Data again -- that imports the file a second time.
Choose Clear next to the file to start again with a different file.
Conflict Handling
| Choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| Create all (no deduplication) | Every item in the file is created as a new item, even if a similar one already exists. This is the default. Importing the same file twice gives you two of everything. |
| Skip existing (match by name/slug/path) | Groups with the same name, menus with the same slug, and pages with the same path as one you already have are skipped. Matching ignores capitalization. Every other kind of data -- menu items, calendar events, registration forms, messages and settings -- is always created. |
Warning: When Skip existing skips a group, menu or page, the things imported inside it are still created, but they are not attached to the item you already have. Events and messages that belonged to a skipped group, sub-groups under it, links in a skipped menu, child pages of a skipped page, and the top navigation choice can end up detached and may not appear where you expect. The safe ways to import are into an empty organization, or with Create all and then deleting the extras.
What Import Changes Beyond Adding Content
Org Settings Replace Yours
Org Settings (metadata) is ticked by default when you export, so most files contain it. Importing it does not add anything -- it replaces this organization's settings with the ones in the file:
- branding and theme colors, site description and contact email;
- timezone and calendar settings;
- footer content, and which menus drive the top navigation and the footer;
- the sign-in email hint, and the email domains that get subsidized registration rates.
It also removes your current logo, because logos are never in the file. Upload it again under Admin › Settings › Branding.
After importing Org Settings, re-check Settings › Navigation -- the footer menu choice is copied as-is, so in a different organization it points at nothing and needs picking again -- and Settings › Branding. If you only want content, untick Org Settings (metadata) when you export.
Links Between Items Are Kept
With Create all, items that belonged together in the file still belong together after the import: menu links stay under their menu, sub-groups stay under their parent group, events stay in their group, and registration forms stay attached to their event. Every imported item is a new item in this organization, with its own identity -- it is not linked back to the original.
Scheduled Messages Arrive as Drafts
Messages that were scheduled in the file are imported as drafts and are not sent. Import Preview says how many scheduled messages the file contains, and Import Complete lists each one with the time it was originally scheduled for, in your organization's time zone.
To send one, open it and schedule or publish it (see Sending Messages).
Messages that were already sent are not sent again. They do come back as new published copies, though, so any that were shown on your website appear there again as duplicate announcements.
Recorded in Audit Logs
Exporting and importing each add an Organization entry to Logs -- Org Data Exported or Org Data Imported -- naming who did it. An import that fails part-way still adds an entry, marked as failed, because whatever was written before the error stays. See Audit Logs and Delivery Status for what is recorded.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | What to check |
|---|---|
| The Export button is greyed out | Nothing is ticked. Tick at least one kind of data, or click Select all. |
| Invalid file when choosing a file | The file is not an unedited Hubara export file. Export again and choose the new file without opening or changing it. |
| "Invalid import data: …" after clicking Import Data | The file was edited, or it came from a newer version of Hubara than the one you are importing into. Export a fresh file and try again. |
| The import failed, but some items appeared anyway | Data is written one kind at a time, so whatever was written before the error stays. Check your groups, menus, pages, events and messages, delete the partial items, then import again. |
| Everything appears twice | The import used Create all, or the same file was imported twice. Delete the extra copies. Skip existing prevents duplicate groups, menus and pages, but read its warning under Conflict Handling first. |
| Imported items are in the wrong place or missing from menus after a Skip existing import | The skipped group, menu or page was not linked up with the imported items inside it. See the warning under Conflict Handling. |
| Logo, images or event attachments are missing | Uploaded files and event attachments (including links) are never exported. Add them again. |
| Event times, settings or navigation look wrong after importing | The file included Org Settings (metadata), which replaced yours. Re-check Settings › Navigation, Settings › Calendar and Settings › Branding. |
| "Feature flag overrides … will be ignored" | Expected for files exported from older versions of Hubara. That part of the file is skipped; nothing needs doing. |
| Imported messages that were scheduled show as drafts | Expected: scheduled messages are imported as drafts so they can't send by surprise. The Import Complete box listed their original times. To send one, open it and schedule or publish it. See Scheduled Messages Arrive as Drafts. |