I was working on a client blog and helping them convert from a Microsoft IIS website where everything was .asp based to a WordPress CMS system. In doing so I had to port over and manually create dozens of WordPress posts from static .aspx pages.
This was accomplished but one of the biggest hassles was fixing up all the URI/URL structure of the converted blog where many posts/pages referenced other posts/pages/URI’s on the same site except with the dreaded .aspx extensions.
Being that I am no SQL expert, having to run manual find/replace SQL queries was something I didn’t feel like tackling at midnight when I did the work, so I found a WordPress plugin called Search & Replace which does everything I needed.
Just install Search and Replace and then go into your WordPress Settings to find the plugin options. This plugin allows you to search and replace content data in your WordPress database and does a phenomenal job of finding/matching data and allowing you to restrict it to specific area’s of your database.
Most of this stuff is fairly technical, so by default it will only search/replace the date in your actual content (post body area). You can also have it find/replace content in Titles, Excerpts, Meta Data, comments, author, ID, categories…etc
For my testing I only needed to replace URI’s in the Post Content.
So something really simple like replacing a forms.aspx page which was referenced now in many posts I could replace with the proper URI for the page.
Of course you should backup your WordPress Database before making ANY Changes just in case. I did this and making a backup before you do any sort of mass change is critical to avoid any potential mishap.
I did a dozen search/replace function and replaced hundreds of entries which was a huge time saver. Search and Replace is a great WordPress plugin for helping you correct broken URL’s, entries or replacing old affiliate links with new ones across all your WordPress blog post content.
Best of all, the plugin is free!
-Dragon Blogger
