Update: Please see this recent post regarding this WordPress function.

A few weeks back I was in need of exporting the blogroll out of one WordPress install for importing into another. I was dismayed to find that WordPress does not have this ability built-in. It seems you can import almost anything, but export nothing.

So I searched for a plugin to do this — a few hours later, the closest I came was a plugin for exporting your blogroll for importing into del.icio.us. I have modified the plugin and added OPML formatting necessary for importing into WordPress via Blogroll > Import Links.

Note: I modeled the OPML formatting after that used by Blogrolling.com so it will work there as well. It may work for other services, it may not … I don’t know because I haven’t tried. Would love to hear from anyone who’s been able to use it in another capacity and/or another service!

Requires

WordPress version 2.2 or higher — may work with previous versions, I hadn’t tested!

Instructions

1. Download the zip file and unzip.
2. Upload the blogroll-opml-export.php file to WordPress plugins directory and activate on the Plugins page in WP-Admin
3. Go to Options > Export Blogroll
4. Copy the exported links from the textarea box into a blank text file and save as FILENAME_OF_YOUR_CHOICE.opml
5. Import as needed. For importing into WordPress, go to Blogroll > Import Links

Download

Click here to download the zip file.

Caveats / Issues

Problems that I ran into when importing the OPML format, all ampersands must be in a valid XHTML format (using &). Also, be sure to remove any odd characters (such as the curly apostrophes, quotes, and other characters commonly used in MS Word). If you experience an error while importing, check your OPML file first for invalid characters or bad formatting.

Also, this plugin exports from ALL link categories. I have not yet looked into a way to export from only selected ones. (and may not do so, depends on my time)

Disclaimer

Use at your own risk. No warranty expressed or implied is provided. There is no guarantee that this will work for your version of WordPress, I wrote this out of need for myself and am sharing in the hopes someone else finds it useful.

Copyright / Permission

This plugin is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike license. Have fun!