When purchasing a WordPress theme, we definitely expect our website looks similar to what shown in the demo. However, for some themes, especially the themes on ThemeForest where they have many features, setting up a website exactly like a demo is not too trivial. It sometimes takes an hour to set up and configure.
In order to reduce the setting time and give our customers a quick start with the theme, we already made a demo import plugin for each of our themes. And this documentation will show you how to use the plugin to import the demo content for your WordPress websites.
Please note that this step is optional. You should be able to customize the whole theme by following our documentation. The demo import plugin also adds some data to your website (the demo data) that you might not expect (the existing content still remains, though). So, please consider a little.
#Install the demo import plugin
After downloading the .zip package from ThemeForest, unzip it and you will see the demo import plugin. Make sure that you download All files & documentation from the Downloads page on ThemeForest. If you don’t know what it is, please follow this guide.
The demo import plugin is usually named theme-demo-import.zip or similar and you will recognize it when you unzip the package.
To install the plugin, go to Plugins → Add New in the dashboard, then click Upload Plugin button:
In the next screen, choose the .zip file of the demo import plugin and click Install Now.
After installing the plugin, click Activate link to activate it.
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#Error uploading demo import plugin
Sometimes, the demo import plugin has a large file size because we already included all the images. So when you install, you get the exact demo as you see. However, as the file size is big, some hosts may disallow to upload. To fix the problem, follow these steps:
- Unzip the file demo plugin
.zipfile - Use an FTP client software (FileZilla works great for us) and upload that folder to
wp-content/plugins
Then go to your Dashboard → Plugins and activate the plugin.
#Import demo content
Once the demo import plugin is installed and activated, you will see a new sub menu Import Demo under Tools menu. There you will see some demos (if the theme has multiple demos) or single demo. Simply choose the demo you want to import and click the Import button.
It takes a couple of minutes to process all the content. After done, go to the frontend and enjoy the theme.
#Notes
It’s important to note that if you have the WordPress Importer plugin installed, you must deactivate it or you will see a fatal error. This is because our demo import plugin already includes this plugin internally, so having it activated making it includes twice and breaks the website.