How to Migrate from WordPress to Sanity a Step-by-Step Guide

The true big revolution in modern websites is migration from WordPress to headless CMS, just like Sanity. Indeed, in comparison, WordPress is a quite popular and well-known name but fairly restrictive in terms of scalability and flexibility. It's where Sanity comes into play. 

Experience with headless CMS will provide much more agile and dynamic content models, performance that is miles faster, and even better management of very large-scale content. More control, flexibility, and ease with which multiple platforms perform structured content management as sanity brings: businesses and developers scale.

Preparation for Migrating Your WordPress Website to Sanity: Step-by-Step Setup Guide

We will take you through how migrating a WordPress site into a sanity system works-from preparation for your website right up to setting up the new CMS environment. For developers, businesses, and agencies looking to migrate forward for better performance and scalability, the future lies in headless CMS migration from WordPress. 

Rich features are the pride of WordPress but do not stand dynamic in comparison with other CMS solutions on multiple channels of content management. Sanity separates the frontend from the backend and gives way to great flexibility as a smooth pathway when managing content for web, mobile apps, and even IoT devices.

Here are just a few reasons why Sanity might be better than WordPress:

• This site will load much faster: Headless CMS configurations reduce load time, which equals websites that load a lot faster.

• Customization: You can build frontends in any framework you'd like to use, be it React, Next.js, or Gatsby.

• Content management: The ability to create custom structures of content makes the content libraries big and hard to manage.

• Scalability: Sanity scales so effortlessly that companies can just keep going and growing the content needed without performance issues coming up.

• Developer-friendly: This API-first approach of Sanity makes integrating content easier even with any frontend technology for developers.

What Should You Do for Pre-Migration Preparation?

Planning and preparation before migration to a new CMS are highly in demand. Here's everything you need to do before starting your WordPress to Sanity migration. 

1. Sanity Project Setup 

The Sanity project has to be set up before the migration happens. You do that by going to Sanity.io and signing up there. Then, create a new project. You will also need to install a CLI for your sanity project, which you would then manage from your own environment. It is super developer-friendly, and Sanity has an excellent piece of documentation guiding you through the entire process.

2. Setting Up Your Development Environment

Make sure you have a development environment. Sanity works perfectly with front-end frameworks like React, Next.js, and Gatsby. You'll need to have Node.js and npm installed on your computer to be in a position to use the Sanity CLI. First, you will need to create a local development environment where you will connect your Sanity CMS back end to your front end.  

3. Backup your WordPress Content

First, ensure to back up your WordPress site before transferring so that the backup will include the WordPress database, media files, and posts. The majority of the plugins are available to help you make a full backup by using either UpdraftPlus or All-in-One WP Migration. In that case, all your data will be at your disposal just in case something goes wrong during the migration.

4. Clean up Unused Content

Clean up your WordPress site before migration. Delete unwanted posts, pages, and media files. Delete unused plugins, themes, and categories. Cleaning all unnecessary files will ease the process since you are migrating only essential content. Database cleanup prevents the chances of errors at the time of transfer.

5. Prepare Assets and Media Files

Check up your media files and get ready images, documents, etc. Ensure that your WordPress media library is well-arranged and sorted; otherwise, sort files correctly. If your WordPress media library is a mess, sort files correctly, and thus you make it easier to transfer media files into Sanity.

Exporting Content from WordPress

Each WordPress to Sanity migration means that you will need to export any content already in place. This is done via WordPress's built-in export, or rather, you can opt to go through a much more powerful plugin such as WP All Export.

WordPress Manual Export

WordPress has an in-built export tool for exporting posts, pages, and media. Here's how you do it:

• You go to your Dashboard and open Tools > Export.

• Select "Everything" to export posts, pages, and attached media.

• Click the "download" button on "Export File." WordPress produces an XML file that contains your information.

This is easy but impossible to collect everything for custom fields or complicated media configurations.

Exporting Through Plugins

You can export further details if you want to, and for that, WP All Export comes into good use. It offers more control over what is being exported and how it is formatted.

1. Install WP All Export: Installing the Plugin To install the WordPress plugin, go to Plugins>Add New and search for the keyword WP All Export. Install now

2. Create New Export: For example, you might want to export posts or pages.

3. Fields: Check the boxes of the fields you want to export.

4. Export File: The exported CSV or XML file

It is fine for complex content structures or when you want your import process in your hands

How Do You Configure Sanity CMS for Migration?

Once you have exported your content, you are now ready to configure Sanity CMS. Sanity is an open and flexible headless CMS that gives you the power to define your own content structures.

1. Install Sanity CLI:

Open your terminal and install Sanity's Command Line Interface (CLI) using this command in your terminal:

bash

npm install -g @sanity/cli

2. Create a New Project:

Run the command:

bash

sanity init

This creates a brand new Sanity mission. Follow the prompts to pick out a dataset and assignment call.

3. Set Up Schema Definitions:

Sanity uses schemas to define content types. Open the schemas folder inside your project directory and create a schema file for each type of content, for example, posts or pages.

Blog post schema:

js

export default {
  name: 'post',
  title: 'Post',
  type: 'document',
  fields: []
{
      name: 'title',
      title: 'Title',
type: 'string'
    },
    {
      name: 'content',
      title: 'Content',
      type: 'blockContent'
    }
  ]
}

4. API Configuration:

Sanity provides a content API for both querying and updating content; the location to find your API settings is in sanity.json. So you will have to configure with your project ID and dataset so as to gain access.

Migrating Content

Now that Sanity is installed successfully, it's time to import the content you have exported from WordPress

Importing Content into Sanity

Sanity allows you to import content in one way. This can either be done manually, where files are uploaded directly from within the Sanity Studio, or automatically through scripts.

Using the Plugin of Sanity

Install Sanity's import plugin using:

bash

sanity install @sanity/import

Run the Import Script:

Use the subsequent command to import your content:

bash

sanity exec ./path-to-your-script.js --with-user-token

This script will take your exported WordPress content material and import it into Sanity’s dependent information.

Node.js Script for Automation:

You can write a Node.js script to map WordPress fields to Sanity fields. Here's a basic example:

js

const sanityClient = require('@sanity/client')

const client = sanityClient({
  projectId: 'your-project-id',
  dataset: 'your-dataset',
token: 'sanity-token',
  useCdn: false
})

const posts = require('./path-to-wordpress-posts.json')

posts.forEach(async post => {
  await client.create({
    _type: 'post',
    title: post.title,
    content: post.content
  })
})

You can then adapt the import data script to your own JSON file containing WordPress posts you wish to read and then import into Sanity.

How Can You Streamline the Migration Process?

There are a few third-party tools and scripts to make it easier. Here are a few ways to do it faster: 

1. Sanity Plugins: Sanity offers plugins for importing and exporting content, which simplifies data migration across platforms.

2. Migration Script: Automate field mapping between WordPress and Sanity by using Node.js or other programming languages.

3. Batch Import Tools: If you have lots of content that you will be migrating, you will most likely make use of batch-import scripts or plugins that might save you a whole lot of manual labor.

How Do You Handle Media and Assets During the Migration?

How to Import Media Files (Images, Videos) and Optimize Them in Sanity

Media file migration, in the context of migration from WordPress to Sanity, is a critical part. That goes for all images, videos, and everything else kept inside the media library of WordPress. The asset pipeline that Sanity has, when it comes to handling media, is quite flexible.

Here's how you can handle migration regarding media:

1. Export Media from WordPress: You first export your media files out of WordPress. Export using the WordPress Exporter Plugin all media in one move. Save them inside an organized folder structure so it will allow you easy access.

2. Upload Media to Sanity: Sanity has asset management directly within the Studio interface. You can drag and drop media directly in Sanity Studio or upload it with Sanity CLI scripting for bulk uploads is very useful when migrating large volumes of media.

3. Media Optimizations: Sanity automatically optimizes media files, which means reducing the size of the files and improving the performance by a few clicks. When uploading images, Sanity creates several formats, such as WebP, ensuring you always have faster loading images without losing any quality.

Useful Tools For Handling Big Files In Migration

Handling large files is slow for your migration, but you can still use some utilities to make the process run smoothly:

• ImageOptim: Great to compress those massive images before uploading them to Sanity. It automatically strips unwanted info without losing the quality of the image.

• FFmpeg: FFmpeg should compress your video file so that it becomes lighter in intensity. So, for example, it becomes light and, therefore, easy to upload to Sanity.

• Sanity Image API: Once uploaded, you can manipulate images on the fly by transforming, resizing, and cropping them via Sanity's Image API. Serve optimized assets to the device and screen size of a client.

How to hook up a Frontend (e.g., Next.js or Gatsby) with the Sanity Backend

Setting up the Frontend

With your content and media available in Sanity, it's time to integrate it into your front end. Sanity has fantastic integrations with popular static site generators, including Next.js and Gatsby.

Here is a broad overview of how you could do that for your frontend:

Install the Sanity Client: First, you install the Sanity client in your front-end project. If you are dealing with a Next.js or Gatsby project, you can do this with npm with the following bash command:

bash

Bashnpm install @sanity/client

Set up the Sanity Client: After installation, you might want to set up your client for Sanity by providing a project ID and a dataset. Up until now that way, your frontend will be able to communicate with your Sanity backend.

javascript

import sanityClient from '@sanity/client';

const client = sanityClient({
  projectId: 'yourProjectId',
  dataset: 'yourDataset',
  apiVersion: '2023-10-16',
  useCdn: true,
});

Getting Content with Sanity's API: You will use Sanity's GROQ to get the migrated content. GROQ is a powerful query language that fetches structured content from Sanity.

Getting all of the blog posts:

javascript

const query = `*[_type == "post"] { title, slug, mainImage, body }`;
const posts = await client.fetch(query);

Show Content: Once you've fetched your data, just output it in your pages. So you could map the data into your components to render out your content dynamically with Next.js like so:

jsx

const Blog = ({ posts }) => {
  return (
    <div>
      {posts.map(post => (
        <div key={post.slug.current}>
<h2>{post.title}</h2>
<img src={post.mainImage.asset.url} alt={post.title} />
          <p>{post.body[0].children[0].text}</p>
        </div>
      ))}
    </div>
  );
};

How to Fetch and Display Migrated Content Using Sanity’s APIs

Sanity APIs give you amazing tools to retrieve and render your content in any front-end framework. The content in Sanity's Content Lake is real-time, which means the changes you make to the content from inside Sanity Studio will reflect right away in your front end.

Sanity offers two APIs:

• GROQ API: Ideally suited for custom queries and pulling out specific data sets like blogs or information about the product.

• Sanity GraphQL API: Open up structured querying into Sanity data for projects that are already leveraging GraphQL

Example with GROQ:

javascript

const query = `* [_type == "product"] {
  title,
  price,
  mainImage
}`;
const products = await client.fetch(query);

Utilize Sanity Webhooks to trigger re-builds or re-calls of content in static sites, such as Gatsby or Next.js, so the content is always fresh without requiring a specific action.

Test and Final Calibration

Once migrated from WordPress to Sanity, the migration should be tested. Testing would then confirm that all is working fine and that nothing was lost in the process of migration. Begin with testing the content. They ensure that every piece of data is transferred correctly. Furthermore, test if there are images, text, metadata, and links, and that nothing is missing or broken.

Then move to frontend integration. Sanity is a headless CMS, usually developed independently, and content is fetched through the use of APIs. Testing whether the front end correctly renders the content is also taken care of. In addition, all dynamic components work as required. In the case of migrating with the help of Sanity Studio, the data editing interface works well for content creators to add, update, or delete their content.

That is also the time you should put the site through its paces in various scenarios. Assume very high volumes of traffic so that the site will be performing at peak levels. Post-migration, fine-tune SEO settings on the site. It is worth worrying about missing alt text for images and checking the correctness of URLs as well as whether the meta description is actually used.

The last is to perform a UX test on the application. Ensure that it is easy to navigate, has its pages loading within a reasonable time, and does not impose any one-click or more-than-one-click barrier between the user and the content he may want to read or consume. Check, too, the site's mobile responsiveness since mobile UX can make or break it in SEO terms and retain the attention of the user.

Testing and Final Adjustments Checklist

• Content migration: ensure that there is no loss of data and all the content has loaded as expected.

• Front-end integration: check how the content looks, and check the API hook.

• SEO check: proper usage of all URLs, proper usage of all the data and alt text

• Performance: Carry out speed testing and stress testing.

• User Experience: Cross-device test your site and make sure that there is perfect ease of navigation.

Conclusion

All these advantages will be realized by switching away from WordPress to Sanity. You are able to find a space to build dynamic and scalable websites using Sanity headless architecture. It is user-friendly, and this simplifies content management for developers. While this all sounds incredibly complicated, with proper planning, testing, and optimization, it should not be a hardship at all.

Moving to Sanity would enhance the performance of your website and unlock new possibilities in customizing the front end of the site. Rich API integrations and a flexible content model by Sanity will help you manage and scale your site without much difficulty over time.

We'd be more than delighted to help you manage your migration and our team here at RWIT will collaborate with you step by step. We have vital experience dealing with headless CMS migrations, which means we know how to keep the transition to Sanity hitch-free. Let's discuss just how to curb your stress over your migration through one of our consultations.