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When migrating a blog from Weebly to WordPress, a big challenge is importing comments, because Weebly does not offer a structured export feature for them.

In this post, you’ll learn how to create a full working WordPress plugin that lets you:

• Paste raw Weebly blog HTML into an admin page.
• Preview parsed comments (with author names, dates, and nesting).
• Import comments properly threaded into any WordPress post.

We will provide you the complete code for this plugin — ready to use and customizable!

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Why Is This Plugin Necessary?

Weebly stores blog comments directly in the page’s HTML structure without any API or export tool.
Thus, without a custom solution, migrating comments would require manual copy-pasting and you’d lose nested reply structures.

Building this plugin automates:

• Comment parsing
• Duplicate skipping
• Parent-child relationships between comments

And keeps your SEO and user engagement intact after migration.

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Full Features of the Plugin

✅ Paste Weebly HTML and preview comments before import
✅ Supports both top-level comments and nested replies
✅ Preserves authors’ names, comment content, and original timestamps
✅ Automatically skips duplicate comments during import
✅ Easy integration via WordPress Tools menu

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Step-by-Step: How the Plugin Works

1. Admin Interface: A simple admin page under “Tools” where you paste the Weebly blog HTML source.
2. HTML Parsing: The plugin uses DOMDocument and DOMXPath to extract:
   • Author names (linked <a> or plain <span>)
   • Comment dates
   • Comment text
   • Comment nesting level (based on CSS classes like blogCommentLevel0, blogCommentLevel1, etc.)
3. Preview Stage: You can preview all parsed comments before importing.
4. Import Stage: On confirmation, the plugin imports all comments into the specified WordPress post, preserving threading.

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Full Plugin Code

If you want the full working code, here it is:

👉 Click here to view/download the full Comments Importer plugin code

Below is the complete code of the plugin:

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How to Install and Use the Plugin

1. Copy the full PHP code into a new file named, for example:
   comments-importer.php
2. Create a folder called comments-importer inside your /wp-content/plugins/ directory and place the file there.
3. Go to WordPress Admin → Plugins → Activate “Comments Importer”.
4. Navigate to Tools → Weebly Comments Importer.
5. Paste the HTML source of your Weebly blog post’s comment section.
6. Enter the WordPress Post ID where you want the comments imported.
7. Preview and then click Import Comments.

That’s it! 🎯

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Important Technical Notes

• The plugin safely skips invalid HTML errors using libxml_use_internal_errors(true).
• All imported comments are automatically approved.
• Dates are parsed and converted into WordPress-friendly Y-m-d H:i:s format.
• The plugin uses wp_insert_comment() ensuring native WordPress compatibility.
• Duplicate checking is done using hashing (md5) based on author, date, and content.

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Bonus Tips After Importing

• Recount your comment totals if needed with tools like WP-CLI or SEO plugins.
• Check for any missing gravatars or author links.
• Backup your WordPress database before and after the import for extra safety.

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🚀 Final Thoughts

Migrating blog comments might sound tedious, but with this simple yet powerful plugin, you can move your community conversations easily from Weebly to WordPress — preserving all user interactions, SEO value, and site credibility.

If you found this tutorial helpful, feel free to share it with anyone planning a Weebly to WordPress migration!