Export & Import

The Export & Import screen under Specifico → Export / Import lets you save your entire Specifico setup to a single file and load it back on any site. Use it to keep a backup, move your specifications to a new site, or migrate in from another specification plugin.

Everything Specifico stores travels together: specification tables, groups, mapping rules, global settings, and — if you choose — every product's customized specification data.

Screenshot: Export & Import page with two cards, "Export" above "Import"

Export

The Export card downloads all your specification tables, groups, mapping rules, and settings as a single JSON file.

1. Go to Specifico → Export / Import.
2. Decide whether to keep Include per-product specification data on (see below).
3. Click Download Export File.

Your browser downloads a file named specifico-export-YYYY-MM-DD.json (the date is today's). Keep it somewhere safe — that one file is a complete snapshot.

Include per-product specification data

This toggle controls whether each product's customized specification data is bundled into the export.

Leave it on for a full backup or a site move. Turn it off when you only want to copy your table/group structure to another site and don't want to carry that site's product data with it.

Import

The Import card reads an export file and recreates its contents on the current site.

1. Go to Specifico → Export / Import.
2. Drag a .json file onto the dropzone, or click browse to pick one.
3. Specifico reads the file, detects its format, and shows a preview of what will be created or updated.
4. Click Import Now.

Screenshot: Import card showing the detected format and a preview list of tables, groups, and products

The preview

Before anything is written, Specifico shows what the file holds — for example:

• 3 specification tables
• 5 groups (28 attributes)
• 12 products

Review this, then click Import Now to proceed, or Choose another to pick a different file. Nothing is changed on your site until you click Import Now.

Progress and large files

Large imports run in small batches with a progress bar, phase by phase (Groups → Specifications → Mapping rules → Products), so a big dataset never hits a PHP timeout. You can watch each phase tick off as it completes.

Re-importing is safe

Tables, groups, and products are matched by slug, not by internal ID. That means:

• Re-importing the same file updates the existing tables and groups instead of creating duplicates.
• Moving an export between sites lines everything up by slug, so cross-references (table → group, mapping → table) are rebuilt correctly on the target site.

Migrating from another plugin

Specifico can also import from the Product Specifications plugin. Just upload that plugin's export file the same way — Specifico auto-detects the format and imports its tables, groups, and per-product specifications.

When a competitor file is recognized, the preview shows a notice so you know it will be migrated:

This file looks like an export from the "Product Specifications" plugin. Specifico will import its tables, groups and product specifications.

If a file isn't a Specifico export or a recognized compatible format, the preview reports "This file format isn't recognised." and nothing is imported.

What gets matched — and what can be skipped

Some data is re-resolved against the target site on import. When a reference can't be found, that item is skipped (and reported in the import summary) rather than failing the whole import:

After import, the summary lists any skips — for example "2 product(s) skipped — no matching product found." This is expected when the target site doesn't yet have the same products as the source.

Audit log

Every export and import is written to the WooCommerce log under the specifico source. To review a run — including any per-item failures — go to WooCommerce → Status → Logs and pick the specifico log. This is where to look if an import didn't include everything you expected.