module Introducing Data Migrator – Import SQL/CSV/JSON/XML into ProcessWire

[Mikel]

Hey, everyone, here at frameless we frequently work with clients who already have a website but aren't happy with it and want us to rebuild it from scratch. Whenever possible, we use ProcessWire for new web projects – no surprise there, given the flexibility and clean API we all love.

For smaller sites, migrating content is usually straightforward – a bit of copy/paste and you're done. But for larger projects with hundreds or thousands of records across multiple database tables, this quickly becomes tedious and error-prone.

Over the years, we've written various import scripts and parsers to handle these migrations. We finally decided to clean them up and package everything into a proper module that we'd like to share with the community.

Introducing: Data Migrator
Data Migrator is a Process module that imports external data (SQL dumps, CSV, JSON, XML) directly into ProcessWire's page structure – including automatic creation of templates, fields, and even PHP template files.

Key Features

• Multi-format support – Import from .sql, .csv, .json, and .xml files
• Automatic type detection – Recognizes emails, URLs, dates, booleans, integers, etc. and maps them to appropriate ProcessWire fieldtypes
• SQL schema parsing – Extracts column types from CREATE TABLE statements for better field mapping
• Foreign Key handling – Detects FK relationships and sorts tables by dependency order
• Dry Run mode – Preview exactly what will be created before committing anything
• Full Rollback – Undo an entire migration with one click (removes all created pages, templates, and fields)
• Template file generation – Automatically creates ready-to-use .php template files in /site/templates/

How it works

• Upload your data file (SQL dump, CSV, JSON, or XML)
• Review the analysis – the module shows detected tables, columns, suggested fieldtypes, and sample values
• Fine-tune if needed – override fieldtypes via dropdown, configure FK relationships
• Run a Dry Run to preview all changes
• Execute the migration – templates, fields, parent pages, and data pages are created automatically
• If something's wrong – hit Rollback to cleanly undo everything

Requirements
ProcessWire 3.0.0+
PHP 7.4+

Links
GitHub: github.com/frameless-at/ProcessDataMigrator
Modules Directory: /modules/process-data-migrator/

We've been using the methods and classes bundled in this module internally for a while now and it has saved us a lot of time on migration projects. We hope it's useful for others facing similar challenges. Feedback, bug reports, and feature requests are welcome!

Cheers,
Mike

[Ivan Gretsky]

Wow! Looks super cool! 🎉

Well, reads) Could you please add some screenshots or a video? 

And a questions right away (I have not install or use the module yet).  Are Repeater and Repeater Matrix fields handled somehow? We've got content builder builder based on Repeater Matrix.

[Mikel]

4 hours ago, Ivan Gretsky said:

Wow! Looks super cool! 🎉Well, reads) Could you please add some screenshots or a video? 

And a questions right away (I have not install or use the module yet).  Are Repeater and Repeater Matrix fields handled somehow? We've got content builder builder based on Repeater Matrix.

Thanks, Ivan. Screenshots are included in the Readme file on Github and the module directory (when module is approved).
Regarding Repeater (Matrix) Fields: As the module handles external (non ProcessWire) data structures, what exactly do you mean by „handled“? It is not possible to map data to an existing template/field structure, if that´s what you are asking for.