Importing and Exporting your Links

Pretty Links gives you the availability to import or export your links. To do this go to the “Import/Export” tab. Here you will see the options to either import or export.

Importing your Links

When importing your links it's important to note that you can accomplish two things: 1) Importing to update existing links and 2) Importing to generate new links. When importing to generate new links, you must delete the “id” column from the CSV before importing. If the “id” column is present, Pretty Links will attempt to update existing links, which will cause you a lot problems.

To import you would need to have previously created or edited a comma delimited, windows formatted CSV file with your links. Be sure that if your file includes any added info, such as dynamic redirects, parameter forwarding, etc. that it follows the Pretty Links format. After creating or editing the CSV file click the “choose file” button in the “Import/Export” tab, then click the “import” button. Here is what you'll see:

Exporting your Links

When exporting links that you have already created in the plugin, click on the button that says “export”. This will export your links as a CSV file. Here is what you'll see:

Here are a few examples of the fields you will see when you export your links:* Indicates a required column that must have a value set for every row.
** Indicates a required column, but it CAN be left blank on all or some rows if necessary.

1. id – The unique integer ID for this link. If this column is present during an import, Pretty Links will attempt to update an existing link. If the “id” column is removed, then Pretty Links will attempt to create new links instead.
2. url* – This is the target URL, where the user will land after clicking on your pretty link. Must start with http:// or https:// or another protocol format.
3. slug** – The unique slug you used to make your link pretty. If left blank, a random slug will be used instead.
4. name** – A name used to help you recognize and differentiate each pretty link from the next. It will also show up in the Title bar of the browser on cloaked links. This is the same as the Title field when editing a link.
5. link_categories* – The unique slug for the category the pretty link belongs to. Leave blank if the link doesn't have a Category.
6. redirect_type** – The type of redirection characteristic applied to each link. If left blank, this will default to the default redirection type set in your Options.
7. track_me** – Specifies that clicks will be tracked in reports for this link. A value of 0 means it won't be tracked and a value of 1 means that it will.
8. nofollow** – Specifies that this link is not set to be tracked by search engine crawler bots, but it doesn't always mean they will obey it. Use a 1 to enable and 0 to disable.
9. param_forwarding** – Specifies that the link will have forwarding parameters that will be passed from this link to the target URL. Use a 1 to enable and 0 to disable.
10. delay – This is the number of seconds set to delay with your JavaScript and Meta Refresh redirect types (this does not work with other redirect types).
11. keywords** – Words or phrases separated by commas that will be replaced by the designated link.

Below is a sample image showing how an import file might look (using Excel).