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How to create WordPress taxonomies from Airtable with Air WP Sync

Our Air WP Sync plugin now allows you to synchronize WordPress’s taxonomy terms directly from Airtable! In this guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to import and sync taxonomy terms from your Airtable base into your WordPress website using the Air WP Sync plugin. Hierarchical taxonomies are also supported, so you can import both parent and child taxonomies.

Setting up your Airtable base

Before you can sync data, you need to prepare your Airtable base. Make sure your table includes the following columns:

  • “Name”: the name of the taxonomy term.
  • “Slug”: an unique identifier for the taxonomy term.
  • “Taxonomy”: the taxonomy to which the term belongs.
  • “Description”: a description of the taxonomy term.

💡 Note: add a column for “Parent ID” or “Parent Name” if you have a hierarchical taxonomy.

Connecting Airtable to WordPress

  1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard.
  2. Navigate to the Air WP Sync menu, listed on the left-hand side menu.
  3. Click on the Add new menu to create a new connection.
  4. Enter a Title for your connection.
  5. Enter your Airtable API access token.
  6. Choose your Airtable base, table, and view (optional).

Setting up taxonomy import

  1. Select Taxonomy Term in the Import as dropdown menu.
  2. Select the Default taxonomy (this is the one that must be written in your column “Taxonomy” on your Airtable base).

Mapping Airtable fields with WordPress

  1. Choose an Airtable Field: from the dropdown menu, select which field in your Airtable base you want to synchronize to WordPress. For instance, if you have a column named “Name” in Airtable, select that.
  2. Select a WordPress Property in Import As column: match it to a corresponding property or field in WordPress where you want that data to appear. For example, map “Name” from Airtable to the “Name” field in WordPress.
  3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for each field: ensure you go through each field in Airtable that you want to synchronize, mapping it to its corresponding WordPress property.

💡 Note: the column “Taxonomy” should not contain non-existent taxonomies, or it will result in an error. If you leave this column empty on Airtable, it will be mapped with the Default Taxonomy chosen in the previous step. The taxonomies you can import are: categories, tags and formats.

After mapping your Airtable fields to the corresponding WordPress fields, click on Publish or Update button, followed by Sync now to import taxonomy data from Airtable.

Importing hierarchical taxonomy terms

By name

In your column “Parent by Name”, you can add the parent name of this term. Make sure to use the same spelling.

By ID

To know the ID of your parent, it has to be already created before mapping. To find this ID:

  1. Go to the parent term and check the URL for “post_tag&tag_ID=273”.
  2. Write this number in your “Parent by ID” column in Airtable. In this case, the ID is 273.

💡 Notes
If you are importing hierarchical taxonomy terms by name, it is recommended to synchronize twice because the child terms can be created before the parent, so they won’t have the parent-child relationship initially. It is not necessary to map “by ID” and “by name”, you can use only one.

Reviewing imported taxonomy terms

  1. In the WordPress dashboard, select your Custom Post Type (CPT) from the side menu and then the taxonomy that you want to review.
  2. The list displays all taxonomy terms imported from your Airtable base.

By following these steps, you can efficiently synchronize your Airtable taxonomy terms with your WordPress website using the Air WP Sync plugin. This integration ensures your data is always up-to-date and managed from a single source.

If you encounter any issues or have questions, feel free to reach out to our support team for assistance. Happy syncing!