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Draftdrop – Markdown Importer with Front Matter & SEO Fields

Draftdrop – Markdown Importer with Front Matter & SEO Fields

By corvet
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Description

Draftdrop lets you publish written articles without copying and pasting. Upload one or more .md files, check the preview, and create drafts in one step.

What it does

  • Reads front matter: title, slug, category, tags, excerpt, SEO title, meta description, focus keyphrase, featured image and image alt text.
  • Converts the article to native Gutenberg blocks (paragraphs, headings, lists, quotes, code, tables, images, separators). Anything unusual stays as a Custom HTML block, so nothing is lost. If your site uses the Classic editor, clean HTML is saved instead.
  • Saves the SEO fields in the format used by Yoast SEO.
  • Shows a preview with checks (missing description, title or description too long, duplicates) before anything is created.
  • Skips files that were already imported or whose slug already exists.
  • Saves everything as a draft (or “pending review”). Nothing is published automatically.

Safe by design

  • Capability checks (edit_posts, upload_files) and nonces on every action.
  • Article HTML is sanitized with the same rules WordPress uses for post content. Scripts and iframes are removed.
  • Uploaded files are read from the temporary upload location and are not stored on your server.

File format

---
title: Car Rental in Tenerife: Complete Guide
slug: car-rental-tenerife-guide
category: Guides
tags: [tenerife, car rental]
seo_title: Car Rental in Tenerife (2026 Guide)
meta_description: Everything you need to know before renting a car in Tenerife.
focus_keyword: car rental tenerife
featured_image: https://example.com/images/tenerife.jpg
image_alt: Rental car on a coastal road
---

The article body in Markdown.

Only title is required.

External services

Draftdrop makes no external requests on its own. The only exception: if a file contains a featured_image URL, the plugin downloads that image once, when you confirm the import, using the WordPress HTTP API (wp_safe_remote_get). No data about you or your site is sent.

Third-party libraries

  • Parsedown 1.8.0-beta-7 by Emanuil Rusev, MIT license. Included in lib/ (the class is renamed Draftdrop_Parsedown to avoid clashes with other plugins; otherwise unmodified). Source: https://github.com/erusev/parsedown

Screenshots

Upload screen: choose Markdown files and see the supported front matter format.
Upload screen: choose Markdown files and see the supported front matter format.
Preview with checks: warnings, errors and duplicates are shown before anything is created.
Preview with checks: warnings, errors and duplicates are shown before anything is created.
Import finished: links to the new drafts and notes about categories that were created.
Import finished: links to the new drafts and notes about categories that were created.
The imported article in the block editor: headings, nested lists and tables as native blocks, with excerpt and featured image.
The imported article in the block editor: headings, nested lists and tables as native blocks, with excerpt and featured image.

Installation

  1. Upload the plugin folder to /wp-content/plugins/ or install it from the Plugins screen.
  2. Activate it.
  3. Go to Tools > Draftdrop.

FAQ

Does it need Yoast SEO?

No. The SEO fields are saved in the format used by Yoast SEO, so they appear automatically if it is active. Without it they are stored and ignored.

Can it publish immediately?

Not in this version. Posts are created as drafts (or pending review) so you can check them first.

What happens to images inside the article?

They keep their original URLs. Only the featured image is downloaded into the Media Library.

What happens when I delete the plugin?

Temporary preview data is removed. Imported posts and images are kept.

Reviews

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Contributors & Developers

“Draftdrop – Markdown Importer with Front Matter & SEO Fields” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.

Contributors

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Interested in development?

Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.

Changelog

0.1.6

  • Clearer plugin name and description for the plugin directory; icon, banner and screenshots added. No code changes.

0.1.5

  • Compatibility: tested up to WordPress 7.1.

0.1.4

  • Fixes from the official Plugin Check: standard direct-access guards, stricter handling of uploaded file data, bundled Markdown library renamed to avoid conflicts with other plugins.

0.1.3

  • Tables are saved in the exact format Gutenberg uses, so the editor does not need to convert them.
  • The “Create drafts” button is hidden when nothing in the batch can be imported.

0.1.2

  • The preview now reports unsafe HTML that was removed (scripts, styles, iframes and similar). Script and style contents are removed completely.

0.1.1

  • Sites that use the Classic editor now receive plain HTML instead of block markup. Filter: draftdrop_use_blocks.

0.1.0

  • First release.

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