Description
Owldraft Starter Sites imports a theme demo into your site: its posts, pages, photos, menus, footer widgets, Customizer settings and fonts. Pick a demo under Appearance Starter Sites, click Import, and your site looks like the demo a minute later. Then replace the sample content with your own.
Undo without losing work
Everything the import adds is tagged, so Remove demo content knows exactly what came from the demo. It deletes only demo content you haven’t touched:
- Demo posts and pages you edited (or that received comments) stay, and become your own.
- Photos you still use, in any post, widget or as your logo, stay.
- Categories and tags still used by your posts stay, and so do menus you changed.
- Your own posts and pages are never touched.
Removal can also put back the menus, widgets, site title and Customizer settings you had before the import. If you changed those after importing, this option starts off, so your changes aren’t undone by accident.
What it does
- One click, in small steps. Photos download a few at a time and every step is a short request, so the import works on shared hosting without hitting time limits.
- Shows what changes before it changes it. The import dialog tells you if your site already has content, which settings the demo replaces, and which plugins (if any) it installs. Recommended plugins come ticked, and you can untick them.
- Tidies the default content. If WordPress’s “Hello world!” post and “Sample Page” are untouched, the import can move them to the Trash. Removing the demo brings them back.
- Optional demo bylines. Demo authors can be added as users without an email address or a usable password, or every post can be credited to you.
- Fonts included. A demo’s fonts are added to your site’s Font Library, the same way fonts installed in the editor are, so nothing loads from Google.
- No account, no tracking, no upsell. It downloads the demo you pick and nothing else.
Supported themes
- Stoat: a lightweight theme for blogs, newsletters and marketing sites.
- Evermag: a news and magazine theme, with demos for local news, tech, sports, business, entertainment and more.
More Owldraft themes will follow. If your active theme has no demos, the Starter Sites screen lists the themes that do and changes nothing on your site.
For developers
The same importer is available in WP-CLI:
wp owldraft-starter-sites listwp owldraft-starter-sites import stoat/main [--no-site-title] [--no-authors] [--no-defaults] [--no-recommended]wp owldraft-starter-sites remove [--keep-settings]wp owldraft-starter-sites export <theme>/<demo> --dir=<folder>turns a site into a demo package.
External services
This plugin downloads demo files from starter.owldraft.com, a file server run by Owldraft (hosted on Cloudflare R2). It needs this to show and import demos; nothing else depends on it.
What is downloaded, and when:
- When you open Appearance Starter Sites: your server downloads the list of demos (
index.json, cached for 12 hours), and your browser shows each demo’s preview image from the same server. - When you click Import: that demo’s content file (
demo.json), its photos and its font files.
These are plain file downloads. Like every request WordPress makes, they include your server’s IP address and a user agent with the WordPress version and your site’s address. The plugin sends no other data, and makes no requests while you’re not on the Starter Sites screen or importing.
- Owldraft terms of service: https://owldraft.com/terms/
- Owldraft privacy policy: https://owldraft.com/privacy-policy/
If a demo needs or recommends a plugin, that plugin is installed from WordPress.org (through WordPress’s own plugin installer), only after you confirm the import, and a recommended plugin only if you leave it ticked.
Installation
- In your dashboard, go to Plugins Add New, search for “Owldraft Starter Sites”, then install and activate it.
- Make sure a supported theme is active (for example Stoat).
- Go to Appearance Starter Sites, pick a demo and click Import.
To undo, open Appearance Starter Sites again and click Remove demo content.
FAQ
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Will importing delete my posts?
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No. The demo’s posts and pages are added next to yours. The import does change your home page, menus, widgets, site title and Customizer settings, and you can put those back when you remove the demo.
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I edited a demo post. Will removing the demo delete it?
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No. Any demo post or page you saved after the import stays, together with the photos, categories and author name it uses. Only demo content you haven’t touched is removed.
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Can I import a different demo later?
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Yes. Importing another demo first removes the previous demo’s untouched content. Anything you edited stays.
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Where do the demo photos and fonts come from?
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Photos come from Unsplash and StockSnap. Their licenses allow free use on your site, including commercial use. Replace them with your own photos whenever you like.
Fonts come from Google Fonts, under the SIL Open Font License, and are stored on your own site.
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Most demos show newsletter signup forms made with Owldraft Newsletter, a free plugin on WordPress.org. The import dialog lists it as a recommended plugin, ticked: leave it ticked and it is installed and activated from WordPress.org, so the forms come with the demo.
Untick it, and the forms are left out, so nothing on your site shows an empty box or an editor error. If you install the plugin later, add its Subscribe block wherever you want a form.
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My theme isn’t listed.
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Starter sites are made for Owldraft themes. With any other theme active, the plugin only shows which themes have demos.
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What happens to demo content if I delete the plugin?
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It stays, as normal posts, pages and media. Use “Remove demo content” first if you don’t want to keep it.
Reviews
There are no reviews for this plugin.
Contributors & Developers
“Owldraft Starter Sites” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “Owldraft Starter Sites” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
0.9.6
- Demos can recommend plugins from WordPress.org. The import dialog lists them, ticked, and you can untick any of them; an unticked plugin’s blocks are left out, as before.
- The Stoat and Evermag demos recommend Owldraft Newsletter for their signup forms.
- A recommended plugin that can’t be installed no longer stops the import: its blocks are left out, and the progress list says why.
- WP-CLI:
--no-recommendedskips the recommended plugins.
0.9.5
- First release on WordPress.org. Demos install plugins from WordPress.org only.
- WP-CLI:
--no-site-title,--no-authorsand--no-defaultswork.
0.9.3
- Evermag has one demo, the live site at evermag.owldraft.com, and it imports into the Evermag on WordPress.org (0.9.1 and up). The three earlier demos needed an Evermag version that never shipped.
0.9.2
- Stoat demo matches stoat.owldraft.com again.
- Export: classic Navigation Menu and Categories widgets come along as the same blocks.
- A widget or group that loses an optional plugin’s block no longer leaves its heading behind.
0.9.1
- Evermag demos.
- Imports a demo’s fonts into the Font Library, and its Additional CSS above your own (removed with the demo unless you edit it).
- Demo authors can have a photo as their avatar.
- Blocks from optional plugins that aren’t active are left out of the import.
- Export: post IDs in block settings, fonts and Additional CSS;
--excludeto leave out pages.
0.9.0
- First public release.
- Demo list for the active theme, with preview.
- Import in small steps: photos, posts and pages, menus, widgets, Customizer settings, site title.
- Remove demo content without losing work: edited posts, photos and terms still in use, changed menus and their authors stay.
- Put back the previous menus, widgets, site title and Customizer settings on removal.
- WP-CLI commands: list, import, remove, export.