Synch Custom Post Types (and Custom Fields, Cats, etc.) Between WordPress Sites

Question

I've built two WordPress sites. One is public site--people go to it, view my content, etc. The other site is a private course catalog. In the course catalog I have 3 custom post types. The content of the course catalog gets shared to different places via templates that output XML, PDFs, and so on, and then the content also needs to go to my main site. The course catalog posts change from time to time, so the main site needs to update to reflect those changes.

I can't figure out HOW, though. I'm hoping the community here can help me figure it out.

Using WordPress Export to get the custom post types out form the course catalog and import into the main site works but for two problems: existing posts will not be updated to reflect changes and categories from the course catalog CREATE categories in the main site instead of using the already existing, identically named categories.

I've looked into FeedWordPress, but it doesn't do custom post types and custom fields, even if I build an RSS template in the course catalog to show those custom fields.

WP All Import says it will do everything but the categories, but I need the categories to map correctly between sites. The content is organized and filtered by category in the course catalog front end.

Help? Please?

Answer 1

You've created a structure that is going to be difficult to manage. Independent WordPress sites do not communicate by default, or readily, or easily.

1. My suggestion would be to roll both sites into one with the course catalog being a custom post type with rigid controls over who can view the content.
2. If that is not possible, then I'd suggest creating a kind of API for the private site so that the main site can access to retrieve information. There are some plugins out there that do at least part of that, but I have never used any of them and can't recommend any.
3. Depending on your hosting, you may be able to set up a new wpdb object and access one database from the other site directly. i suppose, you could consider that a subset of the preceding suggestion.

None of the solution are going to be easy or quick. Whichever way you go, you have a pretty involved project ahead of you-- much more involved than can be reasonably "solved" in an answer here.

Syncing content like you are thinking of doing, or are trying to do, is going to be even more complicated, labor and server intensive, and I would put my money on "extremely error prone" as well.