Pure Demo Importer
Drop-in demo importer/exporter for WordPress themes.
Solid choice
Pure Demo Importer is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 40+ sites and was last updated 5 days ago, and scores 67/100 on our health check.
- Actively developed ā last update 5 days ago
- Tested with the latest WordPress (7.1)
- Small user base (40+ active installs)
- Very few reviews so far
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & supportDaily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release ā each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where Pure Demo Importer stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| demo | >100 |
| demo importer | #27 |
| one click import | >100 |
| starter sites | #100 |
| WXR | #11 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
About Pure Demo Importer
From the official readme Ā· v1.0.12Description
Pure Demo Importer adds a Demo Importer admin page to any WordPress theme that registers itself with the plugin. It can:
- Export the current site’s content (content.xml WXR), widgets (widgets.wie) and customizer settings (customizer.dat) into a single ZIP.
- Import any of the above on a fresh WordPress install, with auto-install and activation of required plugins from the WordPress.org repo.
- Show a live system-requirements check before import with copy-paste fix instructions.
- Optionally reset the site (delete posts/widgets/customizer mods) before importing.
The plugin itself ships no demo config. Themes and core plugins register their demos by hooking the pure_demo_importer_register action ā see “Registering demos” below.
Registering demos
The plugin fires a pure_demo_importer_register action on after_setup_theme:20. Hook into it and call ThemePure_Demo_Importer::register() with your config:
add_action( 'pure_demo_importer_register', function () {
ThemePure_Demo_Importer::register( array(
'theme_name' => 'My Theme',
'theme_slug' => 'my-theme', // drives the filter name
'menu_slug' => 'my-theme-demo',
'menu_title' => 'My Theme Importer',
'menu_icon' => 'dashicons-download',
'demos' => require __DIR__ . '/demo-config/demo.php',
) );
} );
Filter hook: extending the demos array
After the initial ::register() call, the demos array is filterable per theme via the filter {theme_slug}_demo_importer_demos. The filter name is built from your theme_slug ā if you registered with 'theme_slug' => 'consora', the filter is consora_demo_importer_demos. The filter passes two args: ( array $demos, array $config ).
Use this filter to add, remove, or modify demos after the initial register call ā without touching the theme’s static demo.php config.
When the filter fires
Inside ThemePure_Demo_Importer::get_demos() ā every time the admin page (or any AJAX step) reads the demos array. Filter callbacks can be added anywhere that runs before the user opens the Demo Importer page (e.g. functions.php, plugin bootstrap, after_setup_theme).
Where to add the filter callback
Location
When to use
Theme’s demo-config/demo-import.php
Most demos are static ā this is just a small extension.
A separate file (theme/demo-config/extra-demos.php)
Keep dynamic / conditional demos isolated from the static config.
A site-specific plugin (mu-plugins/site-demos.php)
The extra demos are project-specific and shouldn’t ship with the theme.
Example 1: Append an extra demo (most common)
From any plugin or functions.php, after the theme’s register call:
add_filter( 'consora_demo_importer_demos', function ( $demos, $config ) {
$demos[] = array(
'slug' => 'home-bonus',
'name' => 'Bonus Homepage',
'page_preview_image' => 'https://wp.themepure.net/consora/sample-data/preview-image/thumb-bonus.jpg',
'preview_live_url' => 'https://wp.themepure.net/consora/home-bonus',
'required_plugins' => array(
array( 'slug' => 'elementor', 'name' => 'Elementor' ),
),
'content_xml_url' => 'https://wp.themepure.net/consora/sample-data/sample-data/bonus.xml',
'home_page' => 'Home Bonus',
'source_url' => 'https://wp.themepure.net/consora/',
);
return $demos;
}, 10, 2 );
Example 2: Remove a demo conditionally
Hide demos that depend on a plugin which isn’t active (e.g. WooCommerce-only demos):
add_filter( 'consora_demo_importer_demos', function ( $demos, $config ) {
// Hide the WooCommerce demo when Woo isn't active.
if ( ! class_exists( 'WooCommerce' ) ) {
$demos = array_values( array_filter( $demos, function ( $d ) {
return $d['slug'] !== 'home-05';
} ) );
}
return $demos;
}, 10, 2 );
Example 3: Mutate every demo at once
Switch the CDN host across every demo, or force-add a plugin to every demo’s required-plugins list:
add_filter( 'consora_demo_importer_demos', function ( $demos, $config ) {
foreach ( $demos as &$demo ) {
// Force-add a plugin to every demo.
$demo['required_plugins'][] = array(
'slug' => 'wordpress-seo',
'name' => 'Yoast SEO',
);
// Swap the CDN host.
if ( isset( $demo['content_xml_url'] ) ) {
$demo['content_xml_url'] = str_replace(
'wp.themepure.net',
'cdn.themepure.net',
$demo['content_xml_url']
);
}
}
unset( $demo );
return $demos;
}, 10, 2 );
Replacing the demos array entirely
You can also call ::register() with 'demos' => array() and populate the entire list via the filter ā useful if your demos are generated dynamically (e.g. fetched from a remote API at boot).
Other available hooks
Lifecycle actions
themepure_di_before_importā fires before reset / import begins. Args:( $demo ).themepure_di_after_importā fires once all imports complete. Args:( $demo ). Use for WooCommerce page IDs, custom kits, theme options.themepure_di_before_step/themepure_di_after_stepā per-step hooks. Args:( $step, $demo, $arg ).
Reset
themepure_di_reset_preserve_pluginsā filter the list of plugin basenames to keep active across a reset. Default:[ 'pure-demo-importer/pure-demo-importer.php' ]. Append any plugin that registers demos so the demos remain visible after the post-reset page reload.
Downloader
themepure_di_download_timeoutā remote download timeout in seconds (default 300).themepure_di_http_bypass_argsā tweak browser-style headers used when a host 403s the default WP user-agent.
WXR import
themepure_di_wp_import_fetch_attachmentsā skip media sideload during WXR import (default true).themepure_di_wp_import_allow_create_usersā allow WP_Import to create users from XML authors (default false).
Logger
-
themepure_di_logging_enabledā disable site-wide import logging:add_filter( ‘themepure_di_logging_enabled’, ‘__return_false’ );
Logs are written to a private wp-content/uploads/themepure-di-logs-{random}/import.log and rotated at ~2 MB. The random suffix is generated once per site so the log cannot be fetched by guessing its URL.
External services
Pure Demo Importer ships with zero demos configured out of the box (demos => array()) and makes no external connections on its own. It is a drop-in engine: a WordPress theme or plugin integrates with it by registering one or more “demo” entries (each with its own name and URLs) via the pure_demo_importer_register action. Once a theme has registered real demos, the following outbound requests can happen ā always as the direct result of the site administrator clicking a button in the Pure Demo Importer admin screen, never automatically or in the background:
- Demo content download. When the admin clicks “Import” for a specific demo, the plugin downloads that demo’s content files (WXR XML, widgets
.wie/JSON, Customizer.dat, an optional Elementor kit.zip) from the URL(s) the integrating theme configured for that demo. This is a plain HTTP GET of a static file; no site data, personal data, or tracking parameters are sent ā only a standard request for the file at that URL. The host is whatever demo server the theme author operates or points to; this plugin does not operate its own demo-content service and cannot provide a single Terms of Service / Privacy Policy link, since the host is defined entirely by the integrating theme, not by this plugin. - Plugin installation. When the admin clicks “Install” next to a recommended plugin, the plugin is resolved and downloaded from the official WordPress.org Plugin Directory using WordPress core’s own
plugins_api()andPlugin_Upgraderā the same mechanism used by Add New Plugin in wp-admin. See https://wordpress.org/about/privacy/ for WordPress.org’s own privacy policy. No plugin code is ever installed from any other source. - WooCommerce variation-swatch image (optional). If the integrating theme’s demo config includes a
variation_settings_url, the plugin fetches that single URL after import to configure WooCommerce product-variation swatches. Same nature as the demo content download above: a static file fetch to a URL the theme author configured, triggered only by the admin’s own import action.
No analytics, telemetry, or usage tracking of any kind is performed by this plugin.
Installation
- Upload the
pure-demo-importerfolder to/wp-content/plugins/. - Activate “Pure Demo Importer” from the Plugins screen.
- From your theme’s
functions.php(or a core plugin’s bootstrap), hook thepure_demo_importer_registeraction and callThemePure_Demo_Importer::register()with your config. See the “Registering demos” section for a full example.
Frequently asked questions
The plugin says āNo demos configuredā ā what now?
Either your theme/core plugin hasnāt called ThemePure_Demo_Importer::register(), or it called it with an empty demos array. See the āRegistering demosā section above for the correct hook + call pattern. If you want to populate demos via filter only (no register() array), use the {theme_slug}_demo_importer_demos filter described above.
Will reset delete my Pure Demo Importer plugin?
No. The reset always preserves Pure Demo Importer itself ā deactivating the plugin running the reset would terminate the request mid-flight. Use the themepure_di_reset_preserve_plugins filter to preserve additional plugins.
Does this work without the WordPress Importer plugin installed?
Yes. Pure Demo Importer vendors the full WordPress Importer plugin internally at vendor/wordpress-importer/. There is no runtime dependency on the upstream plugin being installed.
Where is the import log?
wp-content/uploads/themepure-di-logs-{random}/import.log ā rotated at ~2 MB. Disable with add_filter( 'themepure_di_logging_enabled', '__return_false' );.
Changelog
Security release. SQL-pack import/export and the built-in SVG sanitizer have been removed; XML parsing, outbound downloads and request handling are hardened. Normal WXR / widgets / customizer imports are unaffected.
1.0.12
- Security: removed the SQL-pack import/export subsystem. It executed statements from a downloaded
.sqldump verbatim, which is an arbitrary-SQL path and has no place in a WordPress.org release. Normal WXR / widgets / customizer importing is unchanged. - Security: removed the bundled regex-based SVG “sanitizer” and stopped allowlisting
svg/svgzor forcing a MIME type from the filename. SVG in demo content is now refused during import unless a proven sanitizer library (enshrined/svg-sanitize, as bundled by Safe SVG) is installed. - Security: all XML now loads through a single hardened path ā
LIBXML_NONET, no entity substitution, DOCTYPE refused, document size capped, libxml error state always restored. The deprecatedlibxmlentity-loader toggle is gone. - Security:
WP_Import::import()can no longer read arbitrary fields from the original request.$_POSTis replaced with a minimal allowlisted array for the duration of the call and restored in afinallyblock, along with filters, deferred counting, cache invalidation and output buffers. - Security: every outbound download now goes through one safe downloader ā http/https only, loopback / private / link-local / unique-local blocked for IPv4 and IPv6, every redirect hop revalidated, redirect and response-size caps, partial files cleaned up on failure.
- Security: the selective-reset payload is now limited by byte size and nesting depth before decoding.
- Security: private upload directories are now named with a per-site random suffix and protected with Apache 2.4-compatible rules, a
web.configand anindex.phpstub, instead of Apache-2.2-only.htaccesssyntax that could 500 a directory on Apache 2.4. - Removed all
set_time_limit()andmemory_limitini_set()calls. Imports rely on bounded AJAX chunks; memory headroom is requested once via WordPress’s ownwp_raise_memory_limit( 'admin' ). - Fixed a PHP 8.4 implicit-nullable parameter deprecation.
- Removed the
tools/build-sql-pack.phpdeveloper script from the distributed package.
1.0.11
- Recommended-plugin installs are now resolved exclusively from the WordPress.org Plugin Directory ā no other source (remote or local) is ever used.
1.0.0
- Initial release.
- AJAX queue-driven import with progress UI.
- Single-shot and chunked WXR import paths.
- Vendored WordPress Importer (no runtime dependency on the upstream plugin).
- Widgets, customizer, metafields, Elementor kit, URL replacement steps.
- Reset site with self-preservation + filterable preserve-list.
- Auto page reload after successful reset.
For developers
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All demo plugins āFAQ
Pure Demo Importer: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org Ā· checked Sep 28, 2026
Is Pure Demo Importer free?
Yes. Pure Demo Importer is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is Pure Demo Importer safe to use in 2026?
Pure Demo Importer is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 40+ sites and was last updated 5 days ago, and scores 67/100 on our health check.
How many websites use Pure Demo Importer?
Pure Demo Importer is active on 40+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 92 times since it launched in September 2026. It was downloaded 92 times in the last 30 days.
Does Pure Demo Importer work with WordPress 7.1?
Yes. The developer has tested Pure Demo Importer up to WordPress 7.1.2, the latest release. It requires WordPress 5.6 or newer.
What PHP version does Pure Demo Importer need?
Pure Demo Importer requires PHP 7.4 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was Pure Demo Importer last updated?
The latest version, 1.0.12, was released on September 23, 2026 (5 days ago).
Who makes Pure Demo Importer?
Pure Demo Importer is developed and maintained by Themepure.
What are the best alternatives to Pure Demo Importer?
The most popular alternatives to Pure Demo Importer are Starter Templates & Sites P⦠(70K+ installs), Rara One Click Demo Import (20K+ installs) and Envo Extra (20K+ installs).
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