Launched: Import from Notion into Coda

I think there is an excel importer, right? I could see how json would be nice too

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Cool. Hopefully more people will adopt Coda. It’s just going to be really rough without multi-column support for the canvas layout. People use it all the time on Notion.

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We’ve heard this a lot and are researching this heavily, but no ETA at the moment. (Yet.)

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I am very pleased with most page content and title, but some other metadata is missing. I may have missed it, but what happens to Notion properties on the page. Are these imported and visible in Coda?

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Glad to hear that things are working well @rwd ! Some information is not exported from Notion, such as Database Page descriptions, and is therefore unable to be imported. You can see a full list of possible import discrepancies on this page of Ben Parker’s Notion User’s Guide to Coda: https://coda.io/@ben-parker/the-notion-users-guide-to-coda/using-the-importer-2.

Are you asking specifically about the properties associated with a row in a database when you open the row as a page in Notion?

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I use Notion web clipper to capture info from the web that I annotate later and would love to import it completely into Coda.

I see the property names and values in the HTML file that Notion exports, but I do not see it in the imported Coda file. I don’t think properties are listed in the page you reference. Am I looking in the wrong place?

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Thanks for sharing that context @rwd! The page you sent is the page representation of a row in a database. The properties data you are referencing is simply displayed on the page, but is actually stored in the parent database. If you export the full database where you store your web clippings (and its subpages) that information will be brought in as columns in a Coda table.

Here is an example to illustrate more clearly what I mean (and the differences between Notion and Coda in this regard). Say I have a reading list in Notion that looks like:

Shared with CloudApp

If I export this database (and its subpages) as HTML, and import them into a Notion doc, I get something like:

Shared with CloudApp

Opening any of the sub pages linked to in the ‘Name’ column, the properties are not shown in the same way at the top of the page like they are in Notion. However, they are listed as columns in the database itself.

Going one step further, if I wanted to emulate showing the row’s properties in each subpage, I could add a view of the database table filtered to show only the row in question:

In summary, the data you are asking about is stored in the database, not on each page. Therefore, you need to export the entire database. Separately, Coda does not, by default, show this information, though you can populate it as desired.

Hope this all makes sense; thanks for the great question!

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Things are working as you described. I had a stumble with Notion initially as the export was of everything in the DB not just those items found by the filter. I am going to move them to a new DB first and then export.

Thanks for your help.

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This is great! As soon as Coda.io has a dark theme, or better yet a way to do custom theming (especially for published docs) I will TOTALLY switch my primary paid low-code solution from Notion to Coda.

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I just wanted to say bravo for having this feature! I was able to import a table with a whole lot of pages and notes into Coda and it worked almost perfectly. Thank you!!

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Dark mode is now available in Beta :slight_smile:

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@Carlos_Roriz_Amplus_Construtora, @Mario [and anyone else who reads this later]
Please click through to :point_down:

(2021-04-22)

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hey @jeo thank you so much for this link!
i’ll compile it right now!
that would be finally the UI unlock for coda doc’s :heart_eyes::heart_eyes::heart_eyes:

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I tried importing my workspace from Notion and I end up with just a blank new document in Coda - is this only for importing single pages? My import file is 1.3gb in size - is that the issue?

Hey @Dwayne_Melancon! Sorry you’re having trouble. The importer is designed for single or multi paged imports, but an import of that large size may take some time to complete. If you are still having issues, do you mind writing to support so we can help resolve any issues?

Yeah … I have a large amount coming from Notion also … and it isn’t working. Is there a work around? In Notion … it’s an all or nothing sort of thing … maybe I could move some to the archive … and move it back … then import piecemeal?

Hey @KeyBerry, thanks for posting! When exporting from Notion, you can export a subset of pages (as detailed here) by selecting the “Export” option on a page, and toggling to include its subpages. This should allow you to export and import in smaller chunks instead of importing your entire workspace at once. If you are still running into issues, please write in to support and we can help resolve them!

great. Trying this now.

OMG!!! AMAZING thanks so much … now to do this 209 times.

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Glad to hear that’s working! I’d recommend you try exporting larger groupings of pages to try and reduce the number of exports and imports you need to do (209 sounds like a lot!). You can always add a new top level page, drag a set of subpages under it, and export that new top level page.