Advice needed for importing custom field data and database structure

Question

Looking for advice for the best method to accomplish the following.

I have a custom page template with several custom fields/taxonomy.

The data needed for these custom fields actually resides in .txt files that are updated once a week. They are easily converted into .csv files. What would be the best and most secure method in getting this data into a custom page template, I figure I have 3 options.

Read the raw .txt or .csv files using custom php? Import the .csv into a separate database and grab the data from it? Import the data into the WordPress database?

Option 3 seems to be the best one, but I am completely unfamiliar with the wordpress database structure and the best way to go about this.

Answer 1

Unlikely that you will need intermediary database, from your description this is likely to be easy enough with bit of PHP and WP APIs.

1. Create WP-Cron task (if you need automated recurrent import).

2. Read data from flat files, for example with fgetcsv().

3. Use wp_insert_post() for creating posts and custom field functions to add your data. This was recently covered in detail in WP insert post PHP function and Custom Fields question.