Converting a web site from one content management system (or - ack! - raw HTML files) to another is always challenging. Going to Drupal is no exception. How does one go about it? What are the challenges and what's the best way to meet them? And what about exporting content from Drupal for use by other systems?
This group (formerly Data Import/Export, devoted to one solution) is for discussion of best practices in content migration. How do you manage the process? What are the things that are likely to trip you up? What tools are available?
In the short term, a major focus in this group is seeing if we can consolidate some of the myriad existing tools to aid in migration.
Migrate module workflow refactoring
I'm in the middle of implementing Update migrated content in-place, while thinking ahead to Workflow integration. The checkboxes on the current dashboard basically are defining a default workflow, for use by cron processing or the drush migrate all command, and adding the update option is making this just a little too complicated. So, I'm going to take a little poll here, followed by a description of what I'm thinking of in terms of a V1 dashboard and workflow approach, while anticipating a full implementation of defined workflows in a future version.
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Synchronizing nodes from 5x to 6x...
Hey all,
Is there a module that synchronizes two Drupal sites, migrating nodes created one in the other? My sites are D5 -> D6. I'd like to preserve URL aliases if possible. Mainly I'm synchronizing blogs, with all the related comment/user/node issues. I've seen some ideas out there (Node Export with Node Import), but I'd like to know if anyone has done this simply or has some clever idea.
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Migrate i18n
I've just committed a rough dev version of an i18n helper module for multilingual migrations using the migrate module.
http://drupal.org/project/migrate_i18n
It assumes that there is a more or less well-structured set of translation relationships on the source side, and thus far deals only with nodes and fully multilingual taxonomy terms.
I'm relatively new to messing around with the migrate module, so any advice, questions, or comments would be most welcome.
Read moreNew Handbook page: How to preserve old URLs during Drupal to Drupal migration by preserving nids and using mod_rewrite
Here it is: http://drupal.org/node/570906
Let me know if there are any grievous errors.
-glass.dimly
Read moreMerging content types?
Hi all,
I have a D5 mid-size site. Over the last 2 years, we have been using 2 content types as the electronic version of hardcopy publications (Reports). One is for a Report Summary and another one is for a Paged Report. The second one was made a different content type mainly because at that point we migrated content from word files using a .pl script and the xslt_book module. Long story short, now I want to merge both of the content types, any suggestions on how to proceed?
Thanks!
Read moreNew Handbook page
Hey all,
I created a new handbook page with a short script, and I wanted folks to take a look and see what they thought. The script cycles through all the site nodes, loads them, then saves them.
Read moreImport/Export API Module Version 2
As I'm debugging the code for the Drupal 6 port of importexportapi I am thinking of ideas for the version 2 rendition of the module. The original version of the module was written before there was a Schema API to use and with the Schema API the module could take on a whole different form. Also, currently the module is written to import/export Drupal tables only based on the modules name, not bad, but this doesn't give any room for external data sources that are not tied to a module enabled by Drupal. Therefore an API for the external data needs to be created.
Read moreMerger with Data Import/Export group
The Data Import/Export and Migration to Drupal groups are being merged together. Data Import/Export was devoted to one project in this area while Migrate to Drupal was started for more general discussion - what we're going to do is close the group now known as Migration to Drupal and alter the charter for Data Import/Export to be more general (this is the easiest way to handle it, since Data Import/Export has the larger membership).
If you are a member of Migration to Drupal, you should join Data Import/Export to stay involved.
Thanks.
Read moreComparison of Content and User Import and Export Modules
There are a multitude of different import and export modules in existence to handle the complex task of moving data between other systems and Drupal. This wiki is an attempt to focus the efforts of the module developers and provide a handy guide for users looking to make a decision.
Importing/Exporting/Transforming data is a complex process and each of these modules approach it in a different way.
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Migrating from Wordpress?
Do you plan on including turn-key solutions for migrating from specific CMSes, e.g. Wordpress? Please see a discussion I've started elsewhere about how to handle improvements I've made to a related module that currently is not already on d.o. Ultimately I'd like to merge wp2drupal into a more general app but if Migrate isn't intended to be like that then there's no point. Thanks.
Read moreMigrate module V2
The Migrate module is already garnering some good feedback. My immediate plan is to stablize the current code base of V1 - please discuss ideas for further extension and refactoring here.
Thanks.
Read moreMigration references
This wiki page lists references helpful to administrators and developers dealing with migrating websites to Drupal. Feel free to add additional references you feel will be helpful.
Tools
Migration modules
These modules directly migrate external data into Drupal.
Read moreExport Views as XML
Just wondering if I would be able to export a result set of a view as XML using this API. Is this possible?
The other option would be to create and XML output based on a DB query as done in http://www.travistidwell.com/drupal_flash_interface.
Which way should I go? Are there other options beyond the above?
Thanks!!
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Current status of Import/Export API?
I think this project could be one of the most important developments in Drupal. I noticed that most of the documentation points to this as a beta project.
Could you provide a summary of its current status?
- How "beta" is it?
- Does it work with Drupal 5 and CCK?
- How hard is it to keep up with the data changes in CCK?
- Is this a candidate for SOC 07?
Thanks for all your hard work! I too, think this should be part of Drupal core.
Read moreDocbook import based on this API. How hard ?
Hi.. I'm currently investigating http://drupal.org/project/docbook because i'd like to port that to drupal 5.x
But in the meantime i also found out about this http://drupal.org/project/importexportapi module, so i was thinking of rewriting the original docbook module and let it depend on this import API. No need to reinvent the wheel, and i guess that by doing so i only need to bother with the docbook format and no longer with the whole XML parsing.
I'm a right? Is there anyone interested in collaborating with me?
Greetz.
Read moreXSD schema import?
Really a prayer rather than a query - what are the feasibilies to taking an existing XML schema and importing it using this API? - am I in completely the wrong ballpark?
I work with biological databases and we have a whole load of standard data exchange formats (see TDWG for further information on these standards), and it would be really neat™ if this were possible.
Let me know if I need to be going elsewhere.
Thanks,
Kehan
Examples of Import/Export API use
Hi All,
I am currently trying to get my head around this API.
I need to import a CSV file into Drupal.. simple enough really.
What I'm looking for is some example of use of the ImportExportApi in use in some other modules.
I find it really helps to see the code in action somewhere, to get a good feel for how it works.
So apart from the Module itself, can anybody point me int the right direction?
Later
Alan
Beta testers wanted
Re-posting from the development mailing list:
The Import / Export API has finally reached what I would consider to be 'beta quality'. The module currently supports import and export of all entities in Drupal core (e.g. users, nodes, comments, terms/vocabs), as well as CCK nodes / fields / node types. All supported entities can be imported or exported in XML or CSV format.
The Summer of Code officially finishes next Monday (21st Aug). I would appreciate it very much if anyone who has the time (and the curiosity!) could help out with testing my work. The module is compatible with Drupal 4.7 stable (although it has no 4.7 branch, only a HEAD branch), and it can be downloaded here:
Read moreImport/Export with other CMSs?
[Some questions/suggestions that are kinda late in the game, but coming from research I've been doing today....]
To what extent is this API intended to facilitate data exchanges between Drupal and other CMSs?
Have you seen the Portable Site Information PSI specification, http://psilib.sourceforge.net/? It sets out a generalized XML interchange format for CMS data (and provides some tools written in Python). Would it be useful to consider this as a basis for the Import/Export XML format?
A potentially useful reference is the Exorcist softare produced as an offshoot of the Midgard CMS, http://www.midgard-project.org/documentation/exorcist/. It provides a general toolset for data exchanges between CMSs (in Java).
Read moreImport/Export API: +5
I have been a recent contributor to node_import, plus I just published a new module in this space, scraper, which is a HTML scraping tool. I definitely think this project is needed.
This API potentially has major implications for Drupal core, and should probably some day be a part of Drupal core. I have been surprised to find how much Drupal core is tied to the form for doing node operations. For example, I found that node validation is almost totally hard-coded to the node form submission process. I found this to be a major challenge for permitting node_import to validate nodes it is about to import. Perhaps you will find better workarounds to validating a node as you import it.
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