Migration from Legacy CMS to Drupal

Drupal Migration
Migrating 100,000 pages of content
From Legacy CMS to Drupal
Rachel Jaro
Solutions Architect at PrometSource
www.prometsource.com

Overview
We’ll talk about:
Successful migration recipe
Common questions you should be asking before you start
Top 3 tools to do migration in Drupal
Issues
Tools to use in URL Rewriting
File management Comparison in D6
Testing
Deploying Solution

Data Migration
“Data migration solutions extract data from a source system, correct errors, reformat, restructure and load the data into a replacement target system”.
It sounds simple, but poorly managed data migration is the most common cause of failure in implementing a replacement system.
-- Gershon Pick, March 2001

Successful Migration Recipe

Planning
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjornmeansbear/4380595283/

Plan: What to Ask
Node types (Content separation, fields)
Do you want to separate contents into pages, articles, biography, news, etc.
What fields are needed for each node?
Who can access it?
Do you really need that content type? Or can we just use taxonomies instead for similar contents.

Plan: What to Ask
Taxonomy (Categorization, tags)
Do you need to categorize nodes?
Would you need different access?
What kind of taxonomy groups or vocabularies you would need?
Permission (per nodes) and User Roles
Who are going to use the site?
What are particularly their access rights?

Plan: What to Ask
New URL mapping
Do you need to make SEO friendly URLs?
Files, files permissions and file directory
Do you need advance file management or document management tool?
Do you need simpler solutions? How simple is that.
Do you need access rights for each folder?
Do you need browser type interface to access them?
What kind of files do you need to store? Images, pdfs?

Requirements
Use CSV files to import data
Divide migration into group or sections
Map and replace old URL to SEO friendly URL
Before: 05-200.htm

Data in CSV Example
December 13, 2005 3:39:54 PM||||||||||December 13, 2005||||||||||Report Spotlights Need for Reform in Jackpot Jurisdictions||||||||||/press/releases/2005/december/||||||||||05-200||||||||||{UUID}|||||||||| Economics^^^^^^^^^^Economy ||||||||||
<p>LoremIpsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. LoremIpsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. </p>
<p>LoremIpsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry. LoremIpsum has been the industry's standard dummy text ever since the 1500s, when an unknown printer took a galley of type and scrambled it to make a type specimen book. </p>
$$$$$$$$$$
Separator: ||||||||||
End of Row: $$$$$$$$$$

Content Type Division
Example: CNN.com
Divide migration sequences into US, World, Politics, Justice, etc

Solutions/Tools
TW and Migrate modules Combo
node_import()
Drush + custom script

TW & Migrate Module Combo
http://drupal.org/project/tw
Supports Migrate module to run views of source data
http://drupal.org/project/migrate
a flexible framework for migrating content

Migrate Module
Features:
users browse their legacy data using views
support for creating Drupal nodes, users, and comments is included
hooks permit migration of other types of content.
provides a dashboard for running mini migrations
Drush support

Why I did not choose migrate
Importing to mysql was not an option. CSV were used instead
Cannot map old URL to new URL

node_import()
http://drupal.org/project/node_import
Features:
Easy to learn, Point and click
Uses CSV to upload contents
Can easily delete previous imported data
Can download errors when import failed for easy reference to fix issues

node_import() Problems
I can’t define map old URL to new URL
No drush support
It doesn’t save my old settings for a csv.

Drush + Custom script
Flexibility
- I can do whatever I want with the data

Create your own migration script
[demo]

Issues
File Management
URL Rewriting

File Management
Client requirements
Intuitive
Has wysiwyg support
Access control – upload, edit, delete, revise files by different roles
Revision control – optional but good to have
Limited time!

File Management Modules
*DbFm was not included due to problems encountered during tests in D6

URL Rewriting
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/randomfactor/483264915/

URLs Rewriting Solution
Not recommended
.htaccess
Too many URL to handle.
Too much server load
Recommended
pathauto + path_redirect modules
automated alias settings
301 redirect set
global redirect
Additional reference:
http://acquia.com/blog/migrating-drupal-way-part-ii-saving-those-old-urls

URL Checker
http://drupal.org/project/linkchecker

Access control Alternative
/default/files/PressReleases
/default/files/Documents
/default/files/International
/default/files/International/America
/default/files/International/England
/default/files/International/Asia

Test, Test and did I say Test?
Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/paperpariah/2424107350/

Common problems
Broken links
Misconfigured page
Empty pages
Invalid date
File not found or orphan pages
Page format
Test when CACHE is on

Deployment

Deployment
2 Ways to Deploy your data to live environment
All at once
Divide and conquer

Deployment: Divide and Conquer
Example: CNN Division

Deployment Mockup
* shadow box is your migrated data’s production box
* old CMS is still active at this time

Deployment
Coordination between the old CMS and Drupal
URL Testing

Deployment Mockup
* shadow box is your migrated data’s production box
* replacing old CMS with Drupal

Deployment
Pros
Less risk, less stress
Editors can do continues data entry daily
Cons
URL rewriting can be a tricky
Updating the production box with new content can be an arduous task

Deployment: Updating Production
Automation
SVN
Drush scripts to migrate contents from tester’s box to shadow box
Deploy – http://drupal.org/project/deploy
Manual
Document configuration changes
Document database changes

Recap
SDLC + Agile
Common questions you should be asking before you start
Top 3 tools to do migration in Drupal
TW & Migrate, node_import(), drush
Issues
File management Comparison in D6
Tools to use in URL Rewriting
Testing
Deployment Solution

Questions?

Resources
http://groups.drupal.org/content-migration-import-and-export
http://drupal.org/handbook/migrating

Migration from Legacy CMS to Drupal

by Rachel Jaro on Jul 21, 2010

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Migration from Legacy CMS to Drupal — Presentation Transcript