import an existing static site in eZ.

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Author	Message
Olivier Moreau	Thursday 03 July 2008 2:32:51 pm I'm looking for a way to import an existing static site in eZ. The site contains hundreds of pages and more than a thousand files. I don't feel doing that manualy :-( Any suggestions ?
Piotrek Karaś	Thursday 03 July 2008 9:32:18 pm Welcome to the community, Olivier! I don't think I know all the available import extensions, but those that we used required some eZ expertise and at least understanding of how object attributes of certain datatypes behave. It may be especially difficult to move formatted docs into XMLBlock, especially if you do not have a consistent HTML structure. Also, you should think of content structure. If your existing site has a complex structure that does not follow a proper tree model, then you will have some thinking and development to do. And I haven't seen any automated import for structures, either. Above all, eZ Publish does not exactly work in page-like way, so before you start thinking of your import, if you do not have much eZ experience, I would recommend studying its content engine. It might be that your site should implement several classes of objects in order to benefit from eZ features. Check here: http://ez.no/developer/contribs/import_export For files, I would use WebDAV for example, you will be able to upload those quickly, no relations thought, as far as I know: http://ez.no/doc/ez_publish/technical_manual/4_0/features/webdav Good luck, Piotrek -- Company: mediaSELF Sp. z o.o., http://www.mediaself.pl eZ references: http://ez.no/partners/worldwide_partners/mediaself eZ certified developer: http://ez.no/certification/verify/272585 eZ blog: http://ez.ryba.eu
Olivier Moreau	Friday 04 July 2008 6:27:32 am Hi Piotrek and all Thanks for your warm welcome in the eZ community, I much appreciate your quick reply. Before posting, we checked the available features and import extensions and did not find much information for such a big issue (from our current point of view). The basic principle of keeping content and designed separated would of course be hard to respect with a magic "import all" button. The design can be lost, because that's the reason for redoing the site ! The content cannot. Files are easy with WebDAV and that's a good starting point. The ideal import script for the database would be to : - extract all the text from the static web pages and create correponding nodes with 3 attributes : title (text line), body (xml), creation_date (import date for separating old nodes from new ones). - analyse the site structure and create a corresponding node tree (easy stuff, isn't it ?) From that content level import, we would finish by hand by recreating the design. However, your warning is clear : "It may be especially difficult to move formatted docs into XMLBlock, especially if you do not have a consistent HTML structure." Like any similar migration problem, the basic question is : "what is more efficient (time/money) : convert by hand or create the [import all] button ?" Thanks again for your insight on this topic.

Author

Message

Thursday 03 July 2008 2:32:51 pm

I'm looking for a way to import an existing static site in eZ. The site contains hundreds of pages and more than a thousand files. I don't feel doing that manualy :-(
Any suggestions ?

Piotrek Karaś

Thursday 03 July 2008 9:32:18 pm

Welcome to the community, Olivier!

I don't think I know all the available import extensions, but those that we used required some eZ expertise and at least understanding of how object attributes of certain datatypes behave. It may be especially difficult to move formatted docs into XMLBlock, especially if you do not have a consistent HTML structure.

Also, you should think of content structure. If your existing site has a complex structure that does not follow a proper tree model, then you will have some thinking and development to do. And I haven't seen any automated import for structures, either.

Above all, eZ Publish does not exactly work in page-like way, so before you start thinking of your import, if you do not have much eZ experience, I would recommend studying its content engine. It might be that your site should implement several classes of objects in order to benefit from eZ features.

Check here:
http://ez.no/developer/contribs/import_export

For files, I would use WebDAV for example, you will be able to upload those quickly, no relations thought, as far as I know:
http://ez.no/doc/ez_publish/technical_manual/4_0/features/webdav

Good luck,
Piotrek

--
Company: mediaSELF Sp. z o.o., http://www.mediaself.pl
eZ references: http://ez.no/partners/worldwide_partners/mediaself
eZ certified developer: http://ez.no/certification/verify/272585
eZ blog: http://ez.ryba.eu

Olivier Moreau

Friday 04 July 2008 6:27:32 am

Hi Piotrek and all

Thanks for your warm welcome in the eZ community, I much appreciate your quick reply.

Before posting, we checked the available features and import extensions and did not find much information for such a big issue (from our current point of view).

The basic principle of keeping content and designed separated would of course be hard to respect with a magic "import all" button. The design can be lost, because that's the reason for redoing the site ! The content cannot.

Files are easy with WebDAV and that's a good starting point.
The ideal import script for the database would be to :
- extract all the text from the static web pages and create correponding nodes with 3 attributes : title (text line), body (xml), creation_date (import date for separating old nodes from new ones).
- analyse the site structure and create a corresponding node tree (easy stuff, isn't it ?)

From that content level import, we would finish by hand by recreating the design.

However, your warning is clear :
"It may be especially difficult to move formatted docs into XMLBlock, especially if you do not have a consistent HTML structure."

Like any similar migration problem, the basic question is : "what is more efficient (time/money) : convert by hand or create the [import all] button ?"

Thanks again for your insight on this topic.

eZ debug

Timing:	Jan 18 2025 11:34:36
Script start
Timing:	Jan 18 2025 11:34:36
Module start 'layout'
Timing:	Jan 18 2025 11:34:36
Module start 'content'
Timing:	Jan 18 2025 11:34:36
Module end 'content'
Timing:	Jan 18 2025 11:34:36
Script end

Main resources:

Total runtime	0.0158 sec
Peak memory usage	2,048.0000 KB
Database Queries	3

Timing points:

Checkpoint	Start (sec)	Duration (sec)	Memory at start (KB)	Memory used (KB)
Script start	0.0000	0.0047	589.3594	153.4609
Module start 'layout'	0.0047	0.0031	742.8203	39.3906
Module start 'content'	0.0078	0.0057	782.2109	93.6953
Module end 'content'	0.0135	0.0023	875.9063	34.3047
Script end	0.0158		910.2109

Time accumulators:

Accumulator	Duration (sec)	Duration (%)	Count	Average (sec)
Ini load
Load cache	0.0023	14.5569	14	0.0002
Check MTime	0.0010	6.3338	14	0.0001
Mysql Total
Database connection	0.0004	2.6923	1	0.0004
Mysqli_queries	0.0022	14.1531	3	0.0007
Looping result	0.0000	0.0829	1	0.0000
Template Total	0.0017	10.8	1	0.0017
Template load	0.0008	4.7895	1	0.0008
Template processing	0.0009	5.9963	1	0.0009
Override
Cache load	0.0004	2.4015	1	0.0004
General
dbfile	0.0003	1.7145	8	0.0000
String conversion	0.0000	0.0512	4	0.0000
Note: percentages do not add up to 100% because some accumulators overlap

Templates used to render the page:

Usage	Requested template	Template	Template loaded	Edit	Override
1	print_pagelayout.tpl	<No override>	extension/community/design/community/templates/print_pagelayout.tpl
Number of times templates used: 1 Number of unique templates used: 1

Time used to render debug report: 0.0001 secs