| 1 | |
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| 2 | CONTENTS OF THIS FILE |
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| 3 | --------------------- |
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| 4 | |
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| 5 | * Overview |
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| 6 | * Installation |
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| 7 | * Usage |
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| 8 | |
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| 9 | OVERVIEW |
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| 10 | -------- |
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| 11 | |
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| 12 | The purpose of this module is to provide a way to move data between |
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| 13 | Drupal instances. |
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| 14 | |
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| 15 | This is not easy to achieve as Drupal stores configuration and data in |
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| 16 | the same database. Also, Drupal can be extended and customised which |
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| 17 | makes creating a standard data export/import module effectively |
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| 18 | impossible. |
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| 19 | |
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| 20 | This module will provide a framework for exporting datasets as files |
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| 21 | and also for importing these dataset files. That way if the module is |
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| 22 | installed on two separate Drupal instances it will be possible to |
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| 23 | export data as a dataset file from one instance and import it into a |
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| 24 | different Drupal instance. |
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| 25 | |
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| 26 | This module will be customisable and extendable by adding new profiles |
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| 27 | to take into account different Drupal builds. This means that if a |
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| 28 | Drupal instance has a very specialised setup it will be possible to |
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| 29 | create a new dataset profile to export/import data. |
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| 30 | |
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| 31 | The module currently includes two initial dataset profiles which can |
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| 32 | be used on standard Drupal instances. These enable the following |
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| 33 | datasets to be exported/imported. |
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| 34 | |
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| 35 | * Taxonomy vocabulary terms |
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| 36 | * Pages |
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| 37 | |
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| 38 | When exporting all data should be exported - when importing the data |
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| 39 | should be used in a way to make sure that the receiving Drupal |
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| 40 | instance ends up with matching data. Careful checks will be needed to |
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| 41 | ensure ID's match, that the data remains consistent. |
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| 42 | |
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| 43 | Effectively this module will be similar to the backup_migrate module |
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| 44 | except that the backup_migrate profiles will be extended. Currently |
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| 45 | the backup_migrate profiles only allow for the choice of which tables |
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| 46 | will be exported/imported and a few other settings. This module will |
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| 47 | use the Druapl API to read data and produce rich data files which will |
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| 48 | contain all data needed to reproduce a particular dataset. It will |
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| 49 | also use the Drupal API to recreate data. It may also be necessary to |
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| 50 | use SQL directly to export/import data. |
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| 51 | |
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| 52 | The primary usage for this module is envisioned to be exporting |
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| 53 | datasets from a live Drupal site and importing this live data into a |
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| 54 | new updated version of the site which developers have been working |
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| 55 | on - i.e. a beta version. Once the import has completed then the newly |
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| 56 | developed site can become the new live site. This has the advantage of |
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| 57 | being able to fall back to the original live site if there is an |
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| 58 | unforseen problem between the new version of the site and the live |
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| 59 | data. |
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| 60 | |
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| 61 | It will be necessary to carry out proper checks when importing |
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| 62 | datasets. E.g.. when node data is being imported it will be necessary |
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| 63 | to check that the receiving site has the correct content type and |
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| 64 | fields etc. It may be necessary to use the UUID module to provide |
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| 65 | unique ID's. |
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| 66 | |
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| 67 | INSTALLATION |
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| 68 | ------------ |
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| 69 | |
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| 70 | * Put the module in your Drupal modules directory and enable it in |
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| 71 | admin/build/modules. |
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| 72 | * Go to admin/user/permissions and grant permission to any roles that |
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| 73 | need to be able to export or import datasets. |
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| 74 | |
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| 75 | USAGE |
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| 76 | ----- |
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| 77 | |
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| 78 | * Configure and use the module at admin/content/data_export_import. |
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| 79 | * The dataset files are exported to and imported from |
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| 80 | {files}/data_export_import. Various methods can be used to manage |
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| 81 | the files and to move the files between Drupal instances. |
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| 82 | Although not tested the module at: |
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| 83 | http://drupal.org/project/webfm looks suitable for file management. |
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| 84 | * The user which is running the module needs to have permissions to |
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| 85 | be able to delete nodes when importing pages. It is expected that |
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| 86 | data exporting and importing will be carried out by the admin user |
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| 87 | which has correct permissions. |
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| 88 | * Currently the pages import has been created to import standard |
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| 89 | simple pages. It can handle a simple added text type CCK field - |
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| 90 | but any other file type fields are not being handled yet. |
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| 91 | * If you have taxonomy terms associated with pages this has not been |
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| 92 | coded for yet. It may work OK but you might be better to import |
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| 93 | the taxonomy terms separately first and then import the pages. |
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| 94 | |
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| 95 | NOTES |
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| 96 | ----- |
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| 97 | |
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| 98 | * This module is not compatible with any site which has localisation |
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| 99 | enabled. Checks have been put in place to prevent data being output |
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| 100 | if localisation has been installed and enabled using the i18n |
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| 101 | module. |
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| 102 | * If this is a requirement then please get in touch with the |
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| 103 | maintainer. |
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