[wp-hackers] Improving the XML export/import

[Matt Mullenweg]

Robert Deaton wrote:
> (1) Make it essentially a database dump, but in XML format. Include a
> way to recreate the entire database schema as well as repopulate it
> with XML. One main drawback of this is everyone will immediately ask
> "Why do what the database backup plugin does over again in XML?"
> Simple, its export. This means that the format should be database
> agnostic, so that it can be imported into other systems, across
> versions of WP, etc. I am particularly fond of this method.

One thing I would like to see, which ties into this, is some filters for 
the dump.

For example you might want just the posts from one author, or in one 
category.

It might also make sense to add "id" attributes to elements in the XML 
that could have them, though we might have to namespace these to 
maintain RSS 2.0 compatibility.

Category hierarchy.

> (2) Keep the system as it is, adding hooks where necessary to allow
> plugins to inject their own data where they need to to have it
> exported. We also (imho) need to include some other information in the
> exports which the above method would fix. Some things to include are
> users, options, categories, links, etc.

Hooks are a great idea.

I'd just as soon leave out users and options.

-- 
Matt Mullenweg
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