[wp-hackers] GSoC Proposal - Move WordPress

[Manu Krishnan T.V]

Hi,

I am Manu Krishnan T.V, a 6th semester Computer Science Engineering 
student, under Calicut University, Kerala, India.

As I went through the GSoC 2010 ideas of wordpress, I got attracted by 
the "Move WordPress". I have thought about such a feature a while ago, 
when I had an 'extreme' experience in moving a wordpress blog from one 
host to other.

As a part time job and hobby, I do web designing, consultation and 
provide web hosting solutions for clients in my area. I have been using 
wordpress for years and currently manage many wordpress blogs, including 
my personal blog. When I get an assignment of moving a wordpress blog, I 
do it in the normal way of backing up database and files and restoring 
it and if there is a domain change, I prefer replacing the URL in the 
exported sql file.
But, once, I had to move a blog from one hosting provider to mine and 
the owner of the blog had nothing except his wordpress login details and 
was not in good terms with the old hosting provider. So, I had to do all 
the move manually, except the posts(Thanks to those who created 
import/export feature).

I think this is the same case for a wordpress.com user to move his blog 
to a separate host.

So, my idea is to use the currently available features of wordpress 
update and theme/plugin installer to move a wordpress blog to new host. 
The idea is to run a feature from a newly installed wordpress with the 
target wordpress address, administrator login details and ftp details if 
available. Installing new wordpress is not a hard task as most hosting 
providers have automatic installers like fantastico.

Since wordpress usually have full access to the database, some code in 
the hosted server will be capable to create an export file with the 
details needed, similar to the current export, but with extra details 
including settings. If FTP access is available, I hope we could move all 
the files in the 'wp-content' to the new host (Haven't tried it yet with 
two servers)

But, if FTP details are not available(say in the case of wordpress.com 
account), from the new export file, we could fetch the details of themes 
and plugins and use the theme/plugin installer to fetch and install 
them. This is just theoretical and may cause problems with custom 
themes/plugins and with different versions. I would like to hear more 
ideas for implementing this.

Also, more study has to be done about the architecture of wordpress.com 
and what all capability it provides to a normal user in the backend, 
like the access to database. This can thus help a wordpress.com blogger 
to move to his own host, having more features.

I also have an idea of using this feature for cloning wordpress blog, 
there by acting as a mirror or for a backup.


Now, about me. I am a free software supporter and an active member of 
the free software user groups in Kerala. I have a good knowledge of php, 
MySQL, HTML, tools like phpMyadmin and about the way how plugins work in 
wordpress. Now, I spent most of my free time playing with python 
scripts. I haven't done any upstream contributions as code, but is a 
member of SMC <http://smc.org.in/>, which translates programs to 
Malayalam, my mother tongue. I have also created few python and shell 
scripts for me, my friends, and my clients, which include manipulating 
'gpx' files for OSM and transaction data for banks.

I appreciate all the help and assistance from the community to 
participate in GSoC with this project idea.

Waiting for more feedback and suggestions,
-- 
With love and regards,
Tvm a.k.a Bizzard

Find me @ Bizzard's Hackshop <http://www.bizzard.info/>

Quote: I'm not a HANDSOME guy. But I can give my HAND to SOME one who 
needs help. Beauty is in heart, not in face..!! - A.P.J Abdul Kalam