[wp-hackers] GSoC Proposal - Move WordPress

Sun Mar 21 07:04:34 UTC 2010

On Saturday 20 March 2010 10:33 PM, Nitin Reddy wrote:
> Hi Manu!
>
> As moving blog posts would take a long time to execute, I would think of building either something that runs on either the source or the destionation server and copies the files across through XML-RPC or direct database queries (I'd prefer XML-RPC as it would work across HTTP). A Java-based application would seem like a good idea since it would work on both Windows and Linux (and possible any other platforms that folks out there use).
>    
I think of something that every wordpress installation will have in 
future, so that when initiated from one wordpress blog, with the url and 
login credentials of other, the system could generate a backup of it and 
facilitate the move.

Since wordpress is based on php, I prefer this too to be implemented in 
php. Since this function is intended to work along with wordpress, there 
are not much issues of cross platform support.
> If the application were to be a web-based PHP script, then I'd probably look for something that can migrate a few posts at a time to keep the script from timing out. On my hosting provider, a WordPress upgrade never finishes as the script timeout occurs midway.
>    
yes, I understand the situation. So, we must have some scheduling 
mechanisms in place to generate the backup of the database. Also, using 
ftp to transfer many files(may be 1000's) is a problem for some servers, 
especially free hosting ones, which limits ftp connections and introduce 
wait times on error.
> Mine is just one thought among the many in the community, so you might want to hear a couple more before you start planning.
>    
I am looking forward for more suggestions, so that the project ideas 
could be improved more. Thanks for your reply . I'll be posting a 
modified proposal soon with the new ideas.
> Regards,
> Nitin Reddy
>
> --
>
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> ________________________________________
> From: wp-hackers-bounces at lists.automattic.com [wp-hackers-bounces at lists.automattic.com] On Behalf Of Manu Krishnan T.V [tvmanukrishnan at gmail.com]
> Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2010 7:09 PM
> To: wp-hackers at lists.automattic.com
> Subject: [wp-hackers] GSoC Proposal - Move WordPress
>
> 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
>
>    

-- 
With love and regards,
Tvm a.k.a Bizzard

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