[wp-hackers] GSoc - here we go !

Thu Mar 25 19:27:34 UTC 2010

> Hi there,
> 
> about idea number 1:
> actually the WP importes does have an option to import all the media. And it
> works pretty well already.
> 

In a stand alone installation of WP I haven't seen an option to import media straight from an already existing wordpress, it only allows me to import a XML dump file, previously exported from another wordpress, this idea is aimed for standard users that find it really difficult to move their blog from one location to another, as I mentioned before this idea not necessarily needs a FTP as most of the communication could be done via POST

If I missed the feature please tell me where to find it

> about idea number 2, what is a pain when you have to move a wp installation
> from domains are all the hardcoded absolute paths and url in the database.
> Maybe if wordpress could detect that it is in a different domain from what
> is on the database and could deal with it somehow ... but thats not a easy
> topic.
> 
> by the way, I have my own script to handle with that if anyone is interested
> (that replaces all the urls in the database, even the serialized ones)
> 

I know, the cool thing about having this script running on both sides of the servers is that while 1 is cleaning the queue and sending the post/comments/tags/etc to the target WP, the receiver, which is aware of it's own environment, is adapting what it receives before inserting it to the DB making sure all the paths are going to be correct after the moving process is done

What do you think?

-perrohunter

> Leo,,
> 
> On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 4:03 PM, Perro Hunter <perro.hunter at gmail.com>wrote:
> 
>> Hey there everyone !
>> 
>> I'm a computer science engineer student from Mexico
>> and this is the first year I'll try out for GSoc
>> 
>> I'm really exited on getting a chance to contribute
>> with wordpress since it's a really popular piece of software :)
>> 
>> I think i've got some ideas to develop some of the ideas
>> that you proposed this year and I'd love to hear some feedback from
>> you. While reading them the first 2 that got my attention were the
>> Blog Import/Export feature and the Moving Wordpress feature since
>> I've already had to move a wordpress installation before and I know it
>> was sorta uncomfortable, from those experience I think I can start
>> something, let me know what you think :)
>> 
>> Blog Import/Export idea:
>> 
>> The thing here is that we not only need to move a huge number of post
>> we also need to move comments, pages, tags, categories and links current
>> import/export feature would give you a dump of XML that you can take to a
>> new wordpress installation and upload it yourself. This sometimes is nasty
>> if
>> the xml dump is huge, also this dump doesn't help you export/import the
>> media
>> those post are using which is a problem since most of the users don't know
>> how
>> to deal with FTPs and they should't have to deal with downloading
>> everything to
>> their PC's and uploading it to the new server.
>> 
>> For this I propose a Plugin that would be needed to be installed on both
>> wordpress
>> , I'm not sure yet wheter we should attack the next problem from the
>> original
>> installation or from the target installation.
>> 
>> If we were doing this from the source installation we'd need to first make
>> sure
>> the plugin is ON on the target installation, we would use the admin user
>> and password
>> to authenticate remotely.
>> 
>> I know we have to move a great number of post-objects
>> (posts,comments,categories,etc)
>> for this one we are going to create a queue of things that are going to be
>> exported, this
>> could latter allow users to personalize what are the elements that they'd
>> like to move only, then
>> we'd run a quick scan on each of the queued elements to see the media they
>> are using
>> and queue those file on the table too, I'm using this queue table first so
>> when we start
>> moving the elements and files from one installation to another if the
>> script timeouts we can
>> restart the process and take off where it stopped last time ;)
>> 
>> Once the queue is ready to go, we even got a way to calculate percentage (
>> 1/3000 elements to move = 0.03%)
>> we'd start calling the move method, on the user interface we could have an
>> ajax call
>> that refresh the status of the script every X seconds or minutes, it could
>> get a new percentage
>> number to display and even reactive the moving script if it already timed
>> out. Every time
>> an element was successfully moved it'd be mark as it on the queue, we could
>> move
>> a large number of post-objects (posts,comments) using curl from one server
>> to another,
>> I know server to server bandwidth is way better than home-bandwidth, on the
>> target
>> installation the plugin would be receiving all the elements and inserting
>> them in to the db
>> with their proper category, tags and everything.
>> 
>> We could use the same procedure when moving medie if the max post value of
>> the target
>> server allow us to send these files via post, or we could use FTP so after
>> moving successfully
>> a file we'd notify the target installation plugin about the new file so i
>> can work is the way it want's
>> (we'd FTP to a tmp folder)
>> 
>> For small blogs this process could take less than a minute, for huge blogs
>> it could take a couple
>> of hours I don't know we'd need to benchmark this a little, but I think
>> this is the best way to
>> Import/export wordpress without having to get your hands dirty :P
>> 
>> this could also be extended to be compatible with old versions of WP
>> 
>> What do you think?
>> 
>> Now, this very same algorithm could be used for the next idea:
>> 
>> Moving a Wordpress installation from one domain to another:
>> 
>> For this one we would definitively need FTP to move the basic installation,
>> the target server DB name, user and password, and after moving the
>> essentials of the installation we could start doing the rest with the old
>> procedure(queue items, start cleaning the items periodically)
>> 
>> Two features could be archived with this same idea, please tell me if you
>> think there's something missing
>> or your thoughts
>> 
>> Cheers ! :D
>> 
>> P.S. I also posted this to
>> http://blog.perrohunter.com/ideas-for-wp-at-gsoc/ :)
>> 
>> -perrohunter
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>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> leogermani.pirex.com.br
> leogermani.estudiolivre.org
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