How to export and import Books in 5.x?
Howdy. I've got a Book I'd like to move from one site to another. I see a couple of modules that look up to the task – Book Import and Export DocBook – but they're for 4.x only.
On the 5.x front, I see Export DXML. Yet the scant description online (http://drupal.org/project/export_dxml) says that Book Import (that 4.x module) is used to then import the exported content. Hmm.
Well, I may as well try exporting from 5.x using Export DXML, and then try to figure out a way to import... but upon installing Export DXML, I get only a setting for whether or not PHP is also exported. That's all – no commands I can find to actually initiate an export, nothing. The module's documentation says zilch too.
What should I be looking for in Export DXML to actually perform an export?
And, given the lack of 5.x modules for import/export, perhaps there's some built-in method for importing and exporting Books in 5.x that doesn't require third-party modules. Am I missing something obvious?
Import export duplicate books
There is this promising project called book import export but it has no content. no releases, no issues no nada.
I haven't tested it really well but you should be able to export books and import them back with the following modules:
http://drupal.org/project/importexportapi
and
http://drupal.org/project/node_import
I actually wanted import - export books to duplicate them, but for that goal an easier module exists called outline designer
Import / export books
Thanks! The resources look promising. Actually, the first link, as an API, sounds like something a developer would use when creating a module for import/export, and not a ready-to-use import/export utility itself. But I won't know until I experiment.
For the record, below I've written up my experience with book import/export. Although my endeavors ended with an "oh, phooey" retreat to cut-and-paste recreation of the book pages instead of export/import, there are some techniques (provided by a helpful correspondent) that others might find useful.
http://www.drupalace.com/questions/how_export_and_import_book_nodes
I'll add the links you suggest above, to my page as well. Thanks again!
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Going down the same path
I have a need to do the same thing. We have a product with a structured book of documentation in a proprietary format. I'm casually looking around for a way to match up the fields in that structure with what's required in Drupal. The reason I have not taken to a brute-force DBMS update is precisely the issue you've documented on your site - referential integrity. Data in Drupal, or any database, is not isolated. Records in tables are related to records in other tables, and you can't simply update one without the other. Rather, you shouldn't be able to. I was amazed when I saw that you had updated the nodes table without updating the books table - not that I have any special insight on how to do this better, but I was surprised that the database accepted your updates at all. I think the issue is that nodes can sort of exist in a vacuum, but books cannot, and if you had tried to update books without corresponding nodes, then it might have rejected the update. Similarly, if you had updated a node using an invalid user ID, it should reject the update.
The underlying problem is that there doesn't seem to be an easy to find "create_book" or "add_page_to_existing_book" function - I'm sure the code is in there of course but this is what people like us need and we're not finding references to it by beating our heads against the walls of this drupal.org site. If we did find these magic functions then someone could wrap them with an API to allow them to work from any client, not just within the core. (I've been looking around Services and XML-RPC modules to see if anyone has done this, but no joy (and the docs for Services are outstanding while the docs for XML-RPC are a good example of how not to document a project).
Like you've I've seen the outdated import nodes and the hopeful but not quite fleshed out book import project, and I'm amazed that after all this time it's not dirt-simple to find a block of code that does exactly what we want ... properly. If I do find a 100% bonafide solution to this, I'll post it here.
As far as you know, has
As far as you know, has Drupal 6 changed anything with regard to this issue? That is, has it enabled easier access to some sort of book import functions, with or without added modules?
I'm not aware that D6 changes anything in this regard; just curious as to whether anyone knows otherwise.
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Looking for the same in Drupal 6.X
Hello, I am looking for the Docbook import functionality in Drupal 6.X as well. I am wondering if anyone here can describe where the Book Import functionality is headed and what we can assume with the Book Import/Export module.