By alain-it on

Hello,

I need to migrate the website www.issfanclub.com (4.6.11) to the latest stable version of Drupal available.
The theme is ok and must remain unchanged.
There are a few obsolete modules that probably need to be replaced and their content migrated. They are:
- guestbook
- mp3 files archive
- images archive

(I will rewrite the "Tracking" module so you can leave that alone)

Be adviced: I tried all the automated scripts available with no success. You will have to proceed manually...

Please provide a quote for this job

Thank you

Alain

⋅ Categories: Drupal 4.6.x

Comments

As If’s picture

As If commented

and I'm sure other people here can do it too. Please turn your contact form on?

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Interactive Worlds and Immersive Obsessions
http://www.asifproductions.com

alain-it’s picture

alain-it commented

I apologize for having it off.

Thanks

gloscon’s picture

gloscon commented

Rather than upgrade, it is better to rebuild the site and import the content in D6.

Gloscon - Drupal Experts

As If’s picture

As If commented

yes, gloscon is right.

-------------------------------------------
Interactive Worlds and Immersive Obsessions
http://www.asifproductions.com

rrichard63’s picture

rrichard63 commented

By "import the content", do you mean write a SQL script to convert from D4 table definitions to D6 table definitions? How feasible is this approach? How many tables have foreign keys to or from the main nodes table, which would have to be preserved?

I have almost the same situation, except that my site is currently in Drupal 4.6.3.

As If’s picture

As If commented

Different folks have different techniques. But here's what I do: You don't have to script the database changes themselves - just install a new Drupal 6 and set up your basic content types, fields, etc, using a new db, while keeping the old db online. then migrate the *content* of the db from one to the other. I do this with a series of PHP scripts connecting to both databases. Obviously some of these scripts need to be customized for each client, depending on CCK fields, the complexity of the taxonomies, etc. But it's gotten much easier over the years as the database has become better normalized and more formally consistent. I've done it dozens of times. You just need to be intimately familiar with the Drupal db schema.

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Interactive Worlds and Immersive Obsessions
http://www.asifproductions.com

rrichard63’s picture

rrichard63 commented

Thanks for the helpful comment. Suppose the taxonomy is straightforward and the number of nodes not too huge (I have around 180). Wouldn't it require less knowledge of the schema to migrate the nodes as you describe, and then rebuild the taxonomy by hand in the new site?

As If’s picture

As If commented

Depends on the situation, but sure, why not. You probably want to bring over the vocabulary and term_data tables first. Their structure is very straightforward. Then you can use the Drupal interface to fill the term_node table (i.e., applying terms to your nodes manually) if you wish. This might be worth it sometimes, because taxonomy is probably the trickiest part of the migration process. But then again, if the taxonomy is simple as you say, and you plan on retaining the same tids and nids, it's pretty easy to migrate it with one PHP script. Different strokes for different folks.

-------------------------------------------
Interactive Worlds and Immersive Obsessions
http://www.asifproductions.com

wfx’s picture

wfx commented

Please forgive my ignorance on this topic but why wouldn't you upgrade from Drupal 4 to Drupal 5 and then migrate to Drupal 6? I recently talked to a developer at a meetup and he was like, "yeah, just run an upgrade script for your install". For those of us who aren't PHP ninjas a custom script really isn't an option and our department doesn't have the funds to hire someone. Is a plain ole' version to version upgrade out of the question even if it is more tedious?

As If’s picture

As If commented

The problem in the original post was that some of the modules no longer exist in D6.

-------------------------------------------
Interactive Worlds and Immersive Obsessions
http://www.asifproductions.com