IESVE Software for Florida Code Compliance Using ASHRAE 90.1-2019
Content Migrations: Getting from A to B
2. • Author of Website Migration Handbook v2
• First large migration: World Bank (1,000+
subsites)
• Consults to large and medium
organizations
• David guides complex website
transformations.
3. Deane Barker
• Working in content management since 1996
• Founding partner in Blend Interactive
• Board member of Content Management
Professionals
4. Planning vs. Technical
• The planning process encompasses the
entire scope of your migration effort
• The technical process is just one very
critical part of this process
5. Agenda
• David will discuss the larger planning
process
– Break
• Deane will follow with a discussion about
the specific technical challenges
– End at 4:00 p.m.
– Deane and David will be available for
discussion until 5:00 p.m.
9. Requirements for Transfer
• You know
– …what is being moved
– …how it has to change on the way over
– …how it fits back together on the other side
10. Agenda
• Original Content vs. Derived Content
• Content Geography
• The Four Tasks of Content Transfer
• Automated vs. Manual Import
• The Automated Import Process
• QA Automation
12. Some HTML has to be moved.
Some HTML will be generated by
your new system as content is
imported.
26. Stub Mapping
Home
Products About
Product A Product B History
Existing Home New
Products About
Product A Product B History
27. The Path to Stub Mapping
• “We need to codify the new website
structure…”
• “…let’s just store this in the new CMS…”
• “…and let’s store the old URL, just for
reference…”
• “…and…can we just use that old URL to
transfer the content?”
29. The Four Tasks
• Extract
• Transform
• Import
• Normalize
• We can generalize about the first two
– Extract and transform are platform-agnostic
30. #1: Extract
• Get content out of the existing system
• Break content into its necessary components
• Store in a neutral format
– XML, usually
32. Migrating out of a CMS is a lot
easier than the alternative.
CMS enforces at least some
consistency.
33. Are you going to extract from the
repository level or the publication
level?
35. You may need to make changes to
your old site to make extraction
easier or more complete.
36. You do not have to wait for
anything to do this.
You can start extraction on the very
day you decide to migrate your
website.
37. #2: Transform
• Modify extracted content
• Fix legacy problems with the content
• Adapt content to fit the new architecture
• Neutralize idiosyncrasies in the content
41. #3: Import
• Move post-transformed content from a
neutral format into the new system
• This is different for every CMS
• This capability should be part of the
evaluation process
42. #4: Normalize
• Fix problems that are only “fixable” once
content is in its new home
• Ex:
– Relationship reconstruction
– URL resolution
– Navigation reconstruction
47. Embedded URL Resolution
• If you have embedded URLs, they are now
broken.
• How do you “re-connect” these URLs to the
correct content?
• Usually performed as some kind of batch
job.
– You rarely get 100% accuracy.
– Prepare to catch the remainder in QA.
49. How it Works
• Iterate over every piece of content…
• …then iterate over every single property
looking for anything that might contain
links…
• …then iterate over all those links looking
for the new content holding that old link…
• …then correct the link.
54. What is the actual mechanism of
movement?
Copy-and-paste?
Automated?
55. When Copy-and-Paste Works
• When you don’t have a lot of content
• When you have access to cheap labor
• When your content is highly geographic
• When you cannot automate transformation
• When you have enough resources for
sufficient QA
56. When Automated Migration Works
• When you have large volumes of content
• When your content is not highly-geographic
• When you have sufficient technology and/or
development resources
57. You don’t have to use the same
method for your entire project.
59. Automated Migration Tools
• Great answer to the Transfer phase
• Less of an answer to everything else
• They still have to be configured and tested
60. The Promise:
You will be able to develop a
script that will reduce your
migration to a button-click.
61. The Promise:
You will run this script, need to do
nothing else, then launch your new
website.
62. The Value-Add
• A scripting environment
• Tested tools for:
– Extraction
– Transformation
– Import (maybe…)
• Professional services
$$$$
63. Automated Migration Process
• Develop automated migration script
– Configure
– Execute
– Evaluate
– (Repeat)
• Accept a cycle “as good as is reasonable”
• Perform necessary manual editing
• Re-do changes during content freeze
• Launch