If you’re reading this article, chances are you are either in
the process of programmatically
migrating your web content or daydreaming about the day you finish a
successful content migration. It’s a daunting job, and not for the faint of
heart. Moving content from one content management system (CMS) to another takes
lots of planning and collaboration, so pack a lot of patience.
Content migrations typically begin with simply identifying the
content that needs to move to the new system. If you’re lucky, this content is clean
and ready for the trip, as is. Otherwise,
you might need time allotted to rewrite, format and create new content as well
as update links and add meta data, which can be a major undertaking in itself.
Just like books in a library,
content and meta data have to be mapped to their respective locations in the new
CMS for automated migration. Each content and data field will be mapped from
the current system to the new system, and if everything goes correctly the
first time, oh wait — you can count on several content
import/export iterations for your migration to be a success. But don’t worry!
The dust will settle.
During each iteration, content and
migration scripts will need to be tweaked and the new system cleansed, as it’s
likely that some content will be less than willing to cooperate and/or will have
formatting and display issues.
Be prepared to deal with stubborn
content that just won’t play nice with any migration script, period. And schedule
it for manual entry into the new system, post final migration.
With all of the focus on the content migration, don’t forget
about any newly created content that is still being posted to the old system. This
is usually a challenge for larger companies that have continual content
updates. Consider instituting a change management process, so that new content is
posted to both systems and nothing is lost. This will require maintaining both systems until the new CMS is
ready to take the lead and single-handedly run the show.
Automated content migration successful and completed. Dream realized.