Website Content Migration from Drupal to Wordpress

WordPress is absolutely free and open source content management system (CMS) coded in PHP language. It is simple and easy to use open source technology based on PHP and MySQL framework. It has variety of features such as built in template library, plug in based architecture support. The plug in feature in the website gives superb feel to the bloggers with awesome features and functions. Wordpress provides high customization, robustness and flexibility.

Nowadays many people are thinking of migrating their website from Drupal to WordPress. At first glance, it seems easy but actually it requires a lot of patience and care in doing it. For example: You have a WordPress website installed with its theme and now you want to get all the contents into your WordPress database such as pages, posts, comments, forums etc. from your Drupal website. One way of doing this is you can replicate the data of the comments (from comments table of Drupal to comments table of WordPress), posts (from node and node_revisions table of Drupal to posts table of WordPress) and categories (move data from term_data of Drupal to term_taxonomy table of WordPress).

Hurdles or issues to be taken care of while migrating from Drupal to WordPress

Mapping the URL

The pattern of URL followed in Drupal is more flexible than in WordPress. URL pattern in Drupal can be defined at the node level. So it becomes difficult to have the same URLs when you are replicating the Drupal pages and posts.

Content fields and type

Creating customized types and fields in Drupal is easy but migrating them to WordPress is challenging. In WordPress, each type or field is stored in different table and different structure.

Suppose you have a database called WordPress using ‘wp_’ prefix and a database named Drupal. Now following script should be used.

# To clear all existing WordPress content
TRUNCATE TABLE wordpress.wp_comments; TRUNCATE TABLE wordpress.wp_links; TRUNCATE TABLE wordpress.wp_postmeta; TRUNCATE TABLE wordpress.wp_posts; TRUNCATE TABLE wordpress.wp_term_relationships; TRUNCATE TABLE wordpress.wp_term_taxonomy; TRUNCATE TABLE wordpress.wp_terms;

# To create Categories
INSERT INTO wordpress.wp_terms (term_id, `name`, slug, term_group) SELECT d.tid, d.name, REPLACE(LOWER(d.name), ' ', '_'), 0 FROM drupal.term_data d INNER JOIN drupal.term_hierarchy h USING(tid);

# To import pages / posts
INSERT INTO wordpress.wp_posts (id, post_content, post_date, post_excerpt, post_title, post_name, post_modified, post_type, `post_status`) SELECT DISTINCT n.nnid `id`, FROM_UNIXTIME(n.created) `post_date`, r.body `post_content`, n.title `post_title`, r.teaser `post_excerpt`, IF(SUBSTR(a.dst, 11, 1) = '/', SUBSTR(a.dst, 12), a.dst) `post_name`, FROM_UNIXTIME(n.changed) `post_modified`, n.type `post_type`, IF(n.status = 1, 'publish', 'private') `post_status` FROM drupal.node n INNER JOIN drupal.node_revisions r USING(vid) LEFT OUTER JOIN drupal.url_alias a ON a.src = CONCAT('node/', n.nnid) WHERE n.type IN ('post', 'page', 'article');

# Turn your articles to posts
update wordpress.wp_posts set post_type='post' where post_type='article';

# To update count of category
UPDATE wordpress.wp_term_taxonomy tt SET `count` = ( SELECT COUNT(tr.object_id) FROM wordpress.wp_term_relationships tr WHERE tr.term_taxonomy_id = tt.term_taxonomy_id);

# To import the comments
INSERT INTO wordpress.wp_comments (comment_post_ID, comment_date, comment_content, comment_parent, comment_author, comment_author_email, comment_author_url, comment_approved) SELECT nnid, FROM_UNIXTIME(timestamp), comment, thread, name, mail, homepage, status FROM drupal.comments;

# To fix breaks in post
UPDATE wordpress.wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, '', '');

# To fix images in post
UPDATE wordpress.wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, '"/files/', '"/wp-content/uploads/');

About the Author:

This article is contributed by ValueCoders, a web/mobile development firm, specialized in CMS development, through which you can hire Drupal programmers, Joomla programmers, magento programmers, etc. One can also hire WordPress developer here for effective WordPress development services.

10 Tips for Effective PHP Development

Today, PHP is of the most popular web development languages in the world with over twenty million domains in the web using PHP web development techniques. Also many open source web development frameworks such as WordPress and Drupal have also used PHP. There has been a tremendous growth in the web development field with most web development companies setting up their base. Many frameworks and tools have also been built to aid in the PHP development. However, most offshore PHP developers have still a long way to go when it comes to effective development. Here are a few tips that can help you in making the PHP development process effective:

1.Use PHP framework: Using PHP framework will provide for standardization of code and thus you will achieve faster development process. Though using the simple PHP is a little faster than using the framework, it leads to writing of bad code which ends up making the entire development process complicated.

2.Keep a collection of code snippets and reuse: Always utilize same scripts and strings again and again. Save your scripts for future use as most often you may that you can use them for other projects by just making requisite changes. This will not only save you time but also money and make your development process effective too.

3.Use good updated Text-Editors: Use higher text editors other than notepad as they allow for more efficient and faster programming as they provide code hints, code navigation and also come with built in debugging tools.

4.Use proper PHP functions and codes: Always write functions, classes and all other codes in an understandable form. Avoiding having clumsy and over bundled code. Also avoid writing too many comments as they make the program bulky.

5.Develop for all kinds of users: While developing any web application have in mind that it can be used by all sorts of users and thus it should be an application that does not make the website unstable and it remains always secure.

6.Use code versioning system: There code versioning systems that are available for versioning lines of codes that are used in more than one system or by more than one programmer in cases where the live and development version are different. Using them will help you in understanding codes easily and they also save you time

7.Have proper build logic: Design logic and code logic should be separated properly to avoid little changes in the design to necessitate code changes. There are various tools available to help in separating different web logics.

8.Use professionals: You cannot achieve quick and effective PHP development without involving professional and reliable PHP programmers. Always chose programmers with good experience and proper knowledge so as to avoid ending up with wrong code and wastage of time.

9.Use PHP for web development only: It has been built for building web solutions and thus do not use it for every problem.

10.Keep up with PHP Programming updates: Like many other programming languages, PHP is also evolving. New functions or code are daily being added to the library and as a programmer you should keep up with all these updates.

This article is contributed by ValueCoders, a web/mobile development company through which you can hire PHP developers, HTML developers and .Net developers. One can also hire WordPress developer here for effective WordPress development.

Why to go for Magento and SAP Integration?

SAP needs no introduction. It is the most powerful ERP platforms available on the market that offers a wide range of solution to its users. From managing products to customers, SAP is the first choice tool for thousands of customers around the world. On the other hand Magento has emerged as the most popular ecommerce tool in the world. It is powering more than 30000 stores globally and the numbers are increasing each day. It allows businesses to build highly scalable stores that add to the sales and revenue. When you combine these two tools it forms in to a powerful entity. Here we shall take a look at some of the advantages that you can draw out from Magento-SAP integration.

Real-Time Inventory - Magento has its own inventory management system but what it has found to be lacking when it comes to multi-channel retailers who offer products across different stores and have high number of sales. Often your online store might showcase products that are out of stock and causing inconvenience to the customers and hurting your brand name. In such a scenario you would need to have a more robust solution. You can make use of web service calls from Magento into SAP as this will allow SAP to be the system of record for inventory. Doing so will create a real-time inventory for your store and thus you won’t be selling a product to a customer that isn’t available in the inventory.

Sales and Buying Trends – Imagine the power you can draw if you can pin-point the buying trends on an hourly basis. Now this might sound like a sci-fi but if you are in the business such as selling movie tickets or offering items related to an occasion like Christmas you can re-work on your strategy to make the best out of sales and revenue. The core tools of Magento don’t offer you such services and SAP can do a world of good to your online store.

Faster Stock Procurement and Delivery – Procurement of stocks at the right time is one of the defining activities in managing an online store successfully. SAP makes this easy as the customer information is saved and forwarded to procurement team to ensure that the warehouse is well-stocked to keep up with the demands of the customers. This mechanism also helps in faster delivery of the sold products to the customers. As soon as a sale is done SAP informs about the same to the distribution channel which helps in faster processing of the order and early shipment.

Reduction of Costs – From accounts to store management almost all the activities in an online store can be automated using SAP over Magento. This helps in reducing the human input in all the activities thus helping you cut operational cost substantially. Reduction of human input also helps in maintaining high levels of accuracy with the shipment of goods to the customers.

You can clearly see that SAP integration with Magento helps in adding more value to your online store.

Author Bio:
This article is contributed by ValueCoders, a web development company through which you can hire Magento developers, HTML developers and .Net developers. One can also hire PHP developers here for effective Magento development.

Is PHP better than Python?

PHP and Python are two of the most popular Web programming languages in the world. As is the case with any two popular technologies there is always a discussion on which is the better among the two. Both have their advantages and shortcomings when compared with one another. While PHP is being used by the masses, there are die-hard fans of Python who wouldn’t make the transition at any cost. Here we shall discuss some of these advantages that each of these programing languages has that will help you make an informed choice.

Advantage of Using PHP

PHP is one of the easiest programming languages for one to grasp. You can get started with this language if you have some basic knowledge of programming languages. It is a highly flexible and pardonable language. PHP's documentation is clean and it is easier to understand compared to Python.

PHP has one array type that doubles as a list and a dictionary. Dictionary keys are iterated in their original order. This is another factor that makes PHP stand out when it comes to race with Python.

The built-in library in PHP has a wide variety of naming conventions. Functions often have prefixes to denote their source. Apart from this Functions are often placed into classes to simulate namespaces. What this does it makes programming easy.

Another great advantage that PHP enjoys over Python is the community support. It has a large community of developers who share ideas on improving web development compared to Python which has a much small user base.

Advantages of Using Python

Python has a real module system which makes it such a popular programming language with the developers. It allows you create sites and applications in an incremental manner with ease unlike PHP.

This programming language has been developed keeping in mind all the general users of the developers. If you want to develop a website you can choose a web framework and if you need to develop some other thing you can do that with ease. PHP is too much of a web programming language.

In Python you will come across functional-like features that are distinctive among mostly-imperative scripting languages, like list comprehension.

When it comes to the security of a website Python is a much more secured programming language compared to PHP. In the past we have come across lot of attacks on PHP based sites that have exposed the loopholes that exist in the technology.

To sum up it is very difficult to choose one among these two technologies. Both have their own pros and cons and it all depends on the preference of the developers and the niche needs of the project that should dictate the choice between PHP and Python. If you are looking for a programming language that is easy to learn and implement PHP should be the choice for you. However if you look for extensibility in a programming language you can opt for Python without an iota of doubt in your mind.

Author Bio:
This article is contributed by ValueCoders, a web/mobile development company through which you can hire PHP developers, HTML developers and .Net developers. You can also hire Magento developer here for effective Magento development.

The Most Useful Web 2.0 Development Tools

The term Web 2.0 was coined somewhere at the end of the last millennia. Web 2.0 web development takes websites to new level from merely being digital representation of information. As someone rightly put it Web 2.0 is all about ‘sharing and collaborating’ with users. Here the website allows users to interact and collaborate with each other in a social media dialogue. Here the sites rely on user-generated content as much as they rely on their own. Here in this short write-up we shall take a look at some of tools, rather category of useful tools for Web 2.0 development.

Presentation Tools – These are the tools that allow websites as well as their users to present content in an attractive manner. This may be in the form of animations using tools such as Flash or in the form of attractive images using online photo editing tools such as Picasa. Users can create out of box content in the form of slides and animations and share them with other users.

Blog Tools – One of the greatest byproducts of the Web 2.0 revolution has been blogging. This tool allows ordinary Internet users to post their thoughts and views online and share it with others. Even businesses have found this a great way to communicate with their customers. Blogger and WordPress are two of the most used tools when it comes to posting blogs.

Video Tools – Videos have become one of the most attractive ways of sharing your views with millions of users. Platform such as YouTube has allowed every Internet user to start his own broadcast. From sharing online recipes to showcasing art webcasting has become one of the most popular online activities.

Social Media Tools – This doesn’t need any introduction as social networking is the most popular online activity in today’s world. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest have become synonymous with the Internet. It allows users to connect with others in an endless network and share their views and ideas.

Community Tools – Another great set of tools that have come out are the community tools. The most famous among them is Wikipedia the largest source of free online information. This allows users to share information about anything and everything on the Internet. Apart from Wikipedia there are many other community tools that allow users to share information easily.

VoIP Tools – Communication is one of the core components of any business. If Internet’s infancy was all about emails and chats, Web 2.0 has more to offer. VoIP or Voice over the Internet Protocol allows businesses to communicate with each other in a highly cost effective manner. Tools such as Skype and Google Voice allow users to make video call and run a live video conversation with others in real time.

Web 2.0 has taken Internet to the next level. It has created an ecosystem where an average Internet user is no longer only a recipient of the information but he or she also creates content that is shared in the network.

Author Bio:
This article is contributed by ValueCoders, a leading web development company, specialized in web 2.0 development and software application development, through which you can hire web developers, PHP developers, HTML developers, WordPress developers and many more.