I’ve been working on migrating a fairly large site from Drupal to WordPress (actually WP is just a middle ground, it’s moving from there to another platform) and noticed a lack of decent information about Drupal to WP migration.  Since I had to put some time in cleaning up MySQL scripts, and working through the move, I thought it’d be a good idea to document the information for anyone who needs to make the migration in the future.

First off, the original Drupal site is at version 6.22 and I’m migrating into WP 3.4.2.

Initial steps:

1. Get MySQL access to the Drupal site, either command line via SSH or PhpMyAdmin.
2. Grab a full dump of the DB (yes, you may not need the whole thing, but this way you know you’ve got all the info you might need).  The Drupal db backup module in my case was incapable of backing up this db.
3. Create a new database on the system you will use for migration and call it “drupal” – in my case I am working locally on my Xampp MySQL db.
4. Import the db dump into your new database from the command line.  Don’t waste your time trying to use PhpMyAdmin if you’ve got a decent size backup (mine was over 3 gigs).  mysql -u username -p drupal < drupal.sql is the syntax (replace username with your mysql username and be prepared to be asked for the db password).  The import may take a few minutes for a large database. (*note: if you are having trouble getting the import to work, you likely have mysql buffer sizes set too low.  I found this to be the case with the XAMPP install of mysql, but I easily fixed it by editing my.ini via the XAMPP control panel.  I think the innodb_buffer_pool_size setting was the one that did it, but most of the buffers were upped substantially.  You can safely up innodb_buffer_pool_size to about 50% of your system memory.
5. So now you’ve got your own import of the Drupal database.  Go ahead and create your new WP database if you haven’t already and do your WP install.

Now we’re ready to start migrating data.  First off, I import categories, but I need to warn you: WP requires unique category names, and apparently Drupal apparently does not.  You will most likely need to make sure that you don’t have Drupal Term_Data entries with names that are similar, ie, Immigration and immigration.  Change the names to something unique, like changing immigration to immigration issues and it will work.. Thus, you need to make sure that all the Category names are unique.

This script which I have slightly modified from the original from Lincoln Hawks at SocialCmsBuzz.com did the trick.  I have also added user import, which wasn’t in the original.  My WP database name is wptest and the drupal db is named as noted before “drupal”.

TRUNCATE TABLE wptest.wp_comments;
TRUNCATE TABLE wptest.wp_links;
TRUNCATE TABLE wptest.wp_postmeta;
TRUNCATE TABLE wptest.wp_posts;
TRUNCATE TABLE wptest.wp_term_relationships;
TRUNCATE TABLE wptest.wp_term_taxonomy;
TRUNCATE TABLE wptest.wp_terms;

INSERT INTO wptest.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)
;

INSERT INTO wptest.wp_term_taxonomy (term_id, taxonomy, description, parent)
SELECT
d.tid `term_id`,
‘category’ `taxonomy`,
d.description `description`,
h.parent `parent`
FROM drupal.term_data d
INNER JOIN drupal.term_hierarchy h
USING(tid)
;

INSERT INTO
wptest.wp_posts (id, post_date, post_content, post_title,
post_excerpt, post_name, post_modified)
SELECT DISTINCT
n.nid, FROM_UNIXTIME(created), body, n.title,
teaser,
REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(LOWER(n.title),’ ‘, ‘-’),’.', ‘-’),’,', ‘-’),’+', ‘-’),
FROM_UNIXTIME(changed)
FROM drupal.node n, drupal.node_revisions r
WHERE n.vid = r.vid

INSERT INTO wptest.wp_term_relationships (object_id, term_taxonomy_id)
SELECT nid, tid FROM drupal.term_node;
UPDATE wp_term_taxonomy tt
SET `count` = (
SELECT COUNT(tr.object_id)
FROM wp_term_relationships tr
WHERE tr.term_taxonomy_id = tt.term_taxonomy_id
);

INSERT INTO wptest.wp_comments (comment_post_ID, comment_date, comment_content, comment_parent, comment_author, comment_author_email, comment_author_url, comment_approved)

SELECT nid, FROM_UNIXTIME(timestamp), comment, thread, name, mail, homepage, status FROM drupal.comments;

UPDATE `wp_posts` SET `comment_count` = (SELECT COUNT(`comment_post_id`) FROM `wp_comments` WHERE `wp_posts`.`id` = `wp_comments`.`comment_post_id`);

UPDATE wptest.wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, ”, ”);

UPDATE wptest.wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, ‘”/sites/default/files/’, ‘”/wp-content/uploads/’);
INSERT IGNORE INTO wptest.wp_users SELECT NULL AS ID, NAME AS user_login, SUBSTRING(MD5(RAND()) FROM 1 FOR 30) AS user_pass, NAME AS user_nicename, mail AS user_email, ” AS user_url, FROM_UNIXTIME(created) AS user_registered, ” AS user_activation_key, 0 AS user_status, NAME AS display_name FROM drupal.users;

UPDATE wptest.wp_posts JOIN drupal.node ON title = post_title JOIN drupal.users ON drupal.users.uid = drupal.node.uid JOIN wptest.wp_users ON drupal.users.name = wptest.wp_users.user_nicename SET wptest.wp_posts.post_author = wptest.wp_users.ID

 

One note for you: I found the line where we updated our content image links didn’t really take care of what I needed.  My Drupal db was full of absolute links for image sources so I ended up having to change each by doing something like: UPDATE wptest.wp_posts SET post_content = REPLACE(post_content, ‘my.drupal.site/sites/default/files/’, ‘/wp-content/uploads/oldimages’); for each of the image urls.  I then mass imported the images via ftp into my wp-content/uploads/oldimages/ directory.  This meant they weren’t included in the WP media library as I would prefer, but at least the images were there.

Let me know if you’ve got improvements, especially if you write a script to import the images into the media library!

Don’t forget our cherished Veterans to whom we all owe a great debt which can never be paid in full

In the end, it wasn’t the Internet, or televsion or even bad management that killed journalism; we did it to ourselves.

When I was in college, we held up the Bob Woodwards of the world as our mentors.  The story mattered above all else.  No matter who it was, it was the journalists job to expose corruption.  We were to be that shining light in dark places.

This election cycle has shown us the lie in that.  We’ve got supposed journalists falling all over each other to produce dubious “fact checks” based on a pyramid of half truths and deceptions carefully spoon fed by the campaigns.  The keyword now in politics is “control the narrative” and that means finding ways to get their version of the story out.

To be clear, as a journalist, you cannot spin a story.  Propagandists spin stories, PR flacks spin stories, journalist report.  We are meant to be that sharp probe stuck into sensitive areas.  Not some dull mouthpiece regurgitating the party line.

It’s not that it’s one side or the other that is the problem, it is that it have become utterly apparent to everyone that media has a side.  The right, Fox, and in opposition MSNBC. Too many issues have been left alone.  Far too many.

For example, how is it we have an ambassador killed in Libya, yet none find fault with our government.  To be clear, their “it was the video” mantra was an obvious fabrication. The truth, that it was a coordinated attack by terrorists, and even worse, that we had repeatedly denied requests for more security, and in fact, removed 34 security personnel over the previous 6 months, was concealed and only now comes to light.

Are there still bright points: to be certain.  One has only to look at the work done by Univision on the Fast and Furious scandal.  Another story most media shied away from for over a year. (I link to ABC News – their English language partner)

To be fair, I could just as easily link to instances of press ignoring CIA lies about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction etc.

The death of journalism comes when journalists look the other way.  When journalists give up.  When they become propagandists.

We cannot allow journalism to die.

My years at Namemedia ended last month and I’m no longer forced to commute to Waltham from Central MA anymore.  While I miss everyone I worked with at Namemedia, I certainly do not miss the commute.

Our workdays are long enough.  When you start adding an additional 1.5 hours each way, minimum, to your commute, it gets downright awful.  Then, add on top the fact that at least once a week you can expect a 2 hour or longer commute, usually in the morning with a tie up at the Rt. 128 Tolls.  In the end it leaves little time for anything else in your life.

So you compensate by trying to go into the office a little earlier to miss some of the traffic.  Or you stay later to miss the worst of the rush.  The next thing you know you’ve committed 14 hours of your day to the job. You simply aren’t left with much.

So you get home, and everyone wonders why you’re zombie-like; you just want to sit and relax for a little while, then off to bed so you can get up early and start it all over again.

In my many years of commuting on the Mass Pike, I learned a lot.  Here are a few tips:

• Sneaky Alternate Routes Rule – No, I won’t publish mine here, but there are other ways.  When in doubt, avail yourself of the other options.
• Aggressive Drivers Suck – newsflash: driving 90 weaving in and out when everyone else is doing 70 doesn’t get you there any faster.  I generally pass clowns like you at the tolls.  And no, that’s not a “you’re number one” signal everyone is giving you.
• Easy Pass Costs You 30 Minutes Every Morning – On the morning commute, at Rt. 128 Tolls, the Easy Pass lanes back up for at least 1/4 mile.  However, if you pay cash, you can generally pass ALL that traffic and drive right up to the booth on the far left.
• Boston Radio is Dead – we knew it was done when BCN shed it’s mortal coils.  There is no radio in Boston save talk radio and NPR.  I generally opt for podcasts through my smartphone.  Where for art thou, Dwayne Glasscock!
• Car Are Tools – if you’re going to commute over 100 miles a day, your car is a tool and needs to be treated as such.  You need to get the maximum longevity out of it, and you need to be a slave to routine maintenance. Buy cars for durability, buy used, and make sure it’s comfortable, because you’re going to spend a good chunk of your life in there.
• Auto Costs Add Up – if you commute 100 miles a day, 5 days a week that’s 500 miles – call it two tanks of gas a week for me, minimum.  At $3.80 a gallon, that’s around $100 a week. Add on tolls, maintenance, and the fact that you are now the grim reaper of motor vehicles, and you’ve got a solid 12-15k a year in costs.  Conservatively…

Thank God the Tyranny is over!

We are all a little less today, for the loss of a great newsman, Mike Wallace, formerly of 60 Minutes.  He was a slave to the story; where it lead and who it lead to be damned.

But this isn’t a memorial for a man I didn’t know.  It’s a memorial for a profession and ethos that is gone.  I’d honestly love to hear what he’d have to say about today’s world of media bias.

There it is, media bias. For those of you on the left you’re thinking of the the folks at Fox News, whereas those on the right are thinking of the Trayvon Martin 911 tape selectively edited by NBC News.

I’m not sure I’d want to associate my name with an industry in which the only institution that had the guts to hop on the story of presidential candidate John Edward’s epic 2008 zipper problem was that bastion of journalistic integrity, The National Enquirer.

Put aside your predilection towards one side or the other, let’s think about that one.  The stories were whispered on the campaign trail in 2008, but no one would touch them. Some  would say because he conveniently siphoned votes off of the at that time nominee apparent, Hillary Clinton.  No matter, the fact is that a candidate for President of the United States went without media scrutiny throughout the 2008 primary season.  Would that have happened this time around, say if it was someone like Rick Perry?  Read more here.

The John Edwards extramarital affair refers to the extramarital affair admitted to in August 2008 by John Edwards, a former United States Senator from North Carolina and Democratic Party presidential candidate. The affair was initially reported by The National Enquirer, a US supermarket tabloid newspaper, but was given little or no coverage by many sources in the US mainstream media.^[1][2][3] The Enquirer cited claims by an anonymous source that Edwards had engaged in the affair with Rielle Hunter, a filmmaker hired to work for his presidential campaign, and that the relationship had produced a child.

Then last month we find there is video that WGBH in Boston, a PBS station, had of then Law Professor Barack Obama supporting Derrick  Bell, PHD, an academic professing radical race theory. Again, if Rick Santorum had introduced similar fire brand, it would have been immediate news.  Read about it here…

“The bombshell is the revelation of the relationship between Obama and Derrick Bell,” Pollack said. “Derrick Bell is the Jeremiah Wright of academia. He passed away last year but during his lifetime he developed a theory called critical race theory, which holds that the Civil Rights movement was a sham and that White Supremacy is the order and it must be overthrown.”

It’s not just on the left.  Fox News is perennially accused of bias.  Again, citing Wikipedia…

Writing for the Los Angeles Times, Republican and conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg indicated his belief that Fox News was rightward-leaning: “Look, I think liberals have reasonable gripes with Fox News. It does lean to the right, primarily in its opinion programming but also in its story selection (which is fine by me) and elsewhere. But it’s worth remembering that Fox is less a bastion of ideological conservatism and more a populist, tabloid-like network.”^[13]

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly has stated that “Fox does tilt right,” (although he states this in specific reference to the coverage of the Iraq war, not FNC’s coverage in general), but that the network does not “actively campaign or try to help Bush-Cheney.”^[14][15]

So on to the thing we have lost: honest, unbiased journalism, the kind that Wallace did; follow the story where it leads and pull back every curtain.  Unfortunately our media now seems to have a hotline to the party they support.

Newsflash: NBC, NY Times, Fox – if you’re taking your directions from a political party, you’re not in news, you’re in public relations.  The people of the United States deserve better, and you should show a little pride.  Now go find a REAL story and stop carrying water!

In the 11th minute, of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month…

Thanks to all now serving and those who have served.

I saw the video on the news the other night of these guys who’s boat sank and one was able to film the entire episode with his helmet cam.  It was truly scary stuff for any boater, but for me, having been through the same ordeal, it was utterly terrifying.

Many of you may have heard the story, perhaps told glibly after a few too many beers.  The truth is, that’s generally the only way I can tell it.

On August 14, 2005 at 1:00 pm in the afternoon in 2-3 foot seas off Sakonnet Point in Rhode Island, while fishing for tuna in my boat, I turned to see a monster wave that had appeared out of no where.  The boat filled with water when the wave broke over the stern and in about 60 seconds, my companion Jacob Kasper and myself were in the water.  No distress call, and suddenly our safety gear, all of it was now under water.  You can read the full story, as well as  a long thread about the incident at Reel-Time.com .

What you don’t get from the video is the sense of dread right after the boat sinks, that feeling that happens when you realize this one, cold, hard fact: at this moment of time, no one knows you are in trouble and no one is coming to help.  You’re on your own.

In the coming weeks after the event, I realized how backwards most boaters are on safety gear.  Yes, perhaps they have it all, but can they really get it if they need it?  If you’ve got a 35′ sportfisherman, the last place you want to go is up to the anchor compartment to get your crash bag as the boat sinks.

Here are some tips that every boater should use to be prepared should things go horribly wrong:

• Have the right safety gear, and have it accessible from the cockpit.
• Remember that the number of flares you’re required is a minimum.  That number is low.  Carry more…both handhelds and rounds for your gun.
• Before the boat leaves the dock, give everyone the airline safety speech:
• The life jackets are here…
• The flare kit is here…
• The radio is here.  On top of it are written instructions about how to contact the Coast Guard…
• Anything else someone might need to know about your boat in the case of emergency.
• Carry a handheld, waterproof radio on your body, and attached by a lanyard.  This may be the single most important piece of gear besides your life preserver.
• Make sure you have a life preserver close by.  I usually sit on a seat cushion type so I know right where mine is at all times.

My congratulations go out to both the boaters who were fished out, as well as the captain and crew of the Patience who rescued them.

A couple of other things to consider:

• Have you taken a Power Squadron boating course?  If not, you ought to.  I consider it a requirement for stepping behind the helm, and have always encouraged my crew to take it.
• Sobering thought: do you realize how few boaters actively monitor channel 16, the distress channel?  Do you?
• How would you pull a disabled boater out of the water?  This is a huge problem, and many of us have never, ever considered it.  Especially on big boats…

Be safe out there…

We live at a critical juncture in history.

Technology has reached a point where it is not only tool which we use to control the world around us, it is now potentially becoming a way for the world to control us.

Yes, I sound like I should be wearing a tinfoil hat as I write this.  But the truth is that right now, in Massachusetts we have the state police actively scanning the cars on our highways for wants, warrants, parking tickets, everything, automatically, without probable cause.

The computerized scanners, known as Automatic License Plate Recognition devices, instantly check for police alerts, warrants, traffic violations and parking tickets, which cops say could be an invaluable tool in thwarting crime. (Boston Herald – 7/21/2011 – as linked above)

When I posted this to Facebook the other day, I had three separate friends report that they had either been stopped by the police based on this information, or had friends who had been.

Indeed, it’s a wonderful technology for the police, but unfortunately the potential for abuse is simply too great.  The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has already taken the first step over the line, by attempting to create a database of where and when every license plate has been seen by a scanner, regardless of whether that plate was the subject of a warrant or not.

Civil libertarians are raising the alarm over the state’s plans to create a Big Brother database that could map drivers’ whereabouts with police cruiser-mounted scanners that capture thousands of license plates per hour. (Boston Herald – 7/21/2011 – as linked above)

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  Last month a Newton man was denied a drivers license when the state ran his license through Federal Government facial recognition software and he was identified, incorrectly, as someone else.

And apparently, he has company. Last year, the facial recognition system picked out more than 1,000 cases that resulted in State Police investigations, officials say. And some of those people are guilty of nothing more than looking like someone else. Not all go through the long process that Gass says he endured, but each must visit the Registry with proof of their identity. (Boston Globe article 7/17/2011 as linked above)

That’s just the start.  In September, police forces across the country, MA included, will begin to use handheld facial recognition systems.

The rollout has raised concerns among some privacy advocates about the potential for misuse. A fundamental question is whether or not using the device in certain ways would constitute a “search” that requires a warrant. Courts haven’t decided the issue.

It is generally legal for anyone with a camera, including the police, to take pictures of people freely passing through a public space. (One exception: Some courts have limited video surveillance of political protests, saying it violates demonstrators’ First Amendment rights.) (Wall Street Journal – 7/13/2011 as linked above).

Current versions require them to snap a pic from within 5 feet, but we can expect that envelope to increase.  Will they begin actively scanning faces for potential malefactors?  What is to keep them from scanning everyone entering a large sports event such as the Super Bowl?

Lump in the privacy concerns that are created by Google and Facebook storing as much information as they can possibly grab via tracking cookies, etc, and it’s beginning to look like a guy (or gal) can’t get a break.

As has so often been the case in the last decade, the argument for these services comes down to combating potential terrorism.  Think about the arguments that were made for the Patriot Act – that it was a necessary for fighting terrorism.  However, in practice, it has primarily been used as a tool in drug and organized crime prosecutions.

The truth, to me, is that these tools are simply to easy to abuse.  We cannot allow our government and police to use them against us.

Choose now…do you want an America with the freedom your parents had, or do you want to live in a police state where literally everything you do is watched and recorded.  Because that is exactly what these systems do, and I fear that unchecked, this ends up like so many bad sci fi movies…

It’s been a long time since I posted.  I’ve been wrapped up in endless development cycles, dealing with real world stuff and generally had way too much going on to have the time to deposit any gems of wisdom on you.  Of course, that presupposes that at this point, I do.  Which I do not…

I’m not making any promises now, but I will certainly try to post more soon.  For now, that evergreen post maker, a list:

• We’re moving to an Agile development process.  It’s painful.  Really painful.
• The stripers and blues are in, but I haven’t had time to fish.
• I did a really cool secret project recently that I’ll never tell you about.  Just look on me in awe.
• I’m rocking a really cool 64 bit 8 meg i7 lapworkstation now.  I think it has more processing power than any of my webservers.
• Sad to see Gil Scott Heron pass – check out some of his tunes, and also read his bio.
• 51st birthday – my friends once again show me how utterly cool they are, and throw me a really cool party. Gerhard, Kim, Mike, Caroline – you guys are the best!

Hey, maybe I DO HAVE SOMETHING!

Oh, and GO BRUINS!