We're working on building an e-fiction archive (starskyhutcharchive.net) and we were wondering if there was a way to import stories and authors from a mysql archive that was custom built? Has anyone tried to do this? I think we'd have to write a script but I'm not sure how to go about doing it. There are several hundred stories in the old archive and we're not sure if it would be easier to start over and upload them fresh or if there is a way to map the old archive to the e-fiction one.
I'd suggest first setting up an eFiction archive to check out the table structure. It can also be found in the install file. You're going to have to write a script (or I guess run queries) to change what you have into what's necessary for eFiction. I haven't heard of anyone doing this. I'm sure it's doable, but that it will probably be a huge pain in the neck. Once you get an eFiction-usable database, then all you need to do is upload the file and write the config file to point to the database. Theoretically. You'd probably want to import the settings table (and others?) from a previously created eFic site.
First questions:
-Are you using a database? (I would assume so)
-Is it a MySQL database?
Possible issues off the top of my head:
-Password encryption: eFic uses md5, so if your current site uses something else, all passwords would need to be reset
-Story text: you have the option to save story text in files or in the database with eFic. How is yours done currently? If it's not in the database, that will be even more work.
However, looking at your site, it looks like an eFiction install. It even looks like it might be a 3.0 version. Or is this where you want to import the data to? (I'm stalling on getting to the browse page and can't see what you actually have.)
Thanks for the detailed reply, we really appreciate it. This is a big help to us in figuring out what we need to figure out. 🙂
My original post wasn't clear about which site was which, sorry about that. The new site is an e-fiction install and that is located at http://starskyhutcharchive.net/
The original archive is at http://starskyhutcharchive.com/ and is an original design. I'm going to ask the creator to take a look at this thread, she knows how the backend is set up. But I'm pretty sure it is database driven.
Good to know about the passwords, I never would have thought of that.
Thanks again.
Look at the upgrade scripts between 1.1 or 2.x and 3.x. It'll give you some idea of what you need to do as the database changed between version and so some of what you need to do was done there.
Hi: I'm the author of the original site. Yes, the old archive is written in mysql and php; however, the story text is not in the db but simply is recorded as the relative location of the file.
>>Look at the upgrade scripts between 1.1 or 2.x and 3.x.
where are these located? I didn't do the install on the new server, and I'm not finding them in the dist I just grabbed.
My hope is that I can dump the old data and write an import script to insert the appropriate/required fields in the brand new eFiction db, but it would be helpful if I could look at any existing import scripts you guys already have, or if you have any APIs already in place. has no one tried to migrate from one type of fiction archive to eFiction in the past?
Also, could you point me to the eFiction schema for 3.5.2? I can't seem to find it. purty please. :))
Thank you kindly for any assistance!
-molo
I believe the 1.1/2.0 update scripts are in the install folder. (upgrade11.php and upgrade20.php) There are also some files in the docs folder you might want to take a look at.
As far as I've heard, no one's tried doing it before. I'm sure someone probably has, but they haven't talked about it around here, at least not in the last few years I've been around.
If you're talking about a database schema, I'm not sure there's an updated one. There is a tables.sql file in the docs folder, but I'm not sure if it's updated as frequently as the script is. The best thing to do to be sure would be to look at install/install.php.
So how are the files for the story text saved? With eFiction, there are two options: database or files. The first is self-explanatory. The second is that the story text is saved in .txt files. There's a folder (you choose the name) that the story text goes into. Within this folder are other folder that are numbered with the author's uid. Then, the .txt files within are named by the chapter's chapid (see fanfiction_chapters).
The tables.sql should be the most current database schema.
