Conversions

> _Q. Why stick with an old content management system?_
> A. Because trying to move the data to a new one is far, far too difficult. (Or expensive. Or complicated. Or, in an absolute worst case scenario involving really horrific hosting situations, impossible.)

In the last year, I’ve had several clients ask me to move them away from Movable Type to the CMS(Content Management System) of their choice.

### Movable Type to Textpattern

Textpattern has an import utility that offers the choice of using either the native MT(Movable Type) export flatfile or the MT database information for a straight database-to-database conversion. In my experience, it munges categories and “forgets” to include entry basenames on the database import, causing organization and display problems. These problems can be solved by using phpMyAdmin to restore categories across the `textpattern` table and a small PHP script to run through the entries adding the `base_url` field.

### Movable Type to WordPress

The import utility for WordPress reads the entire MT export flatfile into a string and proceeds to use array operations to break it up. With a large data set, the server runs into issues with memory or script timeouts and breaks down after importing a portion of the file. This import process requires breaking up a large flatfile into smaller chunks to allow the import script to handle it.

### Movable Type to Joomla!

Joomla! has no built-in comments facility, so it is necessary to install MosCom to handle comments that are imported from MT. Joomla! uses some MySQL reserved words as column names, complicating SQL statements by requiring the prepending of table names. MosCom uses `varchar()` to store comment date and time as strings in separate columns instead of the more commonly used @datetime@. This conversion requires a custom import script to move data from the MT database to the Joomla! database.

Conversions

CMS database conversions are annoying enough without having to fret over whether an insert statement is going to run into reserved words as column names, or why in the world someone chose to store a date and timestamp as varchars instead of the built-in datetime format. (Movable Type to Joomla!, for those who wonder. MT was not the issue.)

Guilty Conscience

So yesterday, we were sitting on the couch together, Matthew and I, and I was snoozing when I realized that there was a movie starting and hey, it has Harrison Ford in it and it’s a romantic comedy, which is nice but definitely not standard viewing fare when Matthew has the remote.

And then I noticed that Harrison Ford was repairing a plane. And there was plane flying footage that followed.

“Wait a sec, you’re watching this for the plane!”

To which Matthew replied with a very guilty look, “Yes.”

And Whatnot

Rebecca lost her first two teeth within a week of each other. The first she dropped down the stairs, so I spent the evening looking for it. She is quite pleased with her tooth fairy income.

Marcus is reading books on his own, asks a million questions a minute, and has been making steady progress in his handwriting. His printing, I fear, is a lost cause.

Matthew has been working from home for the last two months. He built a deck onto the shed, unclogged the bathtub drain, and is my hero.

I am pregnant, and due on 7 September. If there is anything I haven’t done in the last two months (and I know that there are many things, like sending out holiday cards), my sincere apologies. I have spent the last two months sleeping a minimum of 12 hours per day, because when I was pregnant with Rebecca, I didn’t and I ended up with daily migraines. I don’t plan on repeating that experience even if I’m erring on the side of sleeping too much as opposed to not enough.