As many of you may have heard, Ning recently eliminated its free networks and laid off 40% of its staff. Currently, Ning supports exporting users; for those of you interested in migrating your community members from Ning into Drupal, you have two well developed options at your disposal:
- User Import: http://drupal.org/project/user_import
- Feeds: http://drupal.org/project/feeds
If Ning ever opened up their APIs to allow content export, then importing the content would be equally straightforward. Both the Feeds module and the Node Import module would get the job done.
Another option for data import is a combination of the Table Wizard and the Migrate module.
If you are launching a Ning site now, setting up a Drupal site to import that content via RSS using the Feeds module wouldn't be a bad idea. Should Ning go out of business, or change their terms again, or if your organization makes the decision to take control of your web presence, your data (and the intellectual capital of your community) won't be in the hands of a content silo.
Comments
NING Export tools are released - Got time for a tutorial?
Hi there,
Perhaps you heard that the NING export tools were recently released. The tools allow users to choose from the different types of content on the site and then export JSON feed files and save them locally.
I can imagine that it is possible to reformat these docs in a way that would allow the node_import module to use them.
Care to take a look and let me know what you think?
http://creators.ning.com/forum/topics/content-archive-tool-coming?commentId=4244211:Comment:204924&xg_source=activity
Yes, possible to get data OUT, how to get it IN
As Alex points out above it is now possible, using the Ning Archiver, to get all of the data OUT of a Ning network:
http://help.ning.com/cgi-bin/ning.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=3796
However, some step-by-step advice on how best to get the data IN to a fresh drupal install would be of great value.
Custom json parser for feeds module
I haven't looked at the json code that Ning generates, but the first way I'd try to get this into a Drupal site would be via a custom parser for the Feeds module.
This page has a listing of current parsers for the Feeds module, including a link to an issue for a json parser: http://drupal.org/node/856644
any luck already with importing from ning?
very interested in how you manage. What is your ning site?
I am new to drupal and its kind of hard to get this done
How to Migrate Ning to Drupal
You can read the details here:
http://commons.peerforge.com/discussion/migrate-ning-drupal-import-ning-...
This is using the JSON Feeds -> WP-Buddy Press -> Worpress XML Export -> Drupal Wordpress Import
Long process, lots of potential issues, and you may over-caffeinate yourself in the process.
http://alexrollin.com
commons.peerforge.com site requires membership
If I was going to do this, I'd rather build a custom JSON parser for the feeds module.
While the above solution would probably work, it has the potential to get messy, especially if migrating users are involved.
But on the bright side, I'm just about always over-caffeinated :)
is there a possibility to
is there a possibility to migrate from ning to 'elgg' without any problems... is there a way to do that ???
Re:
With the ending of the free ning service I think a lot of folk are going to be in the same boat trying to migrate; they will give us the site in XML format. I'm not proficient at code so I'm not sure how to import it to a Drupal site. My network has about 500 members and is fairly active. I'm learning Drupal and will take up learning code too now, for this and several other projects I'm involved with. I read that getting Ning content and users into Drupal is surely possible. This is tough stuff, though, cause the JSON files need quite a bit of parsing.
The Feeds JSONPath parser
The Feeds JSONPath parser would be the first thing I'd try: http://drupal.org/project/feeds_jsonpath_parser
From Ning to drupal
I am a big fan of Drupal, but have yet to take the plunge into converting our social network over to Drupal or Drupal gardens. The first step will be cleaning up all the inactive members and any unrelated content. I would like to see a better user gallery in Drupal, but for the most part its a clean and responsive cms with serious scalability.
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