Moving Out: Intranet Content Migration (from Plumtree)

As mentioned in a previous blog post, we are preparing to embark on a journey to move off of Plumtree Portal (as everyone should be in the process of doing), and are ready to tackle migration challenges head-on.

One of the largest tasks for a portal migration is the process of moving content from one system to another.  Depending on how you've loaded content into Plumtree will determine how difficult this process will be for you.  If you had the wisdom to keep all of your content on a share drive and crawl it, or if you opted to use Collaboration Projects and the publish/crawl technique, then you are in good shape.  If, like us, you thought the Content Upload utility was the best route, not only were you mistaken, but you also now face the problem of how to export documents from the system.

I say that the Content Upload utility was a mistake in that it has the PAINFUL issue of not providing version control.  Each time a file is added to the KD (whether for a new document or an update) you have a new URL.  This has been a nightmare for us over the years and a cause of great consternation from our Content Managers who are constantly updating documents and have been plagued by broken URLs in their announcements, emails and other uses of file URLs.

For our document content migration process we will be working closely with our Content Managers to execute the following steps:

1. Review
2. Inventory
3. Export
4. Import

Review
We launched our portal in 2006 and failed to police our governance plan.  One lesson learned in this area is that a plan is only as good as the enforcement that goes behind it - so consider this when going to great lengths to create governance plans!!!  As a results we have many files that are outdated, contain misleading titles/descriptions, and that we don't need to move to the new system.

Prior to going through the laborious process of document migration we'll be asking our 90 Content Managers to review their sections of the Knowledge Directory to delete anything that they don't plan to migrate.

Given the summer season, uncertainty of content ownership, and the content itself, we expect this to be largely a formality and only a 1-2% reduction in the amount of files.  To bolster our cause we'll be letting the Content Managers know that they will be responsible for moving each of the remaining files to our new system - which will be a very time consuming effort, and that time spent up front will save a lot as we get into the import phase.

Inventory
The Content Upload tool allows you to name a file Bobs_Final_v8.txt and enter a title within the system that is completely independent.  Unfortunately we've run into countless cases where users are unable to find files they've download because the file names don't match the content.  In an ideal world the system would rename the file name to match the title within the content management system.  For us, we'll need to create a mapping spreadsheet to help our Content Managers stay organized, and also as a means for them to manage their content when the import phase begins.

We haven't done this step yet, but I'll be investigating ways to export the necessary information from our portal database into a useable format.  At this time I'm thinking that this might be the best format, let me know if you have any suggestions!

Folder Level	Folder Name	Title	Description	File Name
1	About Us	123	asdf	asdf.docx
1.1	Public Websites	456	asdf	asdf.docx
1.1	Public Websites	789	asdf	asdf.docx
1.2	Finance	123	asdf	asdf.docx
2	Events & Initiatives	456	asdf	asdf.docx
2.1	NICU Family Support	789	asdf	asdf.docx
2.1.1	Forms	123	asdf	asdf.docx

Where that would correspond to a folder structure in the KD similar to this

1. Root
1. About Us
1. file 123
2. Public Websites 
1. file 456
2. file 789
3. Finance
1. file 123
2. Events & Initiatives
1. file 456
2. NICU Family Support
1. file 789
2. Forms
1. file123

Export
Now on to the real problem with Content Upload, the export.  Because Plumtree compresses files uploaded to the Knowledge Directory into .ACT files you won't be able to use them without finding a way to export the files.  Within the Admin section of the portal is a migration export utility but that is meant for you to be able to import files into another Plumtree portal.  The only options imaginable at this time are to create a custom tool to export the files, and pray that it can handle exporting the folders and structure also... or to manually download each file one at a time.  For Fortune 500 companies this will no doubt be a simple exercise in developing a custom utility to do this, but for smaller companies with smaller development staff and consulting budgets this is going to be a challenge.  With a little finesse it might even be possible for the export tool to take the extra step of renaming the file using the title field.  Wouldn't that be great!

Import
Fingers crossed this process is quick and pain-free:)
We are considering hiring temporary staff to assist us in this upload phase.

Final Thoughts
If you have any advice, from a Plumtree perspective or general intranet/portal perspective, please add some comments!  Your thoughts are very much appreciated!!!!