Dave Burke : Freelance .NET Web Developer specializing in Online Communities

CS Daily News List Blog: The Blog Migrator

I had mentioned that the logic of the Daily News List Builder was essentially done, but I wanted to create a migration utility first before moving to prototype.  That was this weekend. 

The List Blog Migrator uses XMLRPC and the MetaBlog API to pull all posts from a source location blog and migrates each into a List destination blog, i.e, taking all CommunityServer.org Daily News posts and posting them on my dev server, converting each Daily News post into multiple List Items in the process.  Using this approach makes the app capable of migrating a source blog from any location (or any application since I'm using the standard MetaBlog API) to any destination blog location.

In case anyone was wondering about the development process dynamic, CommunityServer.org is a sacred place to me, and although I'm only doing a innocuous, low-impact GetRecentPosts() XMLRPC call on the source blog, everything you see here was done using a duplicate Daily News blog that sits on my office network.

Here's a screenshot of the List Blog Migrator.  If you're familiar with Windows Apps I've done before, you'll see a certain symmetry here.  There are two things I like about the Migrator.  For one, it's fully multi-threaded.  Hats off to Microsoft for making the BackgroundWorker so easy to implement in .NET 2.0. 

I can specify a subject string and only those posts are processed (optional, otherwise all source blog posts are migrated), a progress bar keeps track of the migration percentage completed, and each source post as it's processed is displayed in the listbox.  The background process can be safely cancelled at any time.


The second thing I wanted to do with this app was add a Help function (shown at the bottom-left status bar.)  Since the migration was happening on a background thread I thought it would be nice to provide something to read while the processing was going on.

 

 

Here's the complete help document if you're interested.  It's still in draft form, but it's pretty close.

Speaking of close, I guess we're almost ready for a working prototype.  That should be in our next exciting episode.

Comments (5) | Post RSS RSS comment feed

Posted on 11/19/2006 9:59:00 PM by Dave Burke
Categories: Community Server
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Comments (5) -

11/20/2006 1:43:35 AM Permalink

Great job, Dave Smile

Everything looks nice except one thing: converting first link in each

  • to a title shouldn't give good results in all cases unless author cares about it and this limits authors.

    Always author must put main link first with a text that can be used as a title and this is a restriction, isn't it?

    Although I can't find a better way myself :-P

    And a question: what will happen if something goes wrong in middle of migration process?  Probably it won't post half of posts that come after an exception then you have to remove sent items manually to resend all posts again?

    Keyvan Nayyeri |

    • 11/20/2006 5:30:55 AM Permalink

    Thanks, Keyvan.  I personally like the first link text as subject logic.  Simple, and as you say, can't think of a better way.  I suppose there are two user-configurable options that are possible.  1) An alternative field delimiter than the

  • tag, and 2) The hyperlink item position (1st or last).

    If an error occurs, that original post is dropped and not processed.  It won't display in the processed listbox, but no, there is no other error logging.

    Keep in mind I designed this solely to build a faq list from the Daily News and for my own purposes.  But like anything (especially with Community Server), you want to be able to share it in the Community.  One thing I've been trying to communicate in these posts is how I approach the faq list and how I use it with the Daily News.  That way others can relate how it might apply to their own environment or source material.  I know I can do a better job making this app more generic.  Maybe that will happen based on demand, though honestly I don't expect demand to be that great.

    I always appreciate your comments and observations.  Thanks!

    daveburke |

    • 11/20/2006 6:13:14 AM Permalink

    Yes, this FAQ generator is really great and I love it.  I think it can help to improve DN.  Individual posts are better than a list.  IMO the order of stuff has an effect on their importance for reader in DN especially when we have busy days and lists get longer so having things in separate posts can give every post its own importance.

    On the other hand there are some questions/suggestions for DN and your community evangelist job that I'll send you very soon (hope I don't forget it).

    Thanks Smile

    Keyvan Nayyeri |

    11/20/2006 6:20:44 AM Permalink

    You're amazing, Kay Man.  Morning, night, it doesn't matter.  You're always online!  I'll remind you about those questions and suggestions!

    daveburke |

    11/20/2006 8:51:58 AM Permalink

    :-P

    Thanks Dave Smile

    Keyvan Nayyeri |


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