Content Migration with EPiServer CMS

EPiServer provides many features to help you with content migration enabling any combination of the following approaches.

• Automation with EPiServer Tools – Automated via EPiServer tools such as the API and web services.
• Automation with 3^rd Party Tools – Automated via 3^rd party tools such as Kapow.
• Phased – Some content remains in external repositories that are integrated with EPiServer.
• Manual – Content is manually migrated into EPiServer.

The optimal approach depends on the type and quantity of content being migrated. For example, automating the migration with custom code typically makes sense when there is a large volume of structured data and it would require less effort to build tools to automate the process than it would to manually migrate or use a 3rd party tool. 3rd party tools are typically used for extremely large volumes of unstructured content. Your implementation partner will work with you to determine which approach makes the most sense for your scenario.

Content Channels

EPiServer Content Channels are facilitated by a configurable web service interface that enables you to push data from other systems into EPiServer CMS. The content channel web service exposes functionality for external systems to add, edit, delete, and organize content within EPiServer CMS. There is a built-in mapping administration interface which makes it easy to map incoming fields to page fields in EPiServer CMS. The web service also fires events on incoming requests, making it easy to add for example business logic to the data.

Web Service API

EPiServer CMS provides a comprehensive web service API for reading and writing content from and to EPiServer.

.NET API

The EPiServer .NET API can also be used to automate the migration process.

Bulk File Upload

EPiServer CMS provides integration with Windows explorer that enables authorized users to perform bulk uploads of files by dragging from Windows Explorer and dropping into the EPiServer File Manager.

Phased Migration

Content stored in external systems can be exposed as pages in EPiServer CMS by implementing custom page providers. This enables you to implement a phased migration where some content is migrated and some content in integrated.

Manual Migration

The EPiServer rich text editor simplifies manual migration by providing clean cut and paste from external applications, removing unwanted proprietary markup, and respecting your predefined styles. It also converts headings from the source document to the appropriate “<h*>” tags eliminating the need for extra cleanup to be performed by the content contributor.

Import/Export

The EPiServer administrative interface enables authorized users to easily import/export EPiServer content and settings from one EPiServer instance to another. The following object types can be exported and imported from one EPiServer CMS instance to another.

• Pages
• Page Types
• Frames
• Dynamic Property definitions
• Tabs
• Categories
• Files

3rd Party Migration Tools

There are several 3rd party vendors that have specialized in 'screen-scraping' as part of content migration and some of them integrate with EPiServer CMS. Kapow provides migration tools that are ideal for large volumes of content but in some cases a simple script that pushes data from existing systems into EPiServer’s Content Channels can be the quickest solution.