[Mediawiki-l] Re: [Wikitech-l] Long-term: Wiki import/export format

Mon Mar 28 11:09:02 UTC 2005

Hoi,
As part of the Wikidata implementation we will have a shot at
importing and exporting data using formats like XML. There are already
some people interesting in helping out with this. Exporting the
current wiki data in XML could be part of that effort, It would be a
good thing to combine things as we propably do not want to publish XML
in too many ways,

Thanks,
    GerardM

On Sun, 27 Mar 2005 18:53:33 -0800, Lee Daniel Crocker <lee at piclab.com> wrote:
> Problems: The frequently-changing database schema in which the wiki
> information is stored makes it difficult to maintain data across
> upgrades (requiring conversion scripts), offers no easy backup
> functionality, makes it difficult to access the data with other tools,
> and is generally fragile.
> 
> Proposed solution: Let's create a standardized file format (probably
> something XML-ish) for storing the information contained in a wiki.
> All the text, revisions, meta-data, and so on would be stored in a
> well-defined format, so that, for example, upgrading the wiki software
> (from any version to any other--no need to do one at a time!) could
> be done by exporting the wiki into this format and then importing it
> into the new installation.  The export format would be publishable
> and easier to use for other applications, would be a simple file
> system for which commonly-available backup tools could be used.  A
> periodic export/import would serve to clean the database of any
> reference errors and fragmentation.  Tools could be created to work
> with the new format to create subsets, mirrors, and so on.
> 
> I already have some idea of what is needed, but I solicit input.
> 
> --
> Lee Daniel Crocker <lee at piclab.com>  <http://www.piclab.com/lee/>
> <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/>
> 
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