updated branch; this is ready for review for inclusion in IkIWiki

[git.ikiwiki.info.git] / doc / tips / convert_mediawiki_to_ikiwiki.mdwn

diff --git a/doc/tips/convert_mediawiki_to_ikiwiki.mdwn b/doc/tips/convert_mediawiki_to_ikiwiki.mdwn
index 7a34ffc15afd0cc0b97a3b363ecf956dac82105f..91e191c4c63b146d452d1670ca272cd00758ff28 100644 (file)
--- a/doc/tips/convert_mediawiki_to_ikiwiki.mdwn
+++ b/doc/tips/convert_mediawiki_to_ikiwiki.mdwn
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 [[!toc levels=2]]
 [[!toc levels=2]]

+[[!meta date="2008-10-20 16:55:38 -0400"]]

 
 

-Mediawiki is a dynamically-generated wiki which stores it's data in a
+Mediawiki is a dynamically-generated wiki which stores its data in a

 relational database. Pages are marked up using a proprietary markup. It is
 possible to import the contents of a Mediawiki site into an ikiwiki,
 converting some of the Mediawiki conventions into Ikiwiki ones.
 relational database. Pages are marked up using a proprietary markup. It is
 possible to import the contents of a Mediawiki site into an ikiwiki,
 converting some of the Mediawiki conventions into Ikiwiki ones.


@@ -144,7 +145,12 @@ into an ikiwiki tag name using a script such as
                     sys.stdout.write(re.sub(pattern, manglecat, line))
             else: sys.stdout.write(line)
 
                     sys.stdout.write(re.sub(pattern, manglecat, line))
             else: sys.stdout.write(line)
 

-## Step 4: Mediawiki plugin
+## Step 4: Mediawiki plugin or Converting to Markdown
+
+You can use a plugin to make ikiwiki support Mediawiki syntax, or you can 
+convert pages to a format ikiwiki understands.
+
+### Step 4a: Mediawiki plugin

 
 The [[plugins/contrib/mediawiki]] plugin can be used by ikiwiki to interpret
 most of the Mediawiki syntax.
 
 The [[plugins/contrib/mediawiki]] plugin can be used by ikiwiki to interpret
 most of the Mediawiki syntax.


@@ -155,16 +161,48 @@ The following things are not working:
 * tables
 * spaces and other funky characters ("?") in page names
 
 * tables
 * spaces and other funky characters ("?") in page names
 

+### Step 4b: Converting pages
+
+#### Converting to Markdown
+
+There is a Python script for converting from the Mediawiki format to Markdown in [[mithro]]'s conversion repository at <http://github.com/mithro/media2iki>. *WARNING:* While the script tries to preserve everything is can, Markdown syntax is not as flexible as Mediawiki so the conversion is lossy!
+
+    # The script needs the mwlib library to work
+    # If you don't have easy_install installed, apt-get install python-setuptools
+    sudo easy_install mwlib
+    
+    # Get the repository
+    git clone git://github.com/mithro/media2iki.git
+    cd media2iki
+    
+    # Do a conversion
+    python mediawiki2markdown.py --no-strict --no-debugger <my mediawiki file> > output.md
+
+
+[[mithro]] doesn't frequent this page, so please report issues on the [github issue tracker](https://github.com/mithro/media2iki/issues).
+

 ## Scripts
 
 ## Scripts
 

-[[sabr]] used to explain how to [import MediaWiki content into
-git](http://u32.net/Mediawiki_Conversion/index.html?updated), including full
-edit history, but as of 2009/10/16 that site is not available. A copy of the 
-information found on this website is stored at <http://github.com/mithro/media2iki>.
+### media2iki
+
+There is a repository of tools for converting MediaWiki to Git based Markdown wiki formats (such as ikiwiki and github wikis) at <http://github.com/mithro/media2iki>. It also includes a standalone tool for converting from the Mediawiki format to Markdown. [[mithro]] doesn't frequent this page, so please report issues on the [github issue tracker](https://github.com/mithro/media2iki/issues).
+
+### mediawiki2gitikiwiki (ruby)

 
 [[Albert]] wrote a ruby script to convert from mediawiki's database to ikiwiki at <https://github.com/docunext/mediawiki2gitikiwiki>
 
 
 [[Albert]] wrote a ruby script to convert from mediawiki's database to ikiwiki at <https://github.com/docunext/mediawiki2gitikiwiki>
 

-[[Anarcat]] wrote a python script to convert from a mediawiki website to ikiwiki at <http://anarcat.ath.cx/software/mediawikigitdump.git/>. The script doesn't need any special access or privileges and communicates with the documented API (so it's a bit slower, but allows you to mirror sites you are not managing, like parts of Wikipedia). The script can also incrementally import new changes from a running site, through RecentChanges inspection. It also supports mithro's new Mediawiki2markdown converter.
+### levitation (xml to git)
+
+[[scy]] wrote a python script to convert from mediawiki XML dumps to git repositories at <https://github.com/scy/levitation>.
+
+### git-mediawiki
+
+There's now support for mediawiki as a git remote:
+
+<https://github.com/moy/Git-Mediawiki/wiki>
+
+### mediawikigitdump
+[[Anarcat]] wrote a python script to convert from a mediawiki website to ikiwiki at git://src.anarcat.ath.cx/mediawikigitdump.git/. The script doesn't need any special access or privileges and communicates with the documented API (so it's a bit slower, but allows you to mirror sites you are not managing, like parts of Wikipedia). The script can also incrementally import new changes from a running site, through RecentChanges inspection. It also supports mithro's new Mediawiki2markdown converter (which I have a copy here: git://src.anarcat.ath.cx/media2iki.git/).

 
 > Some assembly is required to get Mediawiki2markdown and its mwlib
 > gitmodule available in the right place for it to use.. perhaps you could
 
 > Some assembly is required to get Mediawiki2markdown and its mwlib
 > gitmodule available in the right place for it to use.. perhaps you could


@@ -180,7 +218,7 @@ information found on this website is stored at <http://github.com/mithro/media2i
 > fails on some html in the page named "4_metres". On archiveteam.org,
 > it fails trying to write to a page filename starting with "/", --[[Joey]]
 
 > fails on some html in the page named "4_metres". On archiveteam.org,
 > it fails trying to write to a page filename starting with "/", --[[Joey]]
 

-> > can you show me exactly which commandline arguments you're using? also, I have made improvements over the converter too, also available here: <http://anarcat.ath.cx/software/media2iki.git/> -- [[anarcat]]
+> > can you show me exactly which commandline arguments you're using? also, I have made improvements over the converter too, also available here: git://src/anarcat.ath.cx/media2iki.git/ -- [[anarcat]]

 
 >>> Not using your new converter, just the installation I did earlier
 >>> today:
 
 >>> Not using your new converter, just the installation I did earlier
 >>> today:


@@ -236,4 +274,27 @@ IOError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: u'/Sites_using_MediaWiki_(English).mdwn'
 zsh: exit 1     ./mediawikigitdump.py -v -t http://archiveteam.org
 </pre>
 
 zsh: exit 1     ./mediawikigitdump.py -v -t http://archiveteam.org
 </pre>
 

-[[scy]] wrote a python script to convert from mediawiki XML dumps to git repositories at <https://github.com/scy/levitation>.
+> > > > > I have updated my script to call the parser without strict mode and to trim leading slashes (and /../, for that matter...) -- [[anarcat]]
+
+> > > > > > Getting this error with the new version on any site I try (when using -t only): `TypeError: argument 1 must be string or read-only character buffer, not None` 
+> > > > > > bisecting, commit 55941a3bd89d43d09b0c126c9088eee0076b5ea2 broke it.
+> > > > > > --[[Joey]] 
+
+> > > > > > > I can't reproduce here, can you try with -v or -d to try to trace down the problem? -- [[anarcat]]
+
+<pre>
+fetching page list from namespace 0 ()
+found 473 pages
+fetching page 0 - 9  from http://www.amateur-radio-wiki.net/index.php?action=raw&title=0+-+9 into 0_-_9.mdwn
+Traceback (most recent call last):
+  File "./mediawikigitdump.py", line 304, in <module>
+    main()
+  File "./mediawikigitdump.py", line 301, in main
+    fetch_allpages(options.namespace)
+  File "./mediawikigitdump.py", line 74, in fetch_allpages
+    fetch_page(page.getAttribute('title'))
+  File "./mediawikigitdump.py", line 180, in fetch_page
+    f.write(options.convert(urllib.urlopen(url).read()))
+TypeError: argument 1 must be string or read-only character buffer, not None
+zsh: exit 1     ./mediawikigitdump.py -v -d -t http://www.amateur-radio-wiki.net/
+</pre>