As If Productions wrote:
At 02:15 PM 8/11/2010, Phil Glanville wrote:
would it (in theory) be possible to copy just 'node' or content
specific db tables without causing serious problems?
Not only in theory, but in practice! I would never depend on a module to
do this for me, and I do a lot of migrations. If the two sites are
literally identical (content types, fields, taxonomy), you can just
directly copy the old tables to the new database. The node and
node_revisions tables are particularly safe in this regard. CCK stuff
requires more finesse. In complex cases, a few simple PHP scripts can
connect to both databases and directly query the specific tables you
wish to address. These scripts can also handle any data manipulation
that needs to occur in order to make the old schema data fit the new
schema (if/when there are any differences between them). Basically you
write scripts that SELECT data from the old DB and manipulate them one
row at a time into an INSERT query on the other DB. The only
prerequisite is that you need to be intimately familiar with the DB
schemas, and how various Drupal tables relate to each other.
There is also the settings.php file that you can simply finesse into
using the nodes from one site in another. Then there is no need to
copy. However, if you're moving away from one host to another and want
to copy the DB, simply shutdown the database and tar it up with a caveat
that the DB engine versions must match. Otherwise DB dump and import
into the new DB.
--
Earnie
-- http://progw.com
-- http://www.for-my-kids.com
