You have several possibilities: * code an input filter (in Java) for your filesystem format, you can look at http://extensions.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Extension/XFF+filter (which is a filter for another filesystem format) for inspiration * code something that populate an XWiki instance with the REST API as you suggested (see http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Features/XWikiRESTfulAPI) * code something that convert your format into one of the supported formats, the most simple formats I can think of are: ** http://extensions.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Extension/XAR+Module+Specificatio... and some export of XWiki as example ** http://extensions.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Extension/XFF+filter ** http://extensions.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Extension/MediaWiki/ On Mon, Dec 26, 2016 at 10:17 PM, novnovice <novnovice@gmail.com> wrote:

I know xwiki can import various kinds of data one at a time per http://platform.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Features/Imports. Here is my more complex scenario.

We have been adding text files, or doc files, to a windows file system set of folders. The normal pattern has been something like this:

*-dir root* --*dir acronis backup* ---*dir 20150101 install on server01* ----text file somename.txt ---*dir 20150520 update to version x.x* ----text file re.txt ----image screenshot01.png --*dir backblaze* ---*dir 20140105 install and configure* ----txt file re.txt etc

So, there are topic areas at the highest level (acronis, backblaze) and normally under them folders named for the date (20150101) with a title (install on server01). Inside the folder is a mix of text files, word documents, and images.

I would use the top level folder as a category or topic area inside xwiki. I would use the date as a data point on the wiki entry, to make sure I can sort by date of occurrance.

The text or word files are often named re.txt. Sometimes they have a more distinctive name, but mostly the file name is not a viable name for a wiki entry. The second part of the folder name would be better for that.

So, no one needs to parse all the details of our existing folder/file hive. I realize there is no way that any wiki system can simply import and translate that into something that would be presentable inside the wiki. I expect to write some code (non-php, I'd probably use vb) that traverses the hive that we have, and writes elements of what it finds into an xml file or something else that can otherwise be pulled into xwiki. the text and doc files would be converted into pages and the images...I'm not familiar enough with xwiki to know if it'd be best to leave those files in place on the disk and simply references them in the related wiki entry, or better to move them into the wiki system somehow.

I could even write the wiki entries directly into the database. xwiki has an api, possibly that would be useful for this purpose?

Probably an issue that has been encountered many times in the past. I'd appreciate any tips and or pointers to articles about this.

-- View this message in context: http://xwiki.475771.n2.nabble.com/Importing-a-file-system-based-set-of-folde... Sent from the XWiki- Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

-- Thomas Mortagne

I have exported using both the build in export feature, and the Large Export By Space Application. The output renders as unreadable, the encoding I guess. I have tried using notepad++ to see if I can get it to look like regular xml without success. This workstation is windows 7, server windows 2012 rs. I think notepad++ renders it as ansi, because when I ask it to convert to ansi it does not change. But all of the other 'convert' options make it even more illegible (utf-8, utf-8-bom, etc). There must be a simple way to view the exported xar in windows? I wonder if my plan to write out a xar of my existing information matrix is going to have issues with this. I would have to export in whatever format xwiki can deal with, as far as the encoding goes. -- View this message in context: http://xwiki.475771.n2.nabble.com/Importing-a-file-system-based-set-of-folde... Sent from the XWiki- Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

Oh - surprising what I don't know <g>. Thank you. -- View this message in context: http://xwiki.475771.n2.nabble.com/Importing-a-file-system-based-set-of-folde... Sent from the XWiki- Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.