Dating Blog4Umbraco posts back in time (importing existing posts)
We are implementing a site which also contain a blog, which we have made using the excellent Blog4Umbraco package. The client has an existing blog and naturally they want to convert their existing content. So we can't have all the posts registered as posted "today" as Blog4Umbraco does by default.
How do you set the date for a blogpost to a different date than "today"? Either when creating it, or by editing it afterwards.... Those datefolders are magic entities from a different dimension to me ;-)
You should be able to manually create your own date folders and blog posts with historical dates, just don't add the blog posts to the top level or it will automatically create the todays date structure.
You can also do this programmatically which depending on where you are getting the historical data from and how much there is, it may well be the preferred option. I have written code that does this and there is also the umbImport package which might help you.
Yeah, this one was one of my chief complaints about the blog software. The beta for the Autofolders module has the ability to the data from a field and then create the folder structure based on it instead of the create date. Problem is, I don't think you'll be able to integrate that with the blog4umbarco.
Ok, I think I'll check out umbImport. It's a couple of hundred posts, so the time spend on automation would probably quickly be paid back.
"data from a field and then create the folder structure based on it instead of the create date" That would be natural yes. I'd rather not go down that road, unless it can be done with the xslt macros and templates alone (and not having to compile custom versions of the accompanying DLL)
I've created a Rss Import adapter for umbImport, as an example of how to extend the import functionality. Might worth checking out when importing lots of posts.
@Rik:I ended up not importing them. It turned out the customer actually only had about 30 posts, so I just created them manually. I made some small modification to the blog4umbraco DDL (probably the same as the link you posted). Description here:
Dating Blog4Umbraco posts back in time (importing existing posts)
We are implementing a site which also contain a blog, which we have made using the excellent Blog4Umbraco package. The client has an existing blog and naturally they want to convert their existing content. So we can't have all the posts registered as posted "today" as Blog4Umbraco does by default.
How do you set the date for a blogpost to a different date than "today"? Either when creating it, or by editing it afterwards.... Those datefolders are magic entities from a different dimension to me ;-)
Hi Torben,
You should be able to manually create your own date folders and blog posts with historical dates, just don't add the blog posts to the top level or it will automatically create the todays date structure.
You can also do this programmatically which depending on where you are getting the historical data from and how much there is, it may well be the preferred option. I have written code that does this and there is also the umbImport package which might help you.
Cheers,
Chris
Yeah, this one was one of my chief complaints about the blog software. The beta for the Autofolders module has the ability to the data from a field and then create the folder structure based on it instead of the create date. Problem is, I don't think you'll be able to integrate that with the blog4umbarco.
Ok, I think I'll check out umbImport. It's a couple of hundred posts, so the time spend on automation would probably quickly be paid back.
"data from a field and then create the folder structure based on it instead of the create date"
That would be natural yes. I'd rather not go down that road, unless it can be done with the xslt macros and templates alone (and not having to compile custom versions of the accompanying DLL)
Thanks for the input
- Torben
Hi Torben,
I've created a Rss Import adapter for umbImport, as an example of how to extend the import functionality. Might worth checking out when importing lots of posts.
Cheers,
Richard
There is mention of an addon that handles this in this topic in the old forum:
http://forum.umbraco.org/yaf_postst8283_Umbraco-blog-v4-publish-date.aspx
but the link doesn't work anymore. I'm trying to contact the author as we speak, because i have a simular issue.
Did you already resolve your import? if so, how?
Kind regards,
Rik
@Rik:I ended up not importing them. It turned out the customer actually only had about 30 posts, so I just created them manually.
I made some small modification to the blog4umbraco DDL (probably the same as the link you posted). Description here:
http://our.umbraco.org/forum/using/ui-questions/5774-Editable-date-for-Blog4Umbraco-1x-(short-how-to)
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