Plone is a robust and powerful CMS suitable for organizations with very complex needs. It provides high level of flexibility and control, user-friendly admin tools, versioning, and fine-grained workflows. Security and performance are one of the best CMS can offer. So it is not surprising, if you want to change Drupal-based website to Plone-based one.
Are you confused by the idea of moving your entire website into another content management system? Don’t worry, we follow a structured and tested process to ensure that no data is lost and that resources are used efficiently. Moreover, there are several tools that automate migration process and make it quick and precise.
Migration process can be divided into several clear and comprehensible steps:
- create backup copy of your Drupal website’s database;
- export database in the most convenient format;
- process this content so that it is suited for Plone;
- import processed content to the new website;
- modify Plone with our customisations if necessary.
There are several additional options that will help you to optimize your Plone website right from the beginning. For instance, you can restructure your site. The basic unit content in Drupal is a ‘node’ and all information is stored there. By default, there is no hierarchy or structure imposed on these nodes. Although there are different options that help to organize your content.
On the contrary, Plone has hierarchical content structure. It is very similar to the structure of folders and files on your computer. There is one root folder where you can add other content types like text, images, files, other folders, etc. It is very convenient from the viewpoint of data structuring and organization. If you want to migrate to Plone, it would be useful to change site structure by grouping content items into sections and subsections. For example, we can create folder to store all images or all news separately. Moving pages is as simple as cut+paste operations on your computer.
Another improvement can be URLs. We can preserve URLs of your Drupal website pages. Optionally, we can create new ones that will be concise, descriptive and more SEO-friendly. This will ensure more visibility and visitors from Google and other search engines. Old URLs will not get lost, because we will add permanent redirects, so users with old links will be redirected to the same pages with new URL addresses.
Plone has more granular control over user roles and permissions. It would be logical to choose workflow (Simple Publication, Intranet/Extranet, Community, Comment Workflow, etc.) before starting the website. Depending on your area of expertise and website purposes, we will help you to choose the best workflow for your case. Later you will be able to assign user roles, permissions, and content workflow states.
Your content, metadata, design, comments, keywords and other elements can be moved from Drupal website and put into Plone and its ZODB database while either maintaining as much of the original content configurations as possible, or upgrading these configurations to the latest tendencies. Although Drupal website may contain thousands of pages or very unique design, Quintagroup can offer cost-effective, quick and high quality Plone migration services.