CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hi gharris,

You could do what you're describing, but I wouldn't recommend it - by feeding data directly into MySQL you're bypassing a lot of the logic that Civi counts on to keep the data clean.

I recommend using the Civi API - I specialize in migration to Civi, and I use Pentaho Kettle, an ETL tool.  I set up my inputs as the existing MySQL database.  I then map my fields in Kettle - I'll be doing a presentation on this for CiviDay next week if you're in NYC, or I could arrange you join by Google Hangout.

Kettle does more than field mapping - it also transforms your data, so you can get it into the correct format, clean up bad data, etc.

In theory, I could use the "CiviCRM output" step to push directly into CiviCRM, but that's a bit too new/buggy - can't wait for the next version!  Instead, I output to CSV, then use the CSV API command line import tool (https://civicrm.org/blogs/xavier/api_batch_tools) to do the import.

I have steps in Kettle that will SFTP the CSV files to the server, then run the API CSV tool on the remote server - so I can click a single button and do a complete migration.  This is very helpful pre-launch - you can delete the entire contents of the database each night and repopulate it from the legacy database until folks are ready to move over to Civi.

Feel free to ask any follow-up questions!  I haven't built a git repo of all my transforms, but now that I just started a new migration job today, I may well take the opportunity.

Jon

Wow Jon!  That sounds like a truly nifty setup.  Unfortunately, I apparently missed the subscribe me to this topic button, again, so I wasn't able to take you up on your Google+ offer. (Why isn't that the default for BB's yet?!?)  I'll dig deeper into that setup.

Also, thanks for the heads-up Pete.  I'll look at that option too.  Who knows, might be worthwhile to set up Drupal, then dump and import into WP.

Last year Donald shot that thought down.  Here's the thread:
http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,28030.msg119741.html#msg119741

That said, maybe something changed?

Interesting thought.  It would be useful, and "should" be mitigated by not using the same username on both sides and possibly creating a special user id for the Drupal setup.  I think the biggest scare in this would be where the auto-generation of id's occurs.  If CiviCRM is generating, then it should be good.  If the CMS is generating anything, it's going to be an issue.