[xwiki-devs] [Gsoc -- 2009] Questions concerning the Import Export from any other Wiki Project

Hello, I am Keerthan Muthurasa , Msc Software Engineering student at Oxford Brookes University , I am interested on doing a project for xwiki. I would like to discuss about my ideas for the "Import Export from any other Wiki Project" and if you could in return give me your opinions that would be really helpfull for me. This is the project requirement : ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Import Export from any other Wiki<http://dev.xwiki.org/xwiki/bin/view/GoogleSummerOfCode/ImportExport… Create a extensible framework to import export data between wikis. This should handle converting the data in the pages including links between pages and metadata as well as direct access to the data through either a web service (prefered) or database or the file system The system should at least for MediaWiki and Confluence in import mode ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I will begin with some questions: * What does it mean when talking about converting links between pages ( we are talking about converting internal links in the source wiki isn it ?, That's mean when importing or exporting data we should think about exporting or importing the linked data as well in order to keep an integrity). * What does it mean when talking about exporting metadata ,direct access to data through either a web service or database or file system ? Here my idea for the project , if I can have some feedback it would be helpfull for me: When exporting or importing data from a given wiki to a destionation one Setp 1: get rid of all specific synthax proper to the source wiki and retrieve data,metadata, and other usefull information.This can be achieved using a kind of parser whose job is to scan the source page and reconize the specific synthax and only retrieve proper data.Concerning encountered links ,we should convert theses pages as well but we have to be carefull when cross linked ( for instance we are converting page A and A links to B but when converting B ,B links to A). Step 2: adopt a datacentric approach to properly store data in a such a way that is easy to retrieve them.We have to be carefull when storing data since they have to keep the original pages structure. Step 3: use previously retrieved data to create the result page in the destination wiki using the wiki specific synthax for destination wiki. I am having a look at wikiModel that seems to contain a parser.I am also trying to understand Plexus. A Many thanks for your advices. Regards, Keerthan Muthurasa