Content Porter Import, Requires some manual configurations?

Question

I am importing publications from a package, getting some errors and I don't have access to the server, client did an export and send it to me.

• Do I need to create publications manually before I start import?
• How can I know the blue print hierarchy of publications, who is parent an who is child?
• Do I need to create categories manually if import package has some keywords in it?

Only schemas imported successfully.

Answer 1

Below are my 2 cents:

• Do I need to create publications manually before I start import? - If export package is correctly created then you should not, however, personally I would like to see an export package which only consists of all the publications which you will be importing first and then rest of the packages should be imported. If it is not your case, I would recommend creating the publication and blueprinting hierarchy manually as this will not take much time and will also keeps lots of dependency issues (if any) away - Ultimate aim is to have the content in CM and that too in lowest possible time - How you are doing it, should not matter.
• How can I know the blue print hierarchy of publications, who is parent an who is child? - You can right click on the publication and select "Properties". In the buleprint hierarchy, you will be able to see its parent and child publications. Alternatively, you can right click and choose - "Blueprint -> Blueprint Hierarchy" to see the full BP hierarchy.
• Do I need to create categories manually if import package has some keywords in it? - No, they should have been created through Content Porter Import, it completely depends on how the export package has been created and how the import has been done (mind every steps in the wizard)

I hope it helps

Answer 2

Not all CP dependencies are exportable. At least (and very common case) - parent publication dependency is not exportable. This means next: if during export parent publications were not selected manually - they will not be exported to package(their content), but child publications will have dependencies to this publications (they will be resolved by WebDavUrls on import stage).

If you don't have parent publications neither in package nor on import system - you will get exception during import, because mandatory dependency can not be resolved.

So there are 2 possible options:

a)Ask to provide package, which includes parent publications.

b)Create parent publication manually (but it will not be always correct, as after import some shared/localized items in child publications will become local, as they will be created only in child publications).

Answer 3

If you got an export and you get errors on importing, then I'm assuming you are getting dependency errors. Which basically means that the export you have might not contain all the information you need, and from that point of view, it might be useless.

When using Content Porter I always stick to one simple rule; know what you are trying to accomplish.

This means you have to be very aware of what you export and how you can import that again. First things you need to be aware of is that you need to export all relevant content. A Component is based on a Schema, resides in a Folder, which belongs to a Publication. So you need all those items (and their dependencies) to be able to correctly import that single Component. When BluePrinting comes into play, that just multiplies the number of items you require (parent Publications and their structure etc.).

Also be aware of what I like to call the chicken and egg problem (as explained here).

When all that is taken care of, then know what you are importing, and be sure to select the resolve with BluePrinting mapping option if required (which means you need to have the Parent items in the export also).

So simply put, if you just get an export with the instructions; import this. You are bound to come across issues you can not solve. It is in my opinion better to make the export together with your client so you know what is exported and you know what to import and how. To make this whole process more manageable, it is most of the times better to do small exports. So export the structure first (Publications, Folders and Structure Groups), then the Schemas and last the Content. Import those three exports in the correct order and you should see it all goes painlessly.

In the end you should see that you can export and import everything without having to do anything manually. It is even possible to do that in one step, with a huge export and huge import, but most of the times it goes a lot smoother if you break it up in smaller (manageable) steps.