[wp-hackers] [GSoC 2011] Moving Wordpress

[Brian Layman]

On 3/20/2011 2:09 PM, ErisDS (Hannah Wolfe) wrote:
> I have a script which does all of the database stuff.
>
> http://erisds.co.uk/projects/migrate

Nice script.

I hope you don't mind if I share some thoughts on it:

You are taking some steps to replace the GUID for the posts. However, 
the GUID value, even if it has the old URL in there, really does not 
need to be changed.  In fact it is probably better to just leave it as 
is.  Your script would run faster if you didn't bother to change it. 
(That said, I've done the same thing in earlier migration scripts of my 
own).

The major issue I see is that you do not unserialize option_value while 
you are updating the options table.  The problem with this is that 
because serialized strings encode the length of each string value, a 
simple replacement will corrupt the entire serialized value.  So if your 
script is run on a blog that has "Welcome to blahblahblah.com" in a text 
widget and you str_replace it with "Welcome to blah.com", the new site 
will have lost all widgets on every sidebar.  This could also be the 
case for someone linking to a privacy policy in theme options. If they 
type in a full URL instead of a relative url, then you lose all of the 
theme options.

Serialized values are a MAJOR annoyance to anyone who regularly 
manipulates the database directly.  This is a very common issue in 
migration tools/tutorials. Talking about it here spreads the word...

That said, Nice stuff. Thanks for sharing!

Brian Layman
http://eHermitsInc.com
Managed WordPress Hosting