Brian Browning | Senior Director of Client Services Jason Arden | Director of Partner Engineering • Why Do we Migrate Content? – Defining Content – Kinds of Content Migration Projects • Approaches to Content Migration – – – – – Manual Model Automated Model Hybrid Model Developing a Content Inventory Implementation • Demonstration of Automated Content Migration Model • Questions / Answers • Content typically consists of: – Text found on web pages – Images embedded in the web pages – Files and multimedia items • PDF, Excel, Word, Powerpoint files • Media files (AVI, MOV, FLV, etc.) • Content also refers to meta data associated with items defined above • Additional Content Items Can Include: – User generated content • Blogs, Wikis, Comments, Ratings, etc. – Syndicated Content • RSS Feeds from other sources, data feeds integrated into a site, etc • Remember to consider the ownership of the content being considered for migration • Goal is to move existing content from one (or more) site(s) into Ektron’s CMS400.NET Platform • Ektron-based Web Site Redesign Project – An existing Ektron-based site is redesigned • • • • Information Architecture Updates User Interface Updates New Content New Functionality – Tend to be easier than other kinds of Migration Projects • Content is already in Ektron’s Database • Migration effort is more of a re-mapping exercise – However, CSS and related styles may still require updates • Non-Ektron-based Web Site Redesign Project – A existing site is redesigned • IA, UX Updates • New Content • New Functionality – Not as Easy as Ektron-based Content Migration • Depends on how the Current web site is Architected • At the least, CSS and related styles will require updating • Consolidation of Multiple Web Sites into a Single Instance – Need to migrate from multiple web sites into one or more consolidated web sites • Kodak.com is a great example of a Site Consolidation Project • 37 International Sites done on multiple platforms needing to be consolidated onto one Ektron-based Platform – Complicated at the Information Architecture, User Experience and Technical Functionality Levels • Information Architecture must accommodate the consolidated content model • User Interface must be updated to address consolidated content – Goal: Standardization and Sharing • Functionality should be standardized so that it is shared throughout the site • Attention should be focused on the opportunity to share content across sections of the site wherever possible • Migration Away from an Existing CMS Tool or Platform – “Ektronization”: All Information Architecture, User Interface and Technical Functionality is to be re-created exactly as-is within the Ektron CMS400.NET Platform – Heavily dependent upon Accurate understanding of existing site functionality, content and organization • Many organizations do not have appropriate documentation about sites to be Ektronized • “Baseline” documentation may need to be created throughout the Discovery process to define what is to be migrated – Common pitfall • Allowing the Ektronization effort to become a Redesign or Enhancement Project • Maintain the scope and identify items for enhancement or redesign to be addressed in follow-up phases • Requires Strong Project Management and Stakeholder Buy-In • Three Core Migration Models: – Manual • Teams of people are employed to copy and paste content, imagery, files and assets into the Ektron CMS – Automated • Custom code is developed that will extract content from the current data repository and then loaded into the appropriate locations within Ektron – Hybrid • A combination of Manual and Automated approaches • Most appropriate when only parts of the source content are stored in a structured manner • Before Proceeding with Migration Effort, a Migration Approach must be defined – Define where content is physically stored – Define the structure of the content to be migrated • Stored in a Database? • Content is separated from Presentation Layer? • Level of Consistent Structure to Source Content? • Goal: Need to create a comprehensive URLbased listing of content that currently exists • How to create this inventory? – File System Counts • Useful for high-level inventorying • Doesn’t address database-based content sources • Doesn’t account for duplicates and out-of-date content items – Automated Spidering Tools • Value: Captures only that content that is publically available • Sometimes has issues with dynamic web sites • Xenu Link Sleuth is recommended • Once the current content inventory has been created, the next step is to: – Identify who “owns” the content items – If content owners have changed over time, determine who owns the content going forward – If no content authors can be identified, remove the content • Next, identify which content items should be moved over to the new website • Leverage internal business stakeholders / content authors to make these decisions – Get the business owners and their supporting content authors involved early in the process – Content owner buy-in is critical to successfully delivering the migration project • Many times, the amount of content to be migrated can be reduced by between 50% and 70% of the current content inventory! • Why? Current content could be: – Stale or outdated – Duplicative – No longer relevant • Here’s an example of a content reduction strategy in action: – The City of Fort Worth, Texas did a large content migration project to replace an old site that had developed over the years – The initial count was for more than 30,000 items of content to be migrated – After analyzing the content inventory and working with the content owners, the final migration effort was reduced to only 3,500 content items • Doesn’t this hurt the site’s experience? – No, reducing content to only display the most up-to-date content actually improves the user’s experience – Providing more targeted, relevant content enriches the experience and reduces problems caused by outdated content items • Don’t forget about New Content! – With many web site redesigns, net new content will be created – A separate plan should be developed to address net new content – Net new content should be authored either directly in the Ektron CMS or in Word documents to make content loading easier – Like migrated content, net new content must be factored into the information architecture of the new web site – Remember to consider “alternative” forms of content: • Video and streaming media • Interactive media, like Flash and Silverlight content • The results of the content inventory, content reduction and definition of new content tasks results in the final content migration map – Content Migration Map is the key to conducting the migration effort – It becomes the project plan and measuring stick to judge the completeness of the migration project • The content migration map must be compared to the new site's information architecture – Typically takes the form of a sitemap – Align content which will be migrated to the appropriate destination points – Make sure that your sitemap is comprehensive enough to address the migration • Many sitemaps are only high-level and cover the first 3 tiers of content • Concurrent to the content inventorying process: – Technical evaluation must be conducted to identify the format of content to be migrated – For example, when migrating content from a site that is already powered by a CMS, it may be found that content can be migrated directly from a CMS database – In other cases, source content may be found in purely static HTML files, with little or no consistent structure. • Based on the results the technical evaluation, service teams should decide: – Whether to leverage automated content migration through the Ektron API – Should use manual labor to manually migrate static HTML pages – Leverage a hybrid approach that combines automated and manual migration strategies • For manual approaches to content migration: – It is important that a designated content migration project manager is appointed to oversee all manual efforts – The content migration project manager is responsible for: • Allocating specific URLs to be migrated • Overseeing the quality assurance of the migrated content • Providing website content authors with updated status reports regarding when content is ready for testing. • Where can I get resources for manual content migrations? – Ektron Professional Services provides both manual and automated content migration services – Ektron Partners offer both manual and automated services, as well • Other options include: – Internal staff – Interns and junior staff – Temporary workers / Staffing agencies • How do I judge how many people will be needed to do a content migration? – Content Inventories for manual migration can classify content as complex, medium or easy • Complex – 10+ Links, 10+ images, or Complex HTML like custom tables and Javascript embedded • Medium – 5 – 10 links, 5 – 10 images • Easy – 3 links, 3 images, no complicated HTML formatting – Rough formulas: • Complex – 0.5 - 1 page per hour • Medium – 3 - 5 pages per hour • Easy – 6 – 8 pages per hour – Timeline for migration is the other factor that will drive the number of resources needed • Quality assurance is especially important when considering manual content migration strategies • Once the migration team has converted content, it is important for the web content author to: – Review the migrated content in the context of the redesigned website to ensure that the migration was successful. • Testers should evaluate: – Style (CSS and general layout) – Functionality – Accuracy when compared to source content • It is not uncommon to conduct multiple rounds of QA testing when employing manual content migration strategies. • What do we do if Content Owners don’t sign-off on a timely basis? – This is a common issue – Underscores the need to have Content Owners involved early in the process – Set timelines for Approval • If Content Owners don’t approve within a specific period of time, that content is considered to be accepted • Negotiate these timelines up-front in the Discovery process • What about content becoming outdated while we migrate to the new site? – Another common problem – To address: • Identify the areas of the site that will change frequently • Prioritize those content areas to be done last • Implement a short-term content freeze • Consider dual content loading for a short period of time, as well • For automated approaches: – Critically important to ensure that the source content is structured consistently. • With more variation in the source content, additional exceptions must be built into the migration utility. – For all intents and purposes, automated content migration is really at ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) project, so the best practices of ETO projects also apply here. • The goal with any automated content migration approach is to minimize the number of exceptions that have to be accounted for. • Some customers find success by first scrubbing the source content before conducting the migration. • Leveraging the Ektron API, a custom utility should be developed that will: – Extract content from the source database – Transform it to match what Ektron expects – Load content sequentially into the appropriate folder structure within the Ektron work area. • This is typically accomplished using a combination of SQL and .NET code. • Jason will be showing how to accomplish this at the end of the presentation • Quality assurance is a paramount concern when considering automated content migration approaches – Similar to manual approaches, web content authors should be actively involved in reviewing the migrated content and identifying issues – It should be reported back to the services team to be resolved quickly – The same rules apply to content approval, quality and timeliness in automated approaches as manual approaches – Expect some level of QA fixes even in automated approaches Leveraging the Ektron API to automate content migration • Xenu Link Sleuth- http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html • Ektron Content Migration Webinar (Includes Coverage of Ektron API): http://www.ektron.com/web-contentmanagement-solutions.aspx?id=7436 Thanks for attending today! For more information, please contact: Brian Browning Senior Director of Client Services brian.browning@ektron.com 804-441-6139 Jason Arden Director of Partner Engineering jason.arden@ektron.com 603-816-2024