Importing and exporting contents

Content in a MICHAEL instance can be created using forms, but it can also be imported. For now, importing is limited to XML content following the MICHAEL schema. On the other end, content can also be exported as XML files. These importing and exporting features may be used, for instance, in order to statically exchange content between servers.

1) Exporting contents

The user must be a member of the dba group in order to export content. To export the content of a specific folder, browse to this folder and then click on the Export the content button in the function bar at the bottom:

You will then get a form like this one:

The first field let you specify the folder to export; it will be prewritten with the current folder. Then you can write the name of the export file, such as export-20050523 . Once this is done, you click on the Export this folder button and you will receive an archive in .tar.gz format. This archive can be kept or imported in another MICHAEL instance.

2) Importing contents

Importing a single document

In order to import a single XML document, first you should browse to the folder where you want to put the file. Then you must click on the Import file button next to the header for the list of documents in the viewer:

You will then get this form:

To import a file, you just have to click on the Browse...  button and then select it from your computer. Once this selection is done, you click on the Import this file button and the file will be copied into the MICHAEL database.

You can import any file from your hard disk using this mechanism. In some circumstances, this action may not work:

• If the file size is larger than the maximum file size allowd by the server during upload operations. This limit depends on the server configuration but it is in general less than 10MB.
• If it is an XML document, the document must be well-formed and if it linked to the DTD, this DTD must be accessible to the server at the URL specified in the document or in a catalog file set up by the system administrator.

Please note that this is a simple solution to upload binary files such as images into the database.

Importing an archive

The user must be a member of the dba group (system administrators) in order to import content. To import the content of an archive, browse to the folder where you want to put the imported content and then click on the Import an archive button in the function bar at the bottom of the page:

You will then see a form like this one:

You can then use the Browse... button to select the file on your computer. The file must be either a ZIP file or TAR/GZIP file. Once the file is selected, you may start the import using the Import this archive button.

Once again, if the file size is larger than the limit for uploading documents on the server, this operation won't work. This limit is often less than 10MB.

When you import an archive, the folder structure inside your archive will be kept and transformed as corresponding folders within the database.

You can also import a folder located in the directory structure of the server. To do so, you must click on the Import folder button in the toolbar, and you will get this form:

The test box lets you specify the complete path of the folder to import. Once again, the folder structure will be kept and transformed as corresponding folders in the MICHAEL database.