Hi, did you try to import Without Conversion or Standard? For your case import without conversion should work because after publication export you already have metadata files for objects.

Since I had to modify some metadata (ex. FAUTHOR, FISHLASTMODIFIEDBY), I used Standard Import. I understand that it's possible to import exported DITA files by using Without Conversion, if no metadata change is needed. If metadata changes are needed, *.met or *.3sish files should be processed before import without Content Importer. Is this correct?

If metadata is provided in "Folder location", you can use "Without Conversion" to import data and metadata, even you've changed it manually.
"Standard Import" will generate default metadata if no metadata is provided and also convert content (e.g. hrefs to GUIDs), which is not done by "Without conversion".

Hi Naoki,

I am experiencing problems with using Content Importer for content that was exported from Tridion. I have all the xml and .met files but also need to modify some metadata and provide a file to Post Conversion XSL. Is there another way around this so that I can select Skip Conversion?

Thanks,

Ann

Hi Ann,

Yes, you can modify .met files with another way and import contet files using 'Without conversion'. I developed several programs to modify .met files with Python and Perl programing languages. Both programing languages have libraries that can read/modify/write XML files using DOM tree. After modifying the .met files, you can import DITA XML files and image files with modified .met files using 'Without conversion' function of Content Importer.

Regards,

Naoki

Thank you for that information Naoki. Just to clarify, did you take the updates that would be applied by file specified in Post Conversion XSL field and instead added them to all the .met files via a script before doing Import Without Conversion?

Regards,

Ann 

What does the 'Post Conversion XSL field' mean?

The .met files generated by the publication export operation, include all metadata for each object. How you have to process these .met files is depend on what you want to accomplish. For example, if you want to add/modify part of metadata, create .met files that specify adding/modifying metadata as well as required metadata. The metadata that are not specified in the .met files will be kept as they were.

If the thing you want to do is adding/modifying metadata, you can also use the IshRemote.

Regards,

Naoki

Hi Naoki,

The Post Conversion XSL field is the field on the Content Importer UI for supplying an extra XSL file that is applied to the generated filemap.xml file before import into destination CMS. I believe it is required to fill in any mandatory properties that are not otherwise set in filemap.xml (although don't understand why they are not set already).

The only info I can find on community is in this post - community.rws.com/.../43155

Regards,

Ann

Hi Naoki,

I will try to update my .met files programmatically and then import without conversion. However, I believe that I still need a filemap.xml for the import; do I generate that by doing the first step of import with conversion and save that file, then go back and do an import Without conversion. I can't see how else to generate filemap.xml required for import.

Regards,

Ann

Hi Ann,

The 'Without conversion' import does not require the filemap.xml file. The filemap.xml file is generated when performing 'Standard import'. The filemap.xml file include mapping information between a file path and a GUID.

In my case, I use the filemap.xml file when duplicating a publication. I perform 'Standard import' with the 'Generate new identifiers' option ON and stop importing after the conversion phase is finished. There are old and new GUID information in the filemap.xml. My program read the filemap.xml file and process *.xml and *.3sish files. Then, I import the processed *.xml files with relevant *.3shish files using 'Without conversion'.

Cheers,

Naoki

Hi Ann,

The 'Without conversion' import does not require the filemap.xml file. The filemap.xml file is generated when performing 'Standard import'. The filemap.xml file include mapping information between a file path and a GUID.

In my case, I use the filemap.xml file when duplicating a publication. I perform 'Standard import' with the 'Generate new identifiers' option ON and stop importing after the conversion phase is finished. There are old and new GUID information in the filemap.xml. My program read the filemap.xml file and process *.xml and *.3sish files. Then, I import the processed *.xml files with relevant *.3shish files using 'Without conversion'.

Cheers,

Naoki

This is a good conversation thread around content import. It sounds like you have a dialed in process for your use case Naoki which is great. In case others tracking this thread  have a similar need to duplicate a publication, I want to mention that RWS Professional Services has developed a Duplicate Publication software extension for Tridion Docs. The utility installs as a new button available in the Content Manager web client interface, named Duplicate Publication. The button allows the user to take an existing source language publication and duplicate that publication, its maps, topics, images, and output formats based on the selected publication’s baseline (while not duplicating library objects). Customers often use this to address use cases around using an existing publication as a template to create new publications, or using an existing publication to create a similar publication for scenarios where leveraging conrefs, variables, conditions, and topic reuse is not feasible or too cumbersome, or working with a very large existing publication where the customer needs to duplicate a chapter (submap) within that publication. Customers can contact RWS Professional Services if interested in using this utility.