Another alternative for converting a Manila site
I got a great note this morning from Cecil Coupe introducing himself and pointing me to a site he has set up to promote another means of converting Manila to WordPress - MvManila. This is yet another approach to getting Manila content unstuck. From what I have read on his site he has a good handle on the problem and has put forth an excellent solution.
This is good for Manila users - we now have three ways to go each with their own trade-offs to consider. My process won’t be perfect and Cecil or Jason’s solutions are good alternatives, each with their own challenges. The long and the short of this is that if you feel trapped with tons of posts in a Manila site and want out - there is help available!
One difference between out efforts is that I am not planning on releasing my code. In part because with total control over the Manila server and the WordPress install I have more flexibility, such as extending the WordPress API to allow for XML-RPC calls that otherwise don’t exist. I am not going to put in the time needed to take such code to a level that it could be released.
This will be a coin-operated service at Weblogger - I’m thinking maybe $79.95 to convert a Manila site with my process that includes a free year of WordPress hosting on our servers. A client would have to get me their Manila root file for me to do this, this can be done using a standard Manila backup feature. One caveat will be that the site’s GEMs must still be on-line from their old host for the move, as GEMs are not embedded in a Manila site’s database (the way Manila pictures, or images are).
Tags: Manila WordPress conversion, Userland Manila, WordPress Hosting