Migrating a WordPress website to Drupal 8
Do you run a WordPress website, and want to migrate over to Drupal 8? If so, this tutorial will cover the general steps that it will take to migrate a basic WordPress website to using Drupal 8, and why you may want to try this for your website.
Note: This is may not work for all websites, especially if there are custom changes implemented on the current WordPress website. This is a general guide for basic WordPress websites. For these instances, it is best to seek help from professionals that have experience with such migrations.
Why make the conversion from WordPress to Drupal?
Although WordPress is the most common CMS platform, it may not be for everyone. Drupal may not have the same user experience that WordPress has created, but the security is more superior. In addition to the security, is the scalability, and user restriction capabilities that come out of the box with Drupal that make it a more suitable solution for some individuals and organizations.
For those that would like to perform this on your own website, you can follow the steps below:
Step 1. Export the WXR file from WordPress
Navigate to the WP admin dashboard, in the left menu, click on the Tools item, then on the Export option.
On the export page, you can choose what content you would like to export. Choices include All content, Posts, and Pages.
When exporting the data, note that the XML files cant exceed 2MB. Be careful when choosing the “all content” option. Drupal will reject any files that exceed 2MB.
Remember where you save the XML files that you are downloading, as you will need to use them in a later step of this article.
Step 2. Provision and log into the new Drupal 8 website
Provision the new Drupal 8 website, and log into the website. You can install the latest Drupal version by going to the following page.
Step 3. Choose the migrate option
Navigate to the extend tab with the puzzle piece icon in the Drupal administrator dashboard. Scroll down to the core (experimental) section.
Check the migrate option, and click the install button at the bottom of the page.
When prompted, “Are you sure you wish to enable experimental modules?“. Click continue.
If successful, you will see: module migrate has been enabled.
Step 4. Install the WordPress migrate module
For migrating a WordPress website to Drupal, you will need to install the WordPress migrate module by going to the following link.
Scroll down until we see the downloads section.
Download tar.gz format for Drupal 8.x versions, the version Recommended by the project’s maintainer.
Once you successfully downloaded the module, navigate back to the extend and click on Install new module.
Upload the WordPress Migrate Module to install. Choose the wordpress_migrate-8.x-3.0-alpha2.tar file, and install.
You will also need to install Migrate plus (Migrate_plus), Chaos tool suite (Ctools), and Migrate Tools (Migrate_tools).
Step 5. Download and install the additional modules
As mentioned in the previous step, you need to also install the Migrate plus (Migrate_plus), Chaos tool suite (Ctools), and Migrate Tools (Migrate_tools).
As described in the previous step to install modules, click on the following links to download the necessary modules:
Use the same method as explained in the previous step to add and install each module to the Drupal site.
Step 6. Start the migration
Navigate to the Structure tab in the Drupal administrator dashboard, and click on the migrations section.
Next, click on the add import from WordPress button.
You can now import the WXR files from Step 1, and click on next.
Next, you will have the options to import the following:
- Authors
- Tags & Categories
- Posts – Including the format
- Pages – Including the format
The preferences for each of the items above may vary between different websites. Choose the appropriate formats and options as presented in the migration steps.
Once you have completed the above migrations, you will be brought to the migrations area.
You can import the comments and the content by clicking on the execute button.
You will then be prompted with the following options when selecting Choose an operation to run for Execute migration: Import, Rollback, Stop, or Reset.
Choose Import, then click on Execute.
Note: If an item has failed, you may have a duplicate page which you can delete.
Repeat the same process as above for the other content you would like to migrate.
Note: In case of reverting the changes, it is recommended to choose the Rollback option from choosing an operation to run for executing the migration.
Note: If or when getting stuck on the execution process, click on “Reset”.
You can confirm that your items have successfully been imported by going to the migrations section in the structure tab as before.
That is it! The WordPress information should be migrated to your Drupal website.
As you can tell, this process may not be for everyone. If you are experiencing any issues or would like help from professionals, you can contact Devradius for help on your migration. Below is a video explaining the process: