Need to move some stuff from one instance of Discourse to another?
There is a command line tool to export a topic, a set of topics, or an entire category, and another to import them in at the other end.
Topic Export/Import
- one or more topics and their replies
- the users who posted in the topic
Category Export/Import
- the category and all its subcategories
- its security settings
- custom groups mentioned in the security settings
-
if any of the groups have ‘membership requests’ enabled, it will crash. Turn this off before the export
-
- all topics and posts in the category and subcategories
- all users who posted, and assigns them to the groups
Begin: Identify the IDs
First, identify the ID(s) of the =Export= that you wish to export. You’ll find this at the end of the URL used to access it.
-
https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-contribute-to-discourse/53797 -
https://meta.discourse.org/t/how-to-contribute-to-discourse/53797/12
(in this case you are in the middle of a topic - grab the first number) -
https://meta.discourse.org/c/howto/faq/4
Category or Topic ID(s)
Multiple topics
You can select more than one topic by adding IDs separated by a space; this works in the field above (I don’t think that this works for categories though):
53797 200943 124096
Run the Export Script
The tool can be run as a root user inside the container:
cd /var/discourse
./launcher enter app
Run this command:
discourse export_=Export= =ID=
The output should look something like this:
Starting export of =Export=…
Where are the new users all coming from?
Export saved to =Export=-export-2021-08-27-015437.jsonDone
Move the Exported File
The exported .json file needs to be moved from the inside of the application container where you did the export to the inside of the container of the receiving instance. This takes a few steps.
Copy it to the ‘outside’
Exit the container if you haven’t already
exit
You should now have a prompt like this:
root@yourserver:/var/discourse
Use docker to copy the file out of the container (you can’t move it I don’t think)
docker cp app:/var/www/discourse/=FileName= .
Move it to the other instance
This is beyond the scope of this guide, but this might help you get there:
Copy it into the container in the receiving instance
SSH into your receiving instance as root and get to the Discourse directory:
cd /var/discourse
Use docker once again to copy the file into the other container
docker cp =FileName= app:/var/www/discourse
Import the Content
Enter the container in the receiving instance:
./launcher enter app
Run the import script
discourse import_=Export= =FileName=
Done!
You might need to tidy up some loose ends, but hopefully, it should all be done.
Advanced Tips
Missing Ruby Gem
When doing a complex category import, my instance was missing the ‘Listen’ Ruby.
This was solved by doing this: (using the Discourse user inside the container)
./launcher enter app
su discourse
bundle config --delete without
bundle config --delete with
bundle install
exit
exit
This broke the rails console, necessitating a rebuild afterwards
./launcher rebuild app
Multisite
In a multisite environment, use the RAILS_DB env variable.
RAILS_DB=xxxmoves discourse export_=Export= =ID=
RAILS_DB=dancerehab discourse discourse import_=Export= =FileName=
Please report bugs in the #bug category, and request enhancements in the #feature category.
Related Topics
Last Reviewed by @SaraDev on 2022-07-13T00:00:00Z