Want to migrate from Ning to Discourse? Great! Let’s get started.
What data can be imported?
- Users
- Avatars
- Directories/Categories
- Topics & Posts
- Images
- Attachments
Prerequisites
-
Set up Discourse development environment on OS X, Ubuntu or Windows.
-
Clear existing data from your local Discourse instance:
cd ~/discourse rake db:drop db:create db:migrate
-
Open Ning import script in the editor of your choice.
-
Replace
JSON_FILES_DIR
value with the location of your Ning export data. -
Add/Delete values in
ATTACHMENT_PREFIXES
depending on directories/categories you want to import.
Perform Import
-
Depending on what directories/categories you want to import, add/delete
import_{entity}
method.For example, notice that the
import_photos
method will import all the photos present in/ning/export/location/photos
directory by readingning-photos-local.json
file.Always use
{xyz}-local.json
files for importing data. -
Start import process:
cd ~/discourse bundle exec ruby script/import_scripts/ning.rb
-
Wait until the import is done. You can restart the process if it slows down to a crawl.
-
Start your Discourse instance:
bundle exec rails server
-
Take backup of the data and upload it to on your production site by following this howto.
Congratulations! You have successfully migrated your site from Ning to Discourse!