Exponential Basic and Exponential 6 #

Exponential Basic (se7enxweb/exponentialbasic, latest release v2.4.0.3 of 2026-08-18) modernizes the classic Exponential 2.x CMS for PHP 8 (php ^8.2). It has its own kernel modules (ezarticle, ezimagecatalogue, ezfilemanager, ezforum, eztrade, ezcalendar, ezpoll, ezlink, ezurltranslator, ezuser and others) on its own tables. Its README calls one of its aims "future portability (export to another cms)".

Exponential 6 is a different code base with a different content model (classes, objects, a content tree). There is no shared database and no converter between the two in either repository; a migration is a scripted content conversion. This page tells you where the data is and how it maps.

Migration hub · Checklist · Import and export tools · Mapping content to Exponential

Contents #

• 1. What Basic can give you
• 2. Mapping Basic to Exponential 6
• 3. From Basic to Exponential 6, step by step
• 4. From Exponential 6 to Basic
• 5. Verify, roll back, risks
• 6. Checklist

1. What Basic can give you #

Read from the main branch of se7enxweb/exponentialbasic:

The tables that matter for most sites:

The article markup. Contents holds an XML document written by a generator, for example the "tech" generator (kernel/ezarticle/classes/eztechgenerator.php): <article><generator>tech</generator><intro>...</intro><body><page>...</page></body></article>, with inline tags such as <bold>, <italic>, <underline>, <strike> and image references. Other generators exist (ezsimplegenerator.php, ezezgenerator.php, ezqdomgenerator.php); read the <generator> element of each article and convert per generator.

2. Mapping Basic to Exponential 6 #

Passwords. kernel/ezuser/classes/ezuser.php of Basic stores either MySQL's PASSWORD() format ('*' . strtoupper( sha1( hex2bin( sha1( $password ) ) ) )) or md5( $password ), depending on the database. Exponential 6 knows md5_password (type 1, md5( password )) and mysql (type 4, computed with the SQL function PASSWORD(), which MySQL 8.0 removed). So:

• MD5 hashes from Basic can be imported as type 1; Exponential re-hashes them to type 7 at the next sign-in.
• PASSWORD() hashes work as type 4 only while the Exponential site runs on a database server that still has PASSWORD() (MariaDB does; MySQL 8.0 does not). Otherwise plan password resets.

Test both on a copy before you promise users that their passwords carry over.

3. From Basic to Exponential 6, step by step #

1. Inventory the modules in use and count rows per table; list the article generators in use (SELECT ... FROM eZArticle_Article and read the <generator> element).
2. Install Exponential 6 and create the classes of 2 (keep their identifiers stable), the folders of the category tree, the languages, sections and roles.
3. Export from Basic: a script that reads the tables (SQL against a copy of the Basic database) and writes one JSON or CSV row per item, with the source id, the parent category, the converted body and the old address.
4. Convert the article markup to Exponential's simplified input (<p>, <strong>, <em>, <a href>, <h1>-<h6>, lists, tables): <bold> to <strong>, <italic> to <em>, image references to embeds of the image objects created in step 5.
5. Import media first (image catalogue and files), with remote ids such as basic-image-<ID>; the upload page's ZIP importer or an import script.
6. Import the articles with remote ids basic-article-<ID>: xrowextract's importer with --map when your export is CSV/JSON in its shape, or the script skeleton.
7. Import users into their groups (hash types as in 2).
8. Addresses: for every old address (from eZURLTranslator_URL and the module URLs such as /article/view/<ID>/ and /article/articleview/<ID>/, kernel/ezarticle/user/datasupplier.php), a redirecting custom URL alias on the new node, or a wildcard.
9. Rebuild the search index and URL aliases; run the link checker and exp:contentcheck.
10. Rehearse twice, then cut over (checklist).

4. From Exponential 6 to Basic #

Basic's model is narrower (articles, image catalogue, files, users). Export from Exponential with xrowextract (leaving Exponential): one CSV/JSON per class, with object id, main node, parent node, URL alias and every attribute; convert XmlText to Basic's article markup in a script, and insert into the Basic tables through Basic's own classes (or SQL on a copy, then checked in Basic's admin). Classes that have no Basic module stay behind or become articles. Password hashes of type 7 (password_hash()) are not read by Basic's login code as shown above: plan resets.

5. Verify, roll back, risks #

• Counts per module and category before, per class and folder after; a sample of the 50 most read articles side by side; every image of those articles visible; every old address answers 301 to the right page.
• Rollback: Basic keeps running read-only until sign-off; switching back is a DNS or proxy change.

6. Checklist #

• To do: Modules, tables and article generators inventoried.
• To do: Classes, tree, languages, sections and roles created in Exponential 6.
• To do: Export script reads a copy of the Basic database; markup converted and checked.
• To do: Media, then articles, then users imported, with remote ids; relations resolved.
• To do: Password strategy tested; users informed.
• To do: Redirects for every old address; search and aliases rebuilt.
• To do: Two rehearsals, then cut-over; Basic kept read-only until sign-off.

This page is part of the Exponential documentation and is free documentation under the GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 or any later version (the license of this documentation).