Static HTML sites and Exponential #

A static site is the simplest source: every page is a file you can read. The work is in separating the content from the repeated layout around it, and in keeping the addresses.

Migration hub · Checklist · Mapping · Tools

1. Read the files, or crawl #

2. Extract the content #

1. Group the pages by template (pages that share the same layout).
2. Per template, find the content area (a <main>, an <article>, a <div id="content">) and the parts to keep: title (<h1> or <title>), date, author, meta description.
3. Clean the HTML: drop navigation, scripts, inline styles and layout tables; keep headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, links and images. Reduce it to Exponential's simplified input (<p>, <strong>, <em>, <a href>, <h1>-<h6>, <ul>/<ol>/<li>, <table>/<tr>/<td>), which the kernel parses into XmlText (tools, section 4).
4. Images and documents: collect every <img src> and linked PDF/office file, import them as image and file objects, and replace the references with embeds or links to the new objects.
5. The tree: the directory structure usually is the navigation: /products/widgets/index.html becomes a folder Products, a folder Widgets, and so on.

3. Import #

Write JSON rows (remote id from the old path, for example html-/products/widgets.html), then import with the script skeleton or xrowextract's importer. A folder of images and documents can come in through the upload page's ZIP importer, keeping its folder structure.

4. Addresses #

Static addresses end in .html or are directories with index.html. Exponential's aliases are clean paths (products/widgets). For each old address, add a redirecting custom URL alias on the new node, and check what the alias cleaning makes of the dot and the extension; when the old addresses follow one pattern, a URL wildcard or a web-server rule (strip .html, index.html) covers them all (checklist, 4).

5. From Exponential to a static copy #

Exponential can write static pages of its public siteaccesses: ./console exp:makestaticcache crawls them and generates static pages (--site, --max-pages, --max-depth). For an archive copy of a site you are switching off, a crawl with a mirroring tool of the live site works as well; keep the storage directory for the originals of the images.

6. Checklist #

• To do: Address list complete (files, sitemap, log); pages grouped by template.
• To do: Extractor per template tested; HTML reduced to the simplified input.
• To do: Images and documents imported; references rewritten.
• To do: Tree built from the directory structure; remote ids from old paths.
• To do: .html addresses redirected and tested.

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