Is there a way to get a data dump from Ektron - migration

I need a way to get all of the data out of an Ektron site in any format, that I can use to import it into a new CMS. To my eyes the database is completely obfuscated and I'm not finding any good resources. I would be happy for links, tips, videos, angels, magic lamps or companies that will do it on the cheep. Thanks in advance!

I do Ektron migrations of this nature regularly for my company and the problem with such migrations is that there really is no "standard". Every site has it's data structured quite differently and this will be especially true of ektron sites that rely on smartforms, or ones that have complex metadata or taxonomy relationships.
Your best bet will probably be to write a custom export tool to get your data into a format your target CMS can handle. If you are moving into another .net CMS, you might be well served by utilizing the ektron SOAP web services.

Two things that come to mind:
Perform database Backup (and Restore): "Backup" the Ektron database you are using and "Restore" it where you need it to go. Both of these actions can be performed using SQL
Server Management Studio with access to the filesystem on your
database server. This will restore ALL data EXACTLY as it was when
backed up. This is straight forward, but not flexible and I feel like this isn't
what you're looking for. If you want to treat "Ektron" like it's just any other database, then researching a more generic SQL Server Database "Dump" may be useful.
Perform content Export (and Import): Ektron provides a content export feature. This can be found in the Workarea under [Settings] > [Localization]. The purpose behind the export is to translate/localize content into another language and then import it back into the CMS, but... You aren't looking to localize your content as far as I can tell, but this export feature may still be of interest to you for whatever purpose you have in mind.

Related

How to Migrate data from D2 documentum to alfresco?

I have some content in D2 Documentum. and i want to migrate all those content with meta-data in alfresco.
can any one help me.
how can i achieve this in alfresco.
Thanks in advance.
There are several tools available to handle Database/CMS migrations. If both repositories are CMIS compliant the problem becomes even easier to address. I read an interesting article about doing an Alfresco to Nuxeo migration using Apache's Chemistry and Camel offerings. Check it out.
One tool that makes migrating between ECMs very simple is Simflofy. They have connectors OOTB for CMIS compliant repositories and a very handy UI that allows easy mapping of properties. This particular tool is very fast as it was developed on a new technology stack that takes advantage multithreading and gives full audit support/reporting.
Full Disclosure: I work for a company that does several migrations a year using Simflofy.
It really depends on how many documents you need to export.
A simple answer can be: do a bulk export from Documentum and a bulk import in Alfresco.
There are several tools to export documents and metadata from Documentum. I used only a proprietary tool in my experience, but I do not think it will be difficult to find one.
For the import in Alfresco you can use the OOTB Bulk import
As you can see, you will probably need to write a small application to transform the export to the predefined format that the bulk import accepts.

Stop exporting a SQL Server database to secure it

I have a vb.net windows form application with a database on SQL Server 2008 on the ./SQLEXPRESS instance.
I have created a setup of my project using the link below..
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-US/library/49b92ztk(v=vs.80).aspx
When a user installs my application, the database will be available for him, and user can just export the SQL Server database.
How can I secure my database so that user shouldn't have a easily available copy of my database?
I thought of creating a new password protected server (as I have created the database in above walkthrough)... while installation of my application on user's pc, other than ./sqlexpress. And a complete copy of database used by my application will not be simply available for user to just export and get a copy of my database.
So could anyone please guide me...
The question is; how far do you want to go to protect your data?
Better protection of your data usually comes at the cost of more development time and likely less user friendliness, for example due to lower performance (encryption is not free). More complex code usually results in more support requests too.
Where the best balance is depends on your business model (if any) and on your user requirements.
Keep in mind that anything you deploy to an end-users machine is in the end vulnerable. If something is valuable enough there will be people trying to steal it.
So, you could argue that the best protection is not to deploy the data at all. You could back your end-user application with a web service and keep the data on your own server, for example in the cloud.
I've found however that you sometimes just need to trust your users. If you build a good product that makes them happy, they have no reason to steal from you. In fact, they are probably glad to pay you.
If you decide that you need to deploy the data and that you need to encrypt it, you should think about why you chose SQL Server.
What database features do you need exactly? Do you need a fullblown database server for that?
Any local admin can gain control over any SQL Server database in seconds so the built-in SQL server authentication will not bring you a lot of benefits.
You could switch to SQLServer CE and keep the database within your application. That would make the database a lot harder to access for a regular user.
If all you're doing is looking up words, you may be better off with a different storage engine like Lucene.
Lucene is actually a search engine, so it's highly optimized for matching words or parts of words.
You can run Lucene inside your .NET application so you don't even need the end-user to install SQL Server. There is a .NET version of Lucene here.
Lucene however doesn't protect your data. There's tooling available that will allow anybody to view and extract the data from the stored index files.
Since Lucene is open source though, you could extend it to support encrypted data storage (see this related question).

Xcode iOS phone directory app. core data, sql lite, or

as part of an application I am trying to create, I am looking to data storage solutions. However, I have found many solutions that I can not quite directly apply to the position I am in.
Basically, I want to display in my app, a directory of the staff of my organization. About 100 or so individuals. I want to have generic attributes such as name, email, office#, etc.
However, my goal is to not end up with a static representation of the staff here! (people come and go, switch offices,etc.)
I am looking for the best way (if possible) to maintain a small database that I can administer, and if perhaps, something were to change to someone here, I can make the change and the change will be reflected accordingly.
Please help! I tried submitting my first app but got rejected because I relied on a webview to accomplish this task. This is an internship opportunity and my first real chance at development. Any help will be GREATLY appreciated.
Thanks!!!!!
The iPhone directory app can be used to store data in any format you want (xml, json or a proprietary format), because all you do is save a file. But if you choose to use the iPhone app directory to store data you have to write code to read the file (very simple to do) and parse the information (not so simple because the dificulty scales based on the information complexity).
SQLite is a tool to store structured data, providing you a set of tools to access and use the information. You don't need to parse the information, because SQLite does it for you by using transact sql queries.
By now, because you have a list of individuals, and these people are relationed to offices, I think you should use SQLite.
The Code Data is a object graph management, it's a tool to give you more options over data manipulation, and can make your life very easy if you have a lot of data and very complex data models. I don't think you need that for your particular problem, but I think you should learn it at some point.
UPDATE 1
You application will have something like:
A core database (sql server, oracle, my sql, etc) will hold your individuals information (your cloud database).
A web page (php, asp.net, etc) will display the core database information in json or xml format (your api).
A iphone app will download the information from the web page and store it in the local SQLite. (you have to decide when you will update the local sql lite, like when is opened, once a week, once a moth, twice a day, etc) (your local storage method).
Display the local SQLite individuals information in the app.

best way of migrating customised metadata associated with source component into Tridion environment

If we are migrating content from source Content Management System to Tridion, what is the best way of migrating customized metadata associated with the components(content) of source Content Management System into Tridion? Should we directly migrate it to the sql server or is there an option to migrate it in the form of some xml file, etc.?
Migrating directly into SQL Server is unsupported, and the entire system would be unsupported at that point, due to possible data consistency issues.
The most straightforward way is to read the data from the source system, and use the Tridion API to recreate the item.
If migrating metadata, some of the data would likely fit best into a taxonomy, which would mean you'd want to migrate the keywords / structure first, then tag the content as it came into Tridion.
You have a few options when migrating content into Tridion.
I can't understand from the above if you are talking about migrating to SQL server as an intermediate format, or directly into the Tridion database. Importing directly into the Tridion database is definitely not a supported solution, and could lead to unpredictable results.
You need to use the API, either the Core Service or the TOM.NET API (If you have Tridion 2011) or the old TOM API if not.
A popular approach is to export all content into an XML format that you can then process with a .NET application.
There's some good articles on migrating content into Tridion by Ryan Durkin here, and Nuno Linhares here.
As mention before, migrating directly into the Database is not an option if you are planning to use SDL Tridion as the final CMS.
Apart of the supported mechanism chosen for Migrate, play attention about how you are going to structure the metadata in the new CMS, as depending on the volume, structure, hierarchy, relation across metadata items the process can become complex.
Also play special attention at the Blueprint concept, as probably you can merge duplicated values from the old system into only one that is inherited.
Don't think only in how to put the metadata in the system, also how that Metadata will be used and maintained in the new CMS, in this case SDL Tridion
You can check also a recent post about Migration and plan Migration in general, in case adds some more information
Can we automate migrating to SDL Tridion?

Maintaining Customer Data

All our applications rely on a certain amount of client data i.e. Lookups for comboboxes, users, roles, user-roles...
We currently use a spreadsheet to map the data and generate insert scripts that are then imported into SQL server. The has seemed to work for us but it is very difficult to update and maintain when there are a lot of changes going on (excel is not good at merging data) and it is slow when there is a lot of data.
I am sure this is a common problem and would to hear how others have approached it so we could borrow some ideas and improve our process.
Excel rocks for importing data. You can quickly edit, troubleshoot, and it has lots of options to organize data.
Several developers at my company tried to phase out the Excel data import sheets, but they all failed (one after 6 man-months.) It not always worth the effort to build a specialized data entry web site or windows app. :)
Infopath and SharePoint? (just throwing it out there. It takes some skill to setup well which I would generally doubt that you have at your company)
You will probably have the same issue with any disconnected file based approach. My suggestion would be to build a web page with your lookups that will change and give your customer access to it. Let them maintain the data.
I suggest SharePoint as well. Specifically, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. It's pretty simple to get it up and running and it's included with Windows Server. You can easily create a custom list (you can even import it from Excel) and best of all, you can link it to Outlook and do mail merges on it. Great stuff.