Question

Importing TXT documents from a folder structure into a Wiki or DMS - Flat File. (I need to be able to dump more txt files into the folders and have them discovered.)

I've been looking all over for months for a DMS (DSpace, Greensomething, Wikis, etc) type program to make this work:

I have close to 2000 docs (mostly text, but various others too) on Film Production related issues.

I've researched for months trying to find a DMS that will import these text documents into their system. They are "sorted" at least by folders A-Z plus others...

It doesn't have to be perfect link wise, etc, but at least keep some semblance of the folder structure categories...

It appears TWiki is good (if I were starting from scratch), but does anybody know of another system where I can do this rapidly...then maybe slowly move it into TWiki...

Thanks.

Environment

-- TWikiGuest - 22 Oct 2006

Answer

If you answer a question - or someone answered one of your questions - please remember to edit the page and set the status to answered. The status selector is below the edit box.

With TWiki you can basically dump your .txt files into any data/Web directory. TWiki will pick them up as topics. This is a quick way to get started. You will miss the revision history though.

If you have a hierarchy you want to perserve, create webs that reflect the hierarchy and copy the files into those directories.

Make sure that the filenames do not clash with what is allowed in TWiki. Best case is WikiWord naming, but any alphanumeric characters, underscores and dashes are OK as long as the first character is an upper case letter or a number. You will not get autolinking, but with FormattedSearch you will be able to generate reports that link to topics of any name.

If needed you can manipulate the text with a stream editor (such as sed) to do a global search and replace of text. Do that before placing the files into the TWiki directory tree. Alternatively, install and use the GlobalReplacePlugin.

BTW, please do not register with screen names. We prefer to address people by their real names.

-- PeterThoeny - 22 Oct 2006