SharePoint to XWiki: structured documents migration

04 Dec 2020 5 min read

Written by

Stefana Nazare

, Product Owner Cloud & Pro Apps

Guide updated on August 19th, 2024.

XWiki and Sharepoint cover different needs, but some use-cases may overlap. While Sharepoint is a generalist tool, targeting office documents management, with little regard to collaboration, XWiki is a wiki that allows seamless content creation, perfection, and sharing, along with impressive organization tools.

XWiki has a very powerful structured data feature, called App Within Minutes. Through it, the users create data structures with fields such as short/long text, user picker, date picker, selectors, booleans, content, and even database lists. This feature allows having one wiki page for each entry, therefore being able to comment, annotate, see the history, control the page presentation, and access rights. 

If you are ready to migrate, here's how to do it!

1. Pre-requisites

  • Sharepoint instance: Make sure you have access to your Sharepoint instance in order to be able to perform the export. 
  • XWiki instance: Make sure you have access to create an App Within Minutes and install applications in XWiki, in order to perform the upload. 
    • Self-installation on your premises: If you would like to learn more about the best installation methods, you can check out our guide here. 
    • Installation performed by XWiki specialists, on your premises: If you do not wish to handle the setup, you can also have the XWiki SAS specialists perform the installation and configuration of your new instance, on your premises. 
    • Cloud installation: If you do not want to worry about installation and hosting, you can choose to have your instance hosted in our Cloud for free, with any support contact. 
  • XWiki applications: install the Batch Import Application  on your XWiki instance

2. Prepare your files

  • Export your structured documents from Sharepoint in CSV format: 

Screenshot 2020-11-27 at 17.12.28.png

  • Check the resulted CSV file to make sure all the columns that you wish to import are there. 
  • In XWiki, create a new App Within Minutes, where you will add the fields (metadata) that you wish to import from Sharepoint: 

Screenshot 2020-11-27 at 17.17.15.png

  • Add the correct fields to match the metadata of your Sharepoint files:

Screenshot 2020-11-27 at 17.20.10.png

  • Give your application a description and choose the livetable columns that you would like to see:

Screenshot 2020-11-27 at 17.21.42.png

3. Run the migration

  • Go to your new App homepage.
  • At the end of the URL, add "?sheet=BatchImport.BatchImportSheet".

Screenshot 2020-12-03 at 18.18.58.png

  • Upload the csv file that was exported from your Sharepoint instance:

Screenshot 2020-12-03 at 18.19.32.png

  • Map the fields of your XWiki structured data with the ones from your Sharepoint documents:

Screenshot 2020-12-03 at 18.21.32.png

  • Preview your mapping:

Screenshot 2020-12-03 at 18.22.43.png

  • If the preview is satisfactory, confirm the mapping and decide upon date duplication and overwrite: 

Screenshot 2020-12-03 at 18.29.14.png

  • Run the import simulation and check for errors:

Screenshot 2020-12-03 at 18.30.26.png

  • If you don't have any errors, run the import. Otherwise, go back to overwrite options.
  • After running the import, you will see your documents on your wiki, organised in a livetable:

Screenshot 2020-12-03 at 18.31.56.png

  • You can sort and filter your documents based on their metadata. 
  • Finally, you can edit any imported document, in a structured form:

Screenshot 2020-12-03 at 18.33.09.png

4. Organize your new content

  • A good content organization is one of the pre-requisites to an excellent platform, where users can create, find, and share information easily. Aside from importing your SharePoint data, you should draft the main sections of your wiki, decide if you will use sub wikis or only spaces, and think about content linking using page links, tags, or page relations. Moreover, you can delete or archive documents that have not been used for a long period of time. 
  • You can create multiple apps within minutes for each type of Sharepoint documents. 
  • You can move pages in different spaces to create hierarchical structures.  

5. Users and rights management

Map the users and recreate the permissions scheme, using our powerful, fine-grained Rights Management System.  You will be able to define, view, comment, edit, script, delete, admin, and program rights per user or per group, at global, sub wiki, space, or even page level.

Moreover, you can set up another Authentication method such as Active Directory, Social Login, SSO, or Custom authenticators. 

6. Need some extra help?

XWiki SAS's architects can help you migrate and organize your Sharepoint content in your new instance. Additionally, we offer complimentary consultingcustom development, and design service, through which we set up, configure, and customize your instance in order to perfectly meet your needs. 

If you want us to evaluate your migration project, you can schedule a call with one of our XWiki specialists.

Finally, we offer support subscriptions that will provide you the technical help required to achieve your objectives with your wiki in a timely manner. The technical support will guarantee the well functioning of your instance as our team will fix the issues that you might encounter and will guide you into setting up and configuring your wiki. 

Are you considering migrating from Sharepoint to XWiki?

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