[consulting] Approaches for retrieving external site's data

[Tom Geller]

Alfonso Montero Lopez <amontero at tinet.org> writes:

> The missing gap is in how to move data from the custom app table to
> Drupal.

...[possible solution]

> *Create a [password-protected] RSS feed script for the source site and
> fetch the leads from it to the Drupal extranet via FeedAPI and alikes.

Yup, this is basically what I'm doing right now. But one change: Use Feeds (http://drupal.org/project/feeds) instead. I think it's more capable and modern than FeedAPI et al.

Victor Kane suggests:

> The migrate module http://drupal.org/project/migrate was designed for this
> kind of problem and is a joy to work with.

...if you have the chops for it. :) Migrate requires knowledge of PHP and a stronger grasp of technology generally than the point-and-click simplicity of Feeds. Migrate does appear more capable, though.

A "Migrating a Web Site to Drupal" paper I wrote for Acquia is at http://acquia.com/resources/library/white-paper-download-migrating-web-site-drupal .

Cheers,

---
          Tom Geller  *  Oberlin, Ohio  *  415-317-1805
             Writer/Editor * http://www.tomgeller.com
    articles, marketing, training materials, user guides, books