[development] The state of import export

[Philippe Jadin]

Hello,

In trying to fix http://drupal.org/node/191197#comment-705056 (allow
to import nodes in batch), I feel a bit sorry for the status of the
various import export solutions in Drupal.

- importexportapi is somewhat dead
- node import only accepts to import everything at once, and does not
provide duplicate checking
- feed parser api and feed mapper seems to be a brighter future, but
do not allow everything node import / importexportapi does


So I'm wondering where to put my efforts. I'm trying to import 20.000
contacts as cck nodes, and allow user to reimport the same contacts
and update the existing nodes, all with a nice import/export
interface.

I think the first step would be to have standardized import / export
format for a Drupal node, maybe xml based (I think there is a xml
format for books only), with support for cck, taxonomy, and all.

This is a very complex problem, but I think it's important for Drupal,
as an open platform, to provide excellent import/export tools.

Which module has the greatest chance to provide a solid base? Is there
a standard node xml (or some other format) representation? I'd like to
spend time on a somewhat future proof solution.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Philippe