movable type import error: Import failed: Create author

[CK]

I'm trying to import my movable type blog from a different web server onto my new web server. I exported from movable type to a text file (couldn't do any other way). Then, when I choose movable type for the import, it starts but then ends with the error: "Import failed: Create author 'Blah'". So I go ahead and create the author "Blah" and try it again and it still doesn't work. How can I get the text file to import?

Thanks,

Clarence

[garvinhicking]

You must create the author with username "Blah" (NOT the realname!), did you do that?

Sadly I have never imported a MT blog myself and don't know terribly much about the code...

Regards,
Garvin

[Me too...]

I'm having the exact same problem.

Any help would be great.

(I think I've posted this twice...sorry)

[garvinhicking]

I just posted this to another user:

Sadly not, I didn't write the MT importer and am not really familar with the MoveableType structure.

Did you make sure that the author name does not contain some nasty special characters (umlauts, ISO/UTF-characters) and that the upper/lowercasing is the exact same?

Maybe you could patch the importer file include/admin/importers/moveabletype.inc.php.

Look for this code:

Code: Select all

                    if ( !isset($authors[$data]) ) {
                        $au_inf = serendipity_fetchAuthor($data);
                        if ( !is_array($au_inf) ) {
                            $tasks[] = sprintf(CREATE_AUTHOR, htmlspecialchars($data));
                            $au_inf = serendipity_fetchAuthor($serendipity['authorid']);
                        }
                        $authors[$data] = $au_inf[0];
                    }

and change that to:

Code: Select all

                    if ( !isset($authors[$data]) ) {
                        $au_inf = serendipity_fetchAuthor($data);
                        if ( !is_array($au_inf) ) {
                            $tasks[] = sprintf(CREATE_AUTHOR, htmlspecialchars($data));
                            $tasks[] = 'Input array is: ' . print_r($data, true) . '<br />Return is: ' . print_r($au_inf, true) . '<br />';
                            $au_inf = serendipity_fetchAuthor($serendipity['authorid']);
                        }
                        $authors[$data] = $au_inf[0];
                    }

I hope that this debug info will show us what the error is about so that it can be fixed!

Regards,
Garvin

[garvinhicking]

Today I have committed a reworked MT-importer, which should also import comments and entries.

It can be used in conjunction with Serendipity 0.8.x by downloading this file: http://svn.berlios.de/viewcvs/*checkout ... pe.inc.php

Save that file in your include/admin/importers directory and then try the import.

Regards,
Garvin