When importing, update/change internal links

[zellieh]

Title:
When importing, update/change internal links

Area:
Importing, links

Summary:
When I imported my LJ entries to DW, a lot of my LJ entries were cross-linked to other entries in my LJ , so it would be great if the Importer could update those links to the new DW URLs when it imports those entries.

Description:
As I import entries from my LJ (or other journalling service), any internal cross-links from one of my journal entries to another of my journal entries should be updated as well.

So, if my LJ post 'zellieh.lj.com/123' (which becomes something like 'zellieh.dreamwidth.org/123') contains a link in it to another of my posts, 'zellieh.lj.com/100', then that link should be updated it's new Dreamwidth URL, 'zellieh.dreamwidth.org/100'.

NOTE: I am only suggesting this initially for links that go from one of my journal entries to another of my own entries, not for any links to other people's journals.

I am not a technical person, but I'm assuming that at some point in the import process, there's a record of the old LJ URLs and the new DW URLs for each entry; I'm hoping that that's the information that could be used to update the internal links.

Pros: This would save a lot of time when moving from another journal site to Dreamwidth, because you wouldn't have to go back in and hand re-code a lot of older links on older posts. (Something I still haven't done, because I am dreading the work involved.)

Cons: It would likely complicate and slow down the initial importing process, and you would likely have to wait until you had all the information available at the end of the import before you could update all the links. Perhaps it might be better as a separate option, or next step after the import is complete?

Poll #2420 When importing, update/change internal links

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 44

View Respondents

This suggestion:

View Answers

Should be implemented as-is.
17 (38.6%)

Should be implemented with changes. (please comment)
19 (43.2%)

Shouldn't be implemented.
2 (4.5%)

(I have no opinion)
4 (9.1%)

(Other: please comment)
2 (4.5%)

Comments

[cheyinka]

I think I'd rather see this as an option. I'm not sure how I'd want it to work, but I wouldn't want it to rewrite my links automatically.

[yhlee]

Ditto this.

[feathertail]

+1!

[schnurble]

I'd love it to be an optional second step after the import.
And if I could do this even much later than the import, it would be awesome - I've already imported my LJ months ago, but still would love to have the possibility to adapt the links without having to import everything again.

[fizzyblogic]

This.

[eruthros]

Yes! I have been doing it manually when I come across links to lj, but it would be great to fix it all at once.

[turlough]

+1

[ariestess]

This.

For right now, I don't mind that people get routed back to my LJ. But that'll probably change in the future. And if there's a way to go back and change it "at some future, unspecified point", that would be fabulous...

[feathertail]

+1, definitely.

[archangelbeth]

Amen.

[sorchasilver]

With changes: should be an option rather than default setting.

[ratcreature]

Yes. I think that it is optional is also important because some people prefer to just import their posts and not the comments, so I assume that in those cases they'd prefer the links go to the complete original context with the discussion intact.

[kyrielle]

This. Also, if this is too technically complex to do, or as an optional (user-chosen) alternative/addition during the import process, it would be nice to just get in your inbox a list of links to imported entries that contain links to the old journaling service (whether to your journal or someone else's). At least then you wouldn't have to go through every post to find the less than 1% with links....

[denise]

If the account is paid, you can use journal search to search for (for instance) "http://username.livejournal.com" in entries in the account. (It's the next step on my Grand Plan to Finish Moving In.)

[ratcreature]

If you do this to imported entries now, does it edit the links on LJ, like with xposted entries you edit, or will those remain unchanged?

[denise]

They'll remain unchanged, unless they'd originally been posted on DW. The importer and the crossposter don't talk to each other that well yet. (It's a long-term goal.)

[axiom_of_stripe]

I would like this option! However, something to remember for people with older livejournals: the URL for entry pages has changed a number of times. Formats of which I know:
* username.livejournal.com/1234.html
* www.livejournal.com/users/username/1234.html
* www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=username&itemid=1234
* www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?itemid=67896789

For that last one, there is a mechanism for converting those to the new URLs, but those old itemids are different from the current ones. Also, the conversion function would have to be called on each of those URLs to see whether it pointed to the same journal or a different one, and I'm not even sure if the conversion serves the new URL or just the entry (the URL in the address bar doesn't repoint to username.livejournal.com/1234.html and the entry shows in the site scheme, not my style).

I'd love if this could pick up all of the links, but if the earliest links were too much trouble to decode I'd understand.

[piscinarii]

This is something I'd love to see, but have no idea how technically involved it would be to implement... if it is possible at all.

[glymr]

I'd definitely like an option for this when importing.