Importing & Exporting Nodes with Neos

Wondering how to use the site import / export features during development and while delivering / maintaining a project? Do you have the need to import content from various sources into your brand new Neos project?
These slides give you an overview of how to get the most out of the import / export commands and will show you how an import of content can be done through code in various ways.

Transcript

1. Importing & Exporting
   Nodes with Neos
   

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2. Karsten Dambekalns
   Neos and Flow developer
   37 years old
   lives in Lübeck
   is a Flownative
   1 wife, 3 sons
   1 manual espresso maker
   likes canoeing & climbing
   

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3. Where is my data?
   

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4. A node is the smallest unit in which
   Neos stores content. A node can
   represent a document or pieces of
   content on a document, so nodes
   can be nested.
   Node
   

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5. The content repository is the storage
   for all nodes.
   Content Repository
   

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6. Database
   The content repository uses a
   regular relational database to store
   nodes and their properties.
   Actively dealing with that should be
   the exception to the rule.
   

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7. Site package
   In Neos the site package acts as a
   container for all assets a site needs
   and can also contain the site content.
   

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8. Sites.xml
   Site content can be exported to an
   XML file in the site package or
   elsewhere. That file contains the
   structure, content.
   Used assets of a site can be
   contained there or be exported
   alongside.
   

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10. Common Tasks
    

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11. Import freshly
    kickstarted site
    

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12. $  flow  kickstart:site  -­‐-­‐package-­‐key  Neos.Sprint  
    -­‐-­‐site-­‐name  'Neos  Sprint  Nuremberg'  
    Created  .../Sites.xml  
    Created  .../Root.ts2  
    Created  .../Default.html  
    Created  .../NodeTypes.yaml  
    $  flow  site:import  -­‐-­‐package-­‐key  Neos.Sprint  
    Import  of  site  "Neos  Sprint  Nuremberg"  finished.
    

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13. Export to the
    site package
    

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14. $  flow  site:export  -­‐-­‐package-­‐key  Neos.Sprint  
    All  sites  have  been  exported  to  package  
    "Neos.Sprint".
    

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16. $  flow  site:export  -­‐-­‐tidy  -­‐-­‐package-­‐key  Neos.Sprint  
    All  sites  have  been  exported  to  package  
    "Neos.Sprint".
    

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18. Use the tidy option if
    you want to be able to
    read diffs between
    states.
    

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19. Export to
    standard output
    

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20. $  flow  site:export  -­‐-­‐tidy  >  site-­‐export.xml  
    $  flow  site:export  -­‐-­‐tidy  
     
     
     siteResourcesPackageKey="Neos.Sprint"  
    siteNodeName="sprint">  
         
         ef20-­‐9d5e-­‐6fd5578c9713"  nodeName="sprint">  
           nodeType="TYPO3.Neos.NodeTypes:Page"  version="1"  
    

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21. Export to a file
    

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22. $  flow  site:export  -­‐-­‐filename  site-­‐export.xml  
    All  sites  have  been  exported  to  "site-­‐
    export.xml".
    

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23. Export to a package
    or file to have
    resources exported to
    individual files.
    

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24. Multiple site exports
    

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25. Why would you need
    more than one site
    export in a project?
    

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26. Showcase available
    node types.
    

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27. Provide a fixture for
    automated testing.
    

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28. Have a “demo site”
    giving an impression
    of how the final site
    could look like.
    

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29. Deliver base structure
    for a site to the client.
    Removal of nodes is not supported,
    import only adds/updates currently.
    

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30. $  flow  site:export  -­‐-­‐filename  site-­‐base.xml  
    All  sites  have  been  exported  to  “site-­‐base.xml".  
    $flow  site:prune  
    All  sites  and  content  have  been  removed.  
    $flow  site:import  -­‐-­‐package-­‐key  Neos.Sprint  
    Import  of  site  "Neos  Sprint  Nuremberg"  finished.  
    $flow  site:import  -­‐-­‐filename  base-­‐structure.xml  
    Import  of  site  "Neos  Sprint  Nuremberg"  finished.
    

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31. Creating content
    through code
    

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32. Warning: Only some
    user serviceable
    parts inside
    

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33. Option I
    Generate XML
    

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34. Option II
    Create nodes in PHP
    

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35. Generating valid
    node names
    use  \TYPO3\TYPO3CR\Utility;  
    Utility::renderValidNodeName($name);
    

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36. Use NodeTemplate
    $tpl  =  new  NodeTemplate();  
    …  
    $node  =  $parent  
    -­‐>createNodeFromTemplate($tpl);
    

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37. Handle node variants in all
    workspaces in case an editor
    has modified it and not
    published it yet.
    Otherwise the data gets
    overwritten again when the
    editor publishes.
    

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38. When importing,
    re-use existing tooling.
    

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39. This will avoid memory
    and performance issues
    by batch processing.
    

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41. Generate a lot of nodes
    for up-front testing, to
    see how the system will
    perform when you
    imported in the end.
    

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43. Import performance
    

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44. When using the Node API
    performance issues will
    come up eventually.
    

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45. You may need to use
    NodeData directly.
    

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46. Do not
    get used to
    working with
    NodeData.
    While needed for fast and memory-conserving imports, it is not public API and should be used with great care.
    

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47. Be prepared to handle
    things like updating the
    node index, flushing the
    content cache and setting
    uriPathSegment manually.
    

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48. Option III
    Do not import
    

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49. Fetch content on-the-fly
    If you can fetch (some) of the content
    from an external source, like Redis or
    Elasticsearch, you could just use an
    Eel helper in TypoScript to pass it to
    the rendering.
    No “real” nodes, but still cached in
    the content cache, hence fast.
    

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50. Option IV
    Content Object Proxy
    

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51. Use content objects
    If you have your data in some Flow
    application anyway, or it makes
    sense to have it as entities, you can
    add a content object to a node.
    The node acts as a proxy to the
    entity, exposing its properties.
    

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52. Questions?
    Ideas?
    

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53. karsten@flownative.com
    www.flownative.com
    @kdambekalns
    share your thoughts
    

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54. www.flownative.com
    

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