Wiki migration, without losing pages.
Moving a wiki is not a copy job but a tidy-up with tools. Here is what comes along, what you leave behind, how long it takes and where the traps are. It applies to Confluence, MediaWiki, DokuWiki, XWiki, BookStack, Notion and Markdown.
The route in six steps.
Survey the collection
How many pages, which spaces, which macros, which attachments. Whatever nobody has opened in years goes on the list to drop.
Try twenty pages
Import them into an empty space, with a preview. Look at what has arrived: structure, tables, images, macros, links.
Decide the structure
Think spaces and the page tree through afresh instead of copying the old order. The import chooses space by space.
Import it all
Space by space, repeatable. Whatever the target does not know stands visibly on the page and in the import report.
Set rights and templates
Deliberately afresh: groups instead of people, approvals where they are needed, templates for everything that recurs.
In parallel, then switch off
Let the old wiki run on read-only, pick up the changes, then switch it off. With a date everybody knows.
A checklist before the move.
- A macro inventory. Which macros occur, and how often? With Confluence that can be counted through the API; we have a script for it.
- Attachments. How many, how large, which types? ThurWiki searches over 60 formats, including scans and ZIP archives.
- Links from outside. Who links to the old wiki? The intranet, tickets, e-mail signatures. Those addresses need a redirect.
- Owners. Who is responsible for which space? Without an answer, the space goes stale in the new wiki just as it did in the old one. In ThurWiki you record the answer: per page a responsible person with a review date and a reminder.
- Sign-in. Set up SSO through Entra ID or Google Workspace before the move, so that nobody needs a second password.
- A cut-off date. A date from which writing happens only in the new wiki. Without a cut-off date, two wikis run for ever.
The traps.
- Quiet omission. The worst thing an import can do: a macro is missing, and nobody notices. ThurWiki leaves a visible line with the macro’s name.
- Copying the old order. Anyone who takes the page tree as it has grown, one to one, moves the chaos along with them.
- Bringing the rights across. Years of exceptions and individual grants do not belong in the new wiki. Groups, spaces, few rules.
- Everything at once. The space that is used most, first; the rest follows once the first users have arrived.
- No export in the new system. Before the move, check how you would get out again. With ThurWiki: chosen pages and whole branches as one PDF, up to 300 pages per export, plus every page as Markdown through the API. There is no bulk export of the whole wiki as an archive today; we say so beforehand.
Per source system.
For every system companies come to us from there is a page of its own with the route, what comes along, and the comparison: Confluence · MediaWiki · DokuWiki · XWiki · BookStack · Wiki.js · Docmost · Outline · Notion · SharePoint.
Directly, ThurWiki reads Confluence (Cloud, Server, Data Center), MediaWiki, DokuWiki, XWiki and BookStack through their own APIs, as well as Notion exports and Markdown archives. Wiki.js, Docmost, Outline and SharePoint come through a Word or Markdown export.
Questions about wiki migration
How long does a wiki migration take?
For a few hundred pages: an afternoon for the import, a few days for the follow-up. At a thousand pages and more, reckon in weeks, because sorting out takes longer than copying. The import itself is repeatable; the time goes into structure and rights.
What gets lost in a wiki migration?
Typically: macros that do not exist in the target, embedded third-party content, users and rights, sometimes versions. ThurWiki converts the common macros, marks unknown ones visibly, takes attachments and links across and brings no rights with it; those you set deliberately afresh. Third-party content from Jira, Git, ticket systems, Zabbix, Proxmox, Jenkins, SonarQube, Nextcloud or Seafile is then fetched onto the page by a macro.
Should we take everything with us?
No. A move is the best opportunity to sort things out. Whatever nobody has opened in three years needs no new home. The import chooses space by space; take twenty pages into an empty space first.
Can we keep the old wiki running alongside?
Yes, read-only, until the new one has settled in. The import can be repeated to pick up changes made in the meantime, without pages appearing twice.
Wiki migration, moving a wiki, Confluence migration, MediaWiki migration, BookStack migration, a Notion export into the company wiki: ThurWiki imports with a preview, converts macros, takes attachments and links across and can be repeated. We accompany the migration with a trial import of twenty pages, before you decide.
Show us your wiki.
Twenty of your pages in a demo wiki, imported with a preview, before you decide.