Import and Export Google Sites
The recently mentioned Data Liberation Front has come up with a way to do something that was, until now, impossible.
This is great news as it opens the door for:
- Site backups
- Copying of data from one site to another e.g. from a peronal Google Sites site to a Google Apps one
- Templates: it will now be possible to create templates that can be easily distributed
- Local version of the site saved on your hard disk for backup, editing or off-line viewing
The program is written in Java, just download it and double-click it to run. Apart from your username and password you need to enter:
- Host: sites.google.com
- Domain: For Google Apps users only
- Webspace: If your site URL is http://sites.google.com/site/test then enter test here
- Import/Export revisions: Tick or leave blank
- Target Directory: Choose the location to save site to or to upload from
When I tested the program it exported the site OK (viewable but no sign of any CSS). I was unable to upload the site I’d backed-up – it just got stuck after starting OK. I’d say the program is definitely ”beta” (in fact alpha) at the moment but no doubt improvements are being made as I write this.
This is an import/export tool for Google Sites. Using HTML Microformats it generates an XHTML version of Sites content suitable for offline browsing and simple HTTP hosting, which is also able to be losslessly imported back into sites.
P.S. There’s now an official way to do this – see part 2 for an update