I'm working on switching a friend from blogger to b2evo, so I could use some help on this, too.

I was able to import all of the posts and comments from my friend's Blogger blog to her new [url=http://maresmess.brendoman.com]b2evo blog[/url]. I used the MT import script in b2evo .9.0.11 (I'm not sure if it's in earlier versions, too). The trick is to make blogger's template output something that looks just like Movable Type's export. Here's the template that worked for me:

<Blogger>
AUTHOR: <$BlogItemAuthor$>
TITLE: <BlogItemTitle><$BlogItemTitle$></BlogItemTitle>
STATUS: Publish
ALLOW COMMENTS: 1
CONVERT BREAKS: __default__
ALLOW PINGS: 0

DATE: <$BlogItemDateTime$>
-----
BODY:
<$BlogItemBody$>
-----
EXTENDED BODY:

-----
EXCERPT:

-----
KEYWORDS:

-----
<BlogItemCommentsEnabled><BlogItemComments>COMMENT:
AUTHOR: <$BlogCommentAuthor$>
DATE: <$BlogCommentDateTime$>
<$BlogCommentBody$>
-----
</BlogItemComments>
</BlogItemCommentsEnabled>

--------</Blogger>

You also have to make a few adjustments to the settings in Blogger. I found some good instructions [url=http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/docs/mtmanual_importing#exporting%20blogger%20entries]here[/url]. Here are the main points:

4. Enter the Settings area for this weblog.

5. Change your Blog Filename to a different filename; this will prevent you from overwriting your main index file.

6. In Formatting, set your weblog to display all of your posts on the main index page. There is no explicit setting for this; instead, you should change the number of days displayed on your front page (Show N days' posts on main page) higher than the number of days that you have been weblogging.

7. Set Date/Time Format to the format MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS AM|PM. (Note: the format will not look like this in the menu; instead it will be the current time, formatted.)

8. Set Convert Line Breaks to No.

9. Set Archive Frequency to No Archive. This will prevent your archives from being overwritten with the new template.

10. Switch back to the Posts screen, and Publish your weblog. You will end up with a single file with all of your posts, formatted using the above template, at the location specified in your Settings. Download this file to your local hard drive.

I went to the address where the blog was published and saw all the text running together. I viewed the source in my browser and then it was arranged much better. Copy everthing starting with the first instance of AUTHOR: to the end of the page. Save it as whatever.txt and upload it to your admin folder. Run the MT import script from the Tools tab in the back office. That worked well for me.

Does anyone know if this still works?

When I change my template to the one above, blogger will no longer publish. Can anyone help me?

I haven't messed with Blogger in over a year. They may have changed their templating system. Do you get any specific errors when you try to publish?

No it just hangs on "Publishing is in progress" with the swirling petal icon thing it does and the % sticks on 0%.

I just created a blogspot blog and set the above to be my template. It seems to work fine for me:

http://personman2.blogspot.com/

So do I remove all of my current template and replace with the one above? (I have a backup of my template)

I put it back to my original tmplate and it publishes no problem. I then switched it back and it stuck again. I then tried to put in the template above and click to preview button but even that wouldn't load.

Yes, remove all of the old template. There should be nothing in the template textarea except the code above. Is that what you've been trying?

Yes but its not working :'(

I'm not sure what to tell you. Maybe you could try removing parts of the template I gave you and see if it will publish. Then add parts back in one at a time until it breaks again. That might help. Or you could contact blogger support.

Ok I know its not your fault so sorry if I sound like it is but I am getting very frustrated with this.

I have been given a free host with b2evo on it and need to switch ASAP or i'll have to start paying for another month with my current host and stick with blogger. Plus on top of that I am leaving at the end of this month to take a 12 month trip round the world and NEED to have it soughted before then. So you can understand my frustration.

So I tried to remove parts of the template like you said but the only thing that would work was this:

<Blogger>

--------</Blogger>

and that came out with about a 3rd of a page of lines. So I paste my original template back in, save it, publish, then when I go back to my blog its all messed up. For some reason it wont go back to looking the way it should. Here take a look:

http://www.myqt.co.uk

This google cache page shows what it should look like:

http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:RUbRHuRa1lQJ:www.myqt.co.uk/+myqt&hl=en

Please can some one save me from stressing out?

I understand your frustration. I've been there. I didn't make this clear, but my instructions have only been tested on blogspot. I've never tried it on a stand-alone installation of Blogger. I've never used Blogger on my own web space at all. I'm not even sure if it uses the same templating system. The first thing I would do if I were you, is get a good backup of your blogger database. That way, if you mess anything up, or if you have to cancel your old hosting, you won't lose all of your posts. If you want me to try and help you, you could send me your db dump and I'll install blogger on my site and try to convert your db to b2evo. Or you could give me a login account on your blogger page and I'll tweak the template to see if we can get it exported.

Because what ever went wrong with my template put all my stuff on one page it has maxed my bandwidth and now my hosting has been disabled. If I goto blogger all my posts are still there. Can I switch to bloggers free host without loosing all my posts and if so how?

Its like running into one brick wall, getting up then running into another at the moment. I just don't want to loose the last years worth of blogging and right now it dosn't look good.

Thank you for all your help though, I really apreciate it right now.

The bandwidth issue will have to be taken up with your webhost. You probably just hit your daily limit and will be back in action tomorrow. [url=http://neologasm.org/b2mt/]Here's[/url] an illustrated guide to migrating from Blogger to Movable Type (b2evo takes the same import format). But, as I said, getting a backup of your database is the most important thing for you to do. That will guarantee that your posts are never lost.

Well I have to wait untill 1st of Febuary before it will be back up and by then I will be in India and don't want to have to sought out all this stuff from some internet cafe in Mumbai. I do have the option to purchase a bandwidth topup for the rest of the month but with the way my blog is set at the moment i'm not sure how long it will last and as you can imagine i'm trying to save as much money as possible to fund my trip so I want to be sure that is my only option bofore doing so.

Contact your host and ask them to do a mysqldump of your database. That will export your whole database into a .sql file (just a text file with instructions for recreating the database). I'm almost certain they'll do that for you. And that's all you need. They you can install blogger on your new host and work on extracting your posts there. Or, if you like, I'll install blogger on my site and help you get the posts out. It would be good experience for me, since this question has come up before and I already have a half-working solution. The .sql file won't contain any passwords or anything, so don't worry about security. It will be all the information that was already publicly available on your site before. Once you get a good copy of your database, then you could drop the old webhost (unless you have some files on the server that you need, but if you do, the host should give those to you, too, even if your account is locked up).

Oh wow thank you. I will ask for a mysqldump ASAP then get back in contact when I have it.

Sorry about the wait but I ran into another wall and a fear it might mean you can't help me. My host was really cheap so it was also very basic and after asking them for a mysqldump then sent me this:

Your hosting doesn't have mysql installed on the servers.

So erm, I hope this isn't as bad as I think it might be.

So where is your data? Is it hosted by blogspot? I seem to remember that one of thier options is to host the blogware and data on their servers and have the blogware upload the published files every time you update. What address do you go to when you want to log in and make a post?

My blog is hosted on a host I pay for in the UK. I log into blogger and in my blogger options there is a setting that lets me put in my host FTP. I can't remember if I already asked this but if I now ask blogger to host it will I loose all my posts currently on my host?

Oh good, this is going to be much easier than we thought. If you go to blogger.com to log in, then blogger.com is hosting your data. You won't lose it. Just change your publishing type from ftp to blogger.com, then go to whatever.blogspot.com and make sure your posts are there, edit the template to match the code above, republish, save as a text file, upload it to your new host into the admin folder of b2evolution and you're ready to go to the tools tab and run the MT import script.

Phew, its looking good. Feel free to call me an idiot and some thing else for wasting your time. Erm, so, well, sorry I guess and a massive huge thank you for all your help.

"where is the any key" :lol: Doh!

Don't beat yourself up. I didn't catch this either. Let me know how importing goes. Maybe you can link to your b2evo site when it's up. I'd like to see the final result.

All the posts have gone into my b2evo blog under todays date. I looked at the txt file and there is no date listed for any of the posts, only a time. What did I do wrong?

In the same post where I give the template, there are some additional steps:

7. Set Date/Time Format to the format MM/DD/YYYY HH:MM:SS AM|PM. (Note: the format will not look like this in the menu; instead it will be the current time, formatted.)

In the blogger admin page, go to settings > formatting and change the timestamp format to the first one in the list. Save, republish and re-import. You'll need to get rid of the posts you've already imported to b2evolution before importing again.

I did do the steps but I must have chosen the wrong one.

How do I delete all 129 posts without going through each one?

One way is to delete the user that is the author of those posts. Another would be to drop all tables and reinstall b2evo.

personman wrote:

Don't beat yourself up. I didn't catch this either. Let me know how importing goes. Maybe you can link to your b2evo site when it's up. I'd like to see the final result.

Sorry it took me a while to get all the dns stuff working but its up and running now.

http://www.myqt.co.uk

Once again thankyou for all your help.

Kudos for hanging in there and making it work. Looks great.

I followed this how-to and successfully exported a txt file, but when I uploaded it to /admin and tried to import, I got this error message :

No .TXT file found in /admin. Nothing to import...

Please copy your Movable Type .TXT export file to the /admin directory.

I have b2evo v 0.9.1 ... I don't know what went wrong!

Does this still work??? Or am I just an idiot?
"The trick is to make blogger's template output something that looks just like Movable Type's export. Here's the template that worked for me:
" Is this the layout Template or the Posting Template?
"5. Change your Blog Filename to a different filename; this will prevent you from overwriting your main index file." Have no options to change this in Blogger.

I guess I am an idiot... Has anyone converted from Blogger recently? What is the easiest way to move my blog? And since I am clueless I guess I need Step by Step instructions, Kinda of like "See Spot Run"
Sorry I am just stressing right now and would love some help