# Migrating static content into Drupal 8

 

 

Date: Thursday, December 12, 2019

 By  [CivicActions](/civicactions)

These tips can help you move mountains … of unstructured content. (Photo by [Daniel Leone](https://unsplash.com/@danielleone?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText) on [Unsplash](https://unsplash.com/s/photos/mountains?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText))

At [DrupalCon](https://events.drupal.org/) 2019, CivicActions engineer [Kristian Ducharme](https://civicactions.com/team/kristian-ducharme) offered hope to those dealing with large, messy migrations projects that have a lot of unstructured content. Kristian is a veteran content shepherd, and enjoys helping government agencies strategically modernize their sites to make life better for content managers and users.

In this talk, Kristian shows us how to use the [Migration Tools](https://www.drupal.org/project/migration_tools) module developed by CivicActions to find structure in your existing content to make migration smooth and efficient. See Migration Tools in action with a use case that tackles 15 years of government static content for migration into a new Drupal 8 system.

[Watch Kristian’s DrupalCon 2019 talk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a5jJz8QFwc)

> “A lot has changed since the ’90s — we are helping government transition to dynamic content that is manageable, mobile-responsive, and accessible.”

> \- Kristian

**Highlights**

- 5:30 — Start here to skip the dead air
- 6:20 — Why government content fell behind as technology modernized
- 7:25 — What’s so terrible about static content
- 10:08 — How to get your content ready for migration
- 12:35 — Setting up the Migration Tools module
- 16:25 — Helpful obtainer classes that process content along the way
- 17:53 — Tools to help identify and retain links as you migrate
- 20:59 — What it takes to migrate 15 years of government press releases
- 28:10 — Find the right content and pluck out the rest
- 32:47 — Ta da! Successful migrations put everything where it needs to be in Drupal
- 34:40 — P.S. What to do with sidebars

**Resources**

- [Deck: Migrating Terrible Static Content into Drupal 8](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VOGEkH5qqUnMLOTMsiFwVAzBwroFIxFf/view?usp=sharing)
- [Migration Tools module](https://www.drupal.org/project/migration_tools)

**Connect with Kristian**

- [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristianducharme/)
- [GitHub](https://github.com/kducharm)
- [Drupal](https://www.drupal.org/u/kducharm)