Frequently Asked Question

When Encompass pages were captured - either as PDF, or as HTML, their embedded content and referenced URLs all pointed to the Encompass server and structure. In order to automate the transformation of these URLs, we established a structure in our own domain (MIT1964.org) that would allow a simple find and replace to switch the file location.

Two types of links were involved: Page links via [href] and content source via [src].

A typical Encompass Page Link looks like: https://1964.alumclass.mit.edu/s/1314/2015/club-class-main.aspx?sid=1314&gid=55&pgid=2709. We determined that gid=55 designated the group id for our class, and pgid=2709 identified the specific website page to be delivered.

Typical embedded content on an Encompass page is referenced by a URL like [1964.alumclass.mit.edu/s/1314/images/gid55/editor/FILE.jpg] although we also found content in several levels of sub-folders under [editor]. But again, a simple find-and=replace could transform these links to reference our host.Referenced documents had the same structure as images, except used [editor_documents].

Since the MITAA provided a full dump of [editor] and [editor_documents] with all folders and files intact, we were able to create a copy of all embedded content accessible by transformed URLs. As a result, HTML for an Encompass page could be converted to HTML, pasted into a HiveBrite page (using the Classic Editor) and it would be fully operable, fetching contents from the new file locations via transformed URLs.

This reduce the time to migrate a page from Encompass to HIveBrite from hours to less than 30 minutes. Our strategy, however, was to convert only those pages likely to require future updates, and leave the rest as PDF.

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