zulip/help/import-from-rocketchat.md

5.5 KiB

Import from Rocket.Chat

You can import your current workspace into a Zulip organization. It's a great way to preserve your workspace history when you migrate to Zulip, and to make the transition easy for the members of your organization.

The import will include your organization's:

  • Name
  • Message history, including attachments and emoji reactions
  • Users, including names, emails, roles, and teams
  • Channels, including discussions and all user subscriptions
  • Custom emoji

Import process overview

To import your Rocket.Chat organization into Zulip, you will need to take the following steps, which are described in more detail below:

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  1. Export your Rocket.Chat data.

  2. Import your Rocket.Chat data into Zulip.

  3. Get your organization started with Zulip!

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Import your organization from Rocket.Chat into Zulip

Export your Rocket.Chat data

Rocket.Chat does not provide an official data export feature, so the Zulip import tool works by importing data from a Rocket.Chat database dump.

If you're self-hosting your Rocket.Chat instance, you can create a database dump using the mongodump utility.

If your organization is hosted on Rocket.Chat Cloud or another hosting provider that doesn't provide you with database access, you will need to request a database dump by contacting their support.

In either case, you should end up with a directory containing many .bson files.

Import your data into Zulip

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At this point, you should go to the directory containing all the .bson files from your database dump and rename it to rocketchat_data. This directory will be your exported data file in the instructions below.

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{!import-into-a-zulip-cloud-organization.md!}

{!import-zulip-cloud-organization-warning.md!}

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{!import-into-a-self-hosted-zulip-server.md!}

  1. To import into an organization hosted on the root domain (EXTERNAL_HOST) of the Zulip installation, run the following commands.

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    cd /home/zulip/deployments/current
    ./scripts/stop-server
    ./manage.py convert_rocketchat_data /tmp/rocketchat_data --output /tmp/converted_rocketchat_data
    ./manage.py import '' /tmp/converted_rocketchat_data
    ./scripts/start-server
    

    Alternatively, to import into a custom subdomain, run:

    cd /home/zulip/deployments/current
    ./scripts/stop-server
    ./manage.py convert_rocketchat_data /tmp/rocketchat_data --output /tmp/converted_rocketchat_data
    ./manage.py import <subdomain> /tmp/converted_rocketchat_data
    ./scripts/start-server
    
  2. Follow step 4 of the guide for installing a new Zulip server.

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Import details

Whether you are using Zulip Cloud or self-hosting Zulip, here are a few notes to keep in mind about the import process:

Rocket.Chat role Zulip role
Admin Owner
User Member
Guest Guest
  • User avatars are not imported.

  • Default channels for new users are not imported.

  • Starred messages are not imported.

  • Messages longer than Zulip's limit of 10,000 characters are not imported.

  • Messages from Rocket.Chat Discussions are imported as topics inside the Zulip stream corresponding to the parent channel of the Rocket.Chat Discussion.

  • Messages from Rocket.Chat Discussions having direct channels (i.e. direct messages) as their parent are imported as normal direct messages in Zulip.

  • While Rocket.Chat Threads are in general imported as separate topics, Rocket.Chat Threads within Rocket.Chat Discussions are imported as normal messages within the topic containing that Discussion, and Threads in Direct Messages are imported as normal Zulip direct messages.

Additionally, because Rocket.Chat does not provide a documented or stable data export API, the import tool may require small changes from time to time to account for changes in the Rocket.Chat database format. Please contact us if you encounter any problems using this tool.

Get your organization started with Zulip

{!import-get-your-organization-started.md!}

Decide how users will log in

{!import-how-users-will-log-in.md!}