Moving Discussion Items from one site collection to another site collection

Question

We are using the Community Site template in a Knowledgeshare portal and have several Community  Site Collections for different business divisions.  There are instances when a discussion item is posted in the wrong Communisty Site Collection. 

This is the current manual proces that users are following:

copying/pasting as there is no tool available to move things between communities L; I apply the following logic normally:

• When it is no or 1 reply,  I copy the start of the discussion thread and then the reply as a separated reply with a message “Reposted on behalf of @.....<original author>” (the @ will open the address book and makes the name “hyperlinked”)
• When there are more replies, I copy the whole thread and create one discussion with the whole thread. Again started with “Reposted on behalf of @.....<original author>”. I do clean up some of the non-discussion related stuff in between like “Like  Reply …” as these links will only give an error.

Is there a better process or tool for moving discussion items and replies from one site collection to another?

Answer 1

here is a script that moves the discussion to another list:

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell

$web = Get-SPWeb "http://TeamSite"
$sourceList = $web.GetList("http://TeamSite/Lists/source/")
$destinationList = $web.GetList("http://TeamSite/Lists/destination/")

#Get desired discussion by Name (or use some other identifier eg. ID)
$sourceDiscussion = $sourceList.Folders | Where-Object {$_.Name -eq "My cool subject"}

#Add new discussion to destination list
$destinationDiscussion = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPUtility]::CreateNewDiscussion($destinationList.Items, $sourceDiscussion.Title)
#Copy basic field values (you can copy some custom fields if needed)
$destinationDiscussion["Body"] = $sourceDiscussion["Body"]
$destinationDiscussion["Author"] = $sourceDiscussion["Author"]
$destinationDiscussion["Editor"] = $sourceDiscussion["Editor"]
$destinationDiscussion["Modified"] = $sourceDiscussion["Modified"]
$destinationDiscussion["Created"] = $sourceDiscussion["Created"]
#Add discussion
$destinationDiscussion.SystemUpdate($false)

#Get all discussion messages (maybe there is better way to get it but this works)
$caml='<Where><Eq><FieldRef Name="ParentFolderId" /><Value Type="Integer">{0}</Value></Eq></Where>' -f $sourceDiscussion.ID
$query = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPQuery
$query.Query = $caml
$query.ViewAttributes = "Scope='Recursive'";
$sourceMessages = $sourceList.GetItems($query)

foreach ($sourceMessage in $sourceMessages) {
    #Add new message to discussion
    $destinationMessage = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities.SPUtility]::CreateNewDiscussionReply($destinationDiscussion)
    #Copy basic field values (you can copy some custom fields if needed)
    $destinationMessage["Body"] = $sourceMessage["Body"]
    $destinationMessage["TrimmedBody"] = $sourceMessage["TrimmedBody"]
    $destinationMessage["Author"] = $sourceMessage["Author"]
    $destinationMessage["Editor"] = $sourceMessage["Editor"]
    $destinationMessage["Modified"] = $sourceMessage["Modified"]
    $destinationMessage["Created"] = $sourceMessage["Created"]
    #Add message
    $destinationMessage.SystemUpdate($false)
}

Answer 2

Thank you for hte prompt response! 

However, we are looking for a non-script related process or tool as the Moderators of the Discussion lists do not have this level of skillsets.

Answer 3

You create a template you have the option of including the existing content (Save List As Template > Include Content). When you move the template to the other site collection and create a new list based on it then your data will be there.

You can also do this using SharePoint Designer - select the list, select Copy then find destination and select Paste.

Another option is- STSADM extensions such as gl-exportlist and gl-importlist

PS script to do this: http://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/8600/moving-a-discussion-from-a-discussion-board-to-another

Moreover, If you wish you may also try this SharePoint migration solution to move discussion Items from one site collection to another site collection.

Hope this helps!