It would be very useful to have a clean way to import images into another wiki.
The import should include the image description (all revisions), and
(optionally?) all versions of the file.
Some suggestions for the implementation:
- The import interface should be a special page, presumably Special:Import.
- A checklist of image versions could be presented, so the user can choose which versions can be ignored.
- The description text (all revisions) could be imported using the Special:Export interface.
- The Special:Export interface would need to get an option to export the upload history of a file.
- The files themselves could be copied on-disk, if the upload directories of source and target wiki are on the same server (which is the case for most wikimedia wikis, but not all). If that is not the case, the images can be loaded via HTTP, perhaps using Special:Filepath
- Since the import potentially involves quite a bit of slow and unreliable interaction over the net, care must be taken to implement transactinal logic in order to prevent partial/broken imports.
A clean & easy way to transfer images between wikis has often been requested. I
am putting this here to have a place for tracking and discussing the issue, and
collection thoughts on the technical side of things.