Migrating Users from Drupal 7 to WordPress

Step 1:

The first thing we need to do is pull the users out of the Drupal 7 database. Drupal stores its user data in three tables:

1. users
2. profile_fields
3. profile_values

With some mysql-fu, we can extract the core fields we need to create the users on WordPress. These would be:

1. The users name
2. The users role
3. The users email
4. The users password
5. Any custom fields from the profile_fields and profile_values table.

I like to prepare this as a CSV file.

Step 2:

Now we have to import our CSV of Drupal 7 users into WordPress.

For this I like to use a Command since it may take some time to import your users, and doing it from the command line avoids any timeout issues.

Here’s the PHP script for the Command that I used:

if (class_exists('WP_CLI')) {
    WP_CLI::add_command('import_users', function ($args, $assoc_args) {

        $file = 'drupal7_users.csv' ;
        $handle = fopen( $file, 'r' );

        if( ! $handle )
        {
            WP_CLI::error( "$file cannot be opened.");
            die();
        }


        while( ($data = fgetcsv($handle, 1000, ",")) !== FALSE )
        {
            WP_CLI::line( 'Inserting user '.$data[1] ); 
            wp_insert_user([
                'user_login'    => $data[1],
                'user_email'    => $data[1],
                'user_pass'     => $data[2],
                'user_nicename' => $data[3],
                'display_name'  => $data[3],
                'role'          => $data[4],
                'meta_input'    =>
                [
                    'drupal_id' => $data[5],
                    'd7_pw'     => $data[6],
                ]
            ]);
        }


        WP_CLI::line('Complete!');

    });
}

So in my terminal I run # wp import_users from this projects directory, and that will run the above command.

This script will look for our CSV file of Drupal 7 users, and loop through each row, creating a new WordPress user for each. Pay close attention to the wp_insert_user function and the array of data we send to it. If you’re using this code, remember to update the array indexes to match your specific CSV.

I want to draw your attention to to the meta_input[d7_pw] user meta. We will be storing the Drupal 7 password here, for later.

Take a backup of your WP database before running the script above, just in case you need to restore it and run the command again to fix an import error.

Step 3

Now that our Drupal 7 users have been imported, there’s just one problem: these users wont be able to login! Drupal 7 hashes its password differently than WordPress, and users will not be able to log in using their original passwords. You may be happy to generate everyone a new password, or ask them to use the password reset form, but for a seamless transition it would be great to allow them to use their Drupal 7 password. Here’s how we can do that:

1. Intercept a login attempt
2. See if the user account trying to log in has a d7_pw user meta
3. If they do, and the password in the login attempt matches the d7_pw
4. Update the user_pass to the provided password
5. Remove the d7_pw user meta (to prevent running this again)
6. Let the user log in as normal

Following these steps we can ensure that when a user tries to log in with their Drupal 7 password that we immediately capture that request. We then take their Drupal 7 password, re-hash it, and save it to the users table – essentially updating their password to the Drupal 7 password. Lastly, as the login process continues, the user will be logged in normally.

Here’s the code you can place in a plugin, or in your theme’s functions.php file:

/**
 *
 * Allow drupal users to log in with their password from before.
 * Then update it to a WP password hash.
 *
 */
add_action('wp_authenticate', function( $username, $password ){

    // if these two variables are not present, we are not attempting a login!
    if( empty($username) || empty($password) ) return;

    // get the user
    $user = get_user_by('email', $username );

    // If one doesn't exist, abort and let WP handle the rest.
    if( ! $user ) return;

    // get the old D7 password
    $d7pass = get_user_meta( $user->ID, 'd7_pw', true );

    // If this user does not have a D7 pass in our system, abort and let WP handle the rest.
    if( ! $d7pass ) return;


    // Check if the user is trying to log in with their D7 pass
    if( md5( $password ) == $d7pass )
    {
        // set the password for WP to this password provided
        wp_update_user([
            'ID'        => $user->ID,
            'user_pass' => $password
        ]);

        // remove the old password and also to prevent this script from running a second time.
        update_user_meta( $user->ID, 'd7_pw', null );
    }


}, 1, 2);