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uPortal now has an export/import system using xml files generated by Cernunnos export scripts.  Basically, you will run an export command on your existing portal project to generate a number of xml data files.  You then run import in your uPortal3 project to import the data from these xml files into your uPortal3 database.  Take a look at the Cernunnos overview to get a better understanding of this process.  After that, move on to reading about Exporting and Importing.

Default Database

The default database is populated by the db-import task in build.xml. This task is called by ant initdb, which in turn is called by ant initportal.  The db-import task actually uses crn-import to create the database:

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As you can see, it simply calls crn-import on the entities directory.  Take a look at this directory to see the xml format for groups, layouts, channels, etc.

 Your Default Database

I highly recommend setting up an entities directory for your team.  This makes it easy for anyone working on your portal to populate their development database with the groups, channels, permissions, fragment-layouts, etc that your portal uses.