The next version of Omeka will include an insert_item() helper function that will make this much easier -- one of our other devs, Jim, is working on migration scripts and may have more insight, particularly regarding the use of phased loading to possibly have a script run in the background and not time-out over HTTP.
Here's a look at the code for inserting items that's being used in the soon-to-be-released upgrade of the dropbox plugin:
/**
* This function will be deprecated in the upcoming 1.0 release
* in favor of an insert_item function added to the core
**/
function insert_item($itemMetadata = array(), $elementTexts = array())
{
// Insert a new Item
$item = new Item;
// Item Metadata
$item->public = $itemMetadata['public'];
$item->featured = $itemMetadata['featured'];
$item->collection_id = $itemMetadata['collection_id'];
foreach ($elementTexts as $elementSetName => $elements) {
foreach ($elements as $elementName => $elementTexts) {
$element = $item->getElementByNameAndSetName($elementName, $elementSetName);
foreach ($elementTexts as $elementText) {
$item->addTextForElement($element, $elementText['text'], $elementText['html']);
}
}
}
// Save Item and all of its metadata
$item->save();
// Save Element Texts
$item->saveElementTexts();
return $item;
}
And in a plugin's controller, you would use something similar to the following code to pass metadata to the helper function:
$itemMetadata = array( 'public' => $_POST['public'],
'featured' => $_POST['featured'],
'collection_id' => $_POST['collection_id']);
$elementTexts = array('Dublin Core' => array('Title' => array(array('text' => $originalName, 'html' => false))));
$item = dropbox_insert_item($itemMetadata, $elementTexts);
Does that help? You may be interested in joining our Developer Google Group where these more-technical questions are often asked: http://groups.google.com/group/omeka-dev
Cheers,
Dave
