How to migrate Cld.bz hosted publications to FlippingBook Online

We offer two products for creating flipbooks: FlippingBook Publisher (software for Windows) and FlippingBook Online (a web-based service). Publisher is the older product, designed for both self-hosting and cloud-hosting. Online is a newer product that is designed specifically for cloud-based hosting. If you host flipbooks with us, FlippingBook Online is almost always the better option.

• It offers much more functionality to help you achieve your business goals.
• It's browser-based, so no installation or maintenance is required.
• It works faster, is more user-friendly, and your books are always technically up-to-date.
• In most cases, the Total Cost of Ownership is lower. 

We have an article that explains these benefits in detail, but in this article, we discuss how you can migrate.  

How to migrate from cld.bz to FlippingBook Online

Even though flipbooks on cld.bz and FlippingBook Online look the same, they technically are very different! This means that we cannot automatically move them with a single push of a button. Still, there’s a lot that we can do. We can migrate even hundreds of flipbooks quickly, but with a few important points of note!

• We can automatically recreate some/all of your PDFs on cld.bz as new flipbooks in FlippingBook Online, based on the PDF you use in the cld.bz version.
• We can brand these flipbooks (logo, background, favicon, colors, etc) based on one or more style templates. We determine together with you what they look like or take from one of your current flipbooks.
• If you move to the Advanced plan (or higher) and set up a custom domain, then we can redirect all your cld.bz domain automatically to your new custom domain. We can create new flipbooks with the same name as you currently use. This means that your visitors can often keep using your existing links.
• We can also apply security settings like passwords and restricted domain settings if you opt for the Advanced plan.
• We can NOT migrate any elements that you added in the Content editor, such as videos, (pop-up) images, or links that you added manually. You will need to recreate these in FlippingBook Online. What we can provide is information about the books to which you added content! 
• If needed, we can allow for a transition period where you use both products (but only pay for one!) so you can share your new links, while existing links you shared earlier will keep working.
• In FlippingBook Online, it is NOT yet possible to add/move/remove single pages in a flipbook. You can only replace the complete PDF. If this is crucial for you, we advise you to keep using Publisher.  

Your Success Manager will gladly explain this in more detail. Feel free to book a meeting to discuss this!  

Outline of the migration process

The exact process can differ depending on your needs, familiarity with the products, and the complexity of the migration. We have outlined a typical migration process below:

1. Orientation meeting
   We schedule a meeting with your personal success manager, where we discuss things like what kind of books you make, how you share them, and if you want to migrate all your books or just a selection of publications that are actually used.
2. Decision
   Based on the orientation meeting, your success manager prepares a proposal for the most suitable FlippingBook Online plan for your needs, a financial proposal, and what the migration trajectory will look like. You can base your decision on whether or not to migrate, and when.
3. Kick off 
   If you decide to move, we plan a kick-off meeting. We create your Online license, show you how to use it, and discuss whether you (/your team) require any training in FlippingBook Online. If you use custom styling for your flipbooks, we set up the templates. We will also present a spreadsheet with data about all your current flipbooks, like the name, link, creation and last modification date, and more. In this sheet, you can indicate which flipbooks should be migrated and how they should look.
   
   
   
4. (optional) Migration preparation
   After the kickoff, you fill out the spreadsheet and finalize any styling templates in your account. If applicable, you also set up your custom domain now. When you’re ready, you send us the spreadsheet. If you just want to migrate all flipbooks without special properties or diversification, we will skip this step.
5. Migration
   Based on your choices of which flipbooks to migrate and how, we schedule the migration. Your success manager will personally verify it for correctness and inform you when completed. 
6. Post-processing
   With the new flipbooks created, it is time for post-processing if required. If you had added any content (like videos and images) to your flipbooks in Publisher, you can now add this content to the new Online version too. On your signal, we can enable a redirect from your old domain to the new one.
7. Transition period and Closure
   If we don’t set up a domain redirect, then you’ll likely want to have a transition period where you share your new flipbooks with your audience, but any old links will remain valid for some time. Another reason for a transition period is if you have many flipbooks that become obsolete, so migrating them is not required, but they should stay available until they expire. 

​Interested? Book a meeting with your success manager to learn more.