<p>Welcome to Craft! Craft does not require coding experience to set up fields and relationships (attendees to events, for example). All of that is handled from the control panel. </p>

<p>Displaying the fields on the frontend requires some knowledge of <a href="http://buildwithcraft.com/docs/twig-primer" rel="nofollow">Twig</a>, the templating engine Craft uses.</p>

<p>Transferring the data may require some pretty heavy coding, depending on how the data is currently structured. There are a few importing plugins (<a href="https://github.com/boboldehampsink/import/" rel="nofollow">here's a popular one</a>) that might be able to help. From your numbers above, migrating by hand may not be an option, so you might need to invest in some research or hire a developer to help with that phase.</p>

<p>Craft has a lot to offer out of the box in terms of organizing content. I could see you making use out of singles and structures to manage events, hotels, attendees, etc. I recommend reading through the <a href="http://buildwithcraft.com/docs/introduction" rel="nofollow">introduction documentation</a> to get a hold on how Craft is set up.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-04-17T15:30:46.583Z
Thank you!  Thats great news.  I briefly read the documentation, but I think I will spend the weekend going through it in detail then figure out the next step from there!  Thank you @aaron for your input!
Alex
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-04-17T15:35:01.557Z
No problem! If you want to dive in deep, check out [Craft's community offerings](http://buildwithcraft.com/community). If you feel like reaching out to Crat pros to help with the work (myself included), there is a great [list from Straight Up Craft](https://straightupcraft.com/professionals).
Aaron Berkowitz
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-05-10T00:06:23.550Z
A belated welcome to the Craft CMS Stack Exchange, @alexrayvasquez! Please consider accepting Aaron's answer if it helped.
Matt Stein
CC BY-SA 3.0
2015-04-17T00:59:49.950Z
2015-04-17T01:06:46.877Z
2015-04-17T01:06:46.877Z
Aaron Berkowitz
<p>(First off, I apologize for the really long question, but any help I can get would be appreciated!)</p>

<p>Hello!
I am taking over a bunch of sites that a developer had created for a company (I am not a developer, but I have some coding knowledge and wordpress experience).  Anyway, I want to switch over the site from just php and sql to a CMS and I feel like Craft might be the one.  However, I feel like it might just be over my head.</p>

<p>Basically the cms needs to manage an event (or if 1 instance of Craft can handle multiple events, each with its own website, even better!)
Each event visits up to 40 cities a year and has up to 3500 attendees at each one.  And all information regarding attendees, venue, host hotel, faculty, schedule, etc. is all stored in a data base.  And all that information is displayed on the site on pages that are created dynamically by the cities name, year, etc..</p>

<p>My question is: How would I transfer all of that into Craft and organize it appropriately?  And would this be possible for someone with limited knowledge of coding?</p>

<p>I am willing to do all the research necessary, or if its way out of my league, hire a developer to do it for me.  I just need a nudge in the right direction.</p>

<p>Thanks for your time!
-Alex</p>

<database><craft-features><conversion>
Utilizing/ Converting another database with craft
# Utilizing/ Converting another database with craft

(Asked by: username_0 on 2015-04-17)

(First off, I apologize for the really long question, but any help I can get would be appreciated!)

Hello!
I am taking over a bunch of sites that a developer had created for a company (I am not a developer, but I have some coding knowledge and wordpress experience). Anyway, I want to switch over the site from just php and sql to a CMS and I feel like Craft might be the one. However, I feel like it might just be over my head.

Basically the cms needs to manage an event (or if 1 instance of Craft can handle multiple events, each with its own website, even better!)
Each event visits up to 40 cities a year and has up to 3500 attendees at each one. And all information regarding attendees, venue, host hotel, faculty, schedule, etc. is all stored in a data base. And all that information is displayed on the site on pages that are created dynamically by the cities name, year, etc..

My question is: How would I transfer all of that into Craft and organize it appropriately? And would this be possible for someone with limited knowledge of coding?

I am willing to do all the research necessary, or if its way out of my league, hire a developer to do it for me. I just need a nudge in the right direction.

Thanks for your time!
-Alex

**Tags:** database, craft-features, conversion

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2015-04-17. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

Welcome to Craft! Craft does not require coding experience to set up fields and relationships (attendees to events, for example). All of that is handled from the control panel.

Displaying the fields on the frontend requires some knowledge of [Twig](http://buildwithcraft.com/docs/twig-primer), the templating engine Craft uses.

Transferring the data may require some pretty heavy coding, depending on how the data is currently structured. There are a few importing plugins ([here's a popular one](https://github.com/boboldehampsink/import/)) that might be able to help. From your numbers above, migrating by hand may not be an option, so you might need to invest in some research or hire a developer to help with that phase.

Craft has a lot to offer out of the box in terms of organizing content. I could see you making use out of singles and structures to manage events, hotels, attendees, etc. I recommend reading through the [introduction documentation](http://buildwithcraft.com/docs/introduction) to get a hold on how Craft is set up.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Thank you!  Thats great news.  I briefly read the documentation, but I think I will spend the weekend going through it in detail then figure out the next step from there!  Thank you @aaron for your input!  
> **username_1**: No problem! If you want to dive in deep, check out [Craft's community offerings](http://buildwithcraft.com/community). If you feel like reaching out to Crat pros to help with the work (myself included), there is a great [list from Straight Up Craft](https://straightupcraft.com/professionals).  
> **username_2**: A belated welcome to the Craft CMS Stack Exchange, @alexrayvasquez! Please consider accepting Aaron's answer if it helped.  

---

