Development:Backup 2.0 - Provide upwards compatibility of Moodle 1.9.x backups

Note: This article is a work in progress. Please use the page comments or an appropriate moodle.org forum for any recommendations/suggestions for improvement.

While the Backup 2.0 multiple formats document describes how different formats will be supported by the restore process in Moodle 2.0, it's going to be a highly complex task to perform the transformation of Moodle 1.9.x backups into the new, improved, Moodle 2.x backup format.

Too many things have changed between both versions to be able to achieve this easily. Surely it's computable (as long as upgrade is being able to apply the correct logic, so restore will) but it is going to be handled as a separate development that will allow us to 1) be centered in the 2.0 backup/restore and 2) be free (both in mind and implementation) from any 1.9.x XML format dependency.