Populating craft database from non-craft data Is it possible to populate the Craft content database table with entries from a non-craft database (which isn't a live database, it's a local copy). I've set up my channels etc for the incoming data which corresponds to the data from my other db.
Brad is absolutely correct. Better off trying for an existing plugin (we have one in the works over here for very robust Wordpress migrating!!!), but here are a few steps to get you started:

Move the non-craft database tables over to a staging server with your craft tables, and rename them with a craft_ prefix (or whatever you have set as your prefix in config). 
Query for the entries

$query = craft()-&gt;db-&gt;createCommand()
-&gt;select('*')
-&gt;from('your-non-craft-post-table')
-&gt;where('any conditions')
-&gt;queryAll();


Loop through the query results, creating new Entry Models and assigning columns to your fields.

//Go through each $query result
foreach($query as $old_entry){
    $entry = new EntryModel();
    $entry-&gt;sectionId = your_craft_section_id;
    $entry-&gt;authorId = your_craft_user_id;
    $entry-&gt;postDate = $old_entry['old_post_date_column'];
    $entry-&gt;enabled = true;

    //This is the fun part - mapping content to your custom fields
    $entry-&gt;getContent()-&gt;title = $old_entry['old_title_column'];
    $entry-&gt;getContent()-&gt;yourCustomFieldHandle = $old_entry['column_to_map_to_custom_field'];

    //Use the Entries service to save the new entry
    $success = craft()-&gt;entries-&gt;saveEntry($entry);
}


Obviously there is more to it than that...mapping user accounts, categories, tags, assets, etc. But hopefully this will help you get started!