Import Diary Threads into Blogs using ImpEx

[neomaven]

Before vBulletin Blogs became available, I had a special subforum on my forum where members could maintain a 'Diary'. The permissions for this forum were set so that any member could create a thread, but only the threadstarter could post in the thread. This created a somewhat crude 'blog' or journal type functionality.

Now that I have installed vBulletin Blogs on my forum, I have shut down the Diary subforum. While many members have created blogs, many of those who had active Diary threads would love to have a way to import all their old entries into the new blog system. Cutting and pasting the entries over is not only extremely tedious and inefficient, but also the post date of the entries will be lost.

My question is this: is there a way to use the ImpEx Blog importer to import the data? I have tried setting the source and target databases the same but it didn't work. I also tried using a backup copy of the forum database, installed as a new database in mysql, as the source but that also didn't work.

Finally, in ImpEx there is something called vBulletin Forum 2 Blog. Is this related to the type of import and I am trying to do? I couldn't find a description or instructions on how to use that specific importer.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[Jerry]

Yes the forum to blog importer is what you want, make a copy of your forum and then prune it down to the one forum you want to import, then set that as the source.

[neomaven]

By "prune it down" do you mean delete all forums/posts via the admin CP on the mirror environment install?

ImpEX question:
Can I have the database for the forum mirror on the same mysqlserver (same localhost)?

Whenever I try to set the target and source DB info in ImpExConfig.php, it says it cannot connect to source. I have checked the user/pass/host/database values 40 times, I am 100% certain they are correct and still cannot connect. The values in ImpEXConfig.php are identical to those set in /forum/includes/config.php, but impex still gives me the "cannot connect to source database" error.

Last question, is it even necessary to set the target database details anymore? I entered $impexconfig['sourceexists'] = false; just so I could take a look at the ImpEX menu, and it said that target DB info was pulled from includes/config.php.

And finally, the instructions included with the latest version of impex, along with the documention located at http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/impex is extremely outdated, which is quite frustrating :(


I appreciate all the help, I just wish the documentation were a bit more detailed, so I wouldnt have to bother you guys.

[Jerry]

By "prune it down" do you mean delete all forums/posts via the admin CP on the mirror environment install?

Yes, delete the forums from the copy (the now source) you don't want on the blog on the target.



ImpEX question:
Can I have the database for the forum mirror on the same mysqlserver (same localhost)?

Yes, just use a different table prefix if in the same database, or either if a separate database on the same server.



Whenever I try to set the target and source DB info in ImpExConfig.php, it says it cannot connect to source. I have checked the user/pass/host/database values 40 times, I am 100% certain they are correct and still cannot connect. The values in ImpEXConfig.php are identical to those set in /forum/includes/config.php, but impex still gives me the "cannot connect to source database" error.

At what stage do you get that ? The very first place ? It's a MySQL error so it means that it can't.




Last question, is it even necessary to set the target database details anymore? I entered $impexconfig['sourceexists'] = false; just so I could take a look at the ImpEX menu, and it said that target DB info was pulled from includes/config.php.

sourceexists will be true as you are importing from a source database, when running installed you don't have to set the target details.

When importing remember that you have to back up your target before running anything, so you can restore to that point to test subsequent imports.



And finally, the instructions included with the latest version of impex, along with the documention located at http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/impex is extremely outdated, which is quite frustrating :(

I will update that.

[neomaven]

Yes, delete the forums from the copy (the now source) you don't want on the blog on the target.

Ok, easy enough.



Yes, just use a different table prefix if in the same database, or either if a separate database on the same server.


My current database structure looks like this:


forum_dbname @ localhost {Live forum}
forum_dbname @ localhost {a very recent copy of the live DB, contains the desired source data, hosted on the same mySQL DB server}
Sounds like this will work then (if I can ever get ImpEx to connect to source database that is :mad:



At what stage do you get that ? The very first place ?
I get it right after I enter my customer number. I even get it if I make a test and enter the target database connection details, which I am 150% certain are correct. Perhaps I have a bad install of ImpEx? :confused:



It's a MySQL error so it means that it can't.

Sorry I don't understand what you mean here. It can't what?



sourceexists will be true as you are importing from a source database, when running installed you don't have to set the target details.

Yes I understand. I just changed it to false so I could take a look at the ImpEx menu (never saw it before).



When importing remember that you have to back up your target before running anything, so you can restore to that point to test subsequent imports.

I most certainly will. My forum has over 1 million posts and close to 20,000 members, with an average of 250 members and 150 guests on at all times. I cannot take a chance of the site being down for more than 30 minutes or my members will riot, lol!

[Jerry]

Never ever import into a live forum with out running a test first, so you will want a 3rd, being a copy of the source (the test target) , the 2nd being a copy of the origional pruned (now the source) and the origional live board left to run.

There is something wrong with the install yes, and it has to be the config ImpEx uses the same mysql functions in PHP that vBulletin does, all I can think is a non standard port ?

[neomaven]

Never ever import into a live forum with out running a test first, so you will want a 3rd, being a copy of the source (the test target) , the 2nd being a copy of the origional pruned (now the source) and the origional live board left to run.

Ok, I will set those up. Note that I have not yet pruned anything yet. Could take some time, as my forum DB is very big.




There is something wrong with the install yes, and it has to be the config ImpEx uses the same mysql functions in PHP that vBulletin does, all I can think is a non standard port ?

Ok, so how do I uninstall/reinstall ImpEx?

[Jerry]

Use the forum manager and delete all the forums that you don't want.

I would run ImpEx standalone for a test import, just put it on the webserver in it's own dir and browse to it directly, after setting the different user/pass for the source and target.

[neomaven]

Ok, I have the test installs up and working like this:

Forum2: Source board. Removed all forums that I do not wish to import. Ran all of the tools in the Admin CP > Update Counters, mainly to remove orphan threads and remove orphan posts. I then removed all users that have postcount less than 1. All of this to minimize the amount of unnecessary data in the source database.


Forum3: Target test board. All set up with impex installed and configured to use forum2 as source database. I tried a couple test runs and have a few questions.

In the select sytem, I select: vBulletin Forum 2 Blog
In the swlect version and product to export to I select: vBulletin Blog 1.0

Correct?

Module 1 (Check and Update Database) runs fine.

Module 2 (Associate Users): What should I do in this users module? Since the source and target data is nearly identical (taken from the same database backup.sql file), all the users will have identical user info.

Module 3 (Import Blog User): Here I have two options for associating users. Do I need to set any of these to yes?

Module 4 (Import Blog Category): The source data is a forum, not a blog, and thus has no categories. What should I do in this module?

Module 5 (Import Blog): How will this work when source data is a forum?

Module 6 (Import Blog Text): I assume this converts post text => blog entry text?

Thanks for assistance.

[Jerry]

1 ok
2 nothing
3 assosiate by userid
4 just run it, it will import the exsisting forum(s)
5 as 4
6 as 5

You will need to restore the target database if you want to re-run it as a test.

[Jerry]

1 ok
2 nothing
3 assosiate by userid
4 just run it, it will import the exsisting forum(s)
5 as 4
6 as 5

You will need to restore the target database if you want to re-run it as a test.