Odd request regarding backup

[SonnetCelestial]

I know this is a really odd request but is it possible for someone to code a simple viewer to view the forum.txt backup in it's html lookalike form? I would probably need to prune the messages often so a separate site with a viewer for old files would be perfect for my needs..

BTW if this is easy to code please tell me so and if I get the vBulletin I may just try to do this myself. :) Thanks!

[werehere]

I am not sure I understand what you want?

[Martin]

The forum.txt file is delimited text and really only suitable for restoring a database, not for viewing as a web page.

[SonnetCelestial]

I understand this, however is there any way that this backup file be filtered via SQL or other means into a viewable web page?

I cannot keep a large database around for a very long time, and some day I will need to clean it out, and archive the old posts to keep the server running quickly and efficently. In other words, I want to be able to let people read old, expired posts that have been moved from the live database into either a separate database, or converted into html. I hope this makes more sense and I'm not asking too much. Please don't stress over this, I'm just eager to learn more about vBulletin.

[Martin]

one solution might be to move topics to a private forum prior to pruning, then saving the source code from each page and editing it in a WYSIWIG editor.
It would be a time consuming chore, but it could be done.

As far as running it all on a separate databe, that would require 2 copies of the proggie, which you sound as if you can't afford. To run it at 2 locations on 1 proggie would violate the license agreement...

[SonnetCelestial]

Oops forgot to say, that I don't mind whether or not it uses forum.txt...just as long as it can pull information into an archive (hopefully in HTML) and allow the information to simply be displayed on another computer.

Sorry if I seem to demand so much attention. Time is really running out and I need to know whether or not vBulletin is right for my site.

[SonnetCelestial]

lol...well I can definitely afford two scripts Martin but I cannot afford the dedicated server needed for both of them since in one month alone I could buy about 3 of these scripts.

All in all it's looking pretty bleak and though I really tried, EZBoard seems to be the only recourse for my site. I sincerely hope that is not the case since it was meant to look and feel somewhat professional.

[Martin]

These pages *can* be saved to your hard drive as they are. All you would have to do is use a program like Dreamweaver to go through and yank the few program calls out, then make it link to the next page, etc. Like I said, it would take a little time, but it's not a difficult thing to do.

Also, I didn't mean to be insulting in what I said, but I remember reading somewhere that you were doing all this on a limited income. I didn't mean to imply that you might be a welfare case ;)

[SonnetCelestial]

No harm done, I assure you! :) I will be getting a better job soon, and thus I won't be so anal about spenditure. But even then I would like to be 100% positive it could work with the server, otherwise I would have an unusuable script again.

I am a bit hesitant to do the editing, since it would become a monstrous job someday. I still have to understand the inner workings of vBulletin anyways and i feel I am missing a big chunk of information

[Edited by SonnetCelestial on 05-04-2000 at 01:54 PM]