Data formats?

[billmi]

I have a number of forums running on a modified version of WWWBoard. I've written my own user registration system, and have a number of other apps (calendar, auctions, classified ads, other types of databases) that all verify user identity by calling up a PERL subroutine that checks the registration database (which has some 30K users - I need to weed out dead accounts).

I'm just starting to write PERL to deal with MySQL databases, but so far it looks waaaaay faster and easier, and more eficient way than the flat file databases I'd writen from scratch for my apps.

Anyhow, since I'm really not going to hold my breath that Jelsoft will write an import utility for my proprietary data format, that leaves the conversion software writing up to me.

Is documentation on the data formats for the user database and the calendar readily available, or will I have to reverse engineer what all the flags mean to be able to write a converter program to put my users into vbulletin, and to write a new identity check subroutine that will let my other apps (like the auctions) check the vbulletin user database for authorization?

Also, a couple of questions about user registrations that I didn't see in a FAQ (could be there and I just missed it). Is there a feature to cull "dead" accounts that haven't been used in say, the last year, or to send out a "ping" e-mail telling the user that if they don't respond within 30 days (something akin to the activation e-mail) that their account will be removed? I've got this masive user base, but I know it's got a lot of dead accounts since they've been building since 1998.

Similarly in the admin demo, I saw the option to cull posts from an individual forum that are over X days old - I didn't see a way to cull posts from ALL forums that are over X days old (so in 3 years from now, I can just say BAM and dump everything over 2 years old without having to do it on a forum by forum basis).

Thanks,
-Bill

[Wayne Luke]

There is a complete database schema available to our customers for the development of their own custom scripts. The field's used are pretty straightforward so there is little guess work.

There currently is no protocol or method to cull inactive users built into the system.

There is a system to cull old posts. If you visit the Admin Demo again you will see a link on the left hand side called "Mass Prune" under "Threads and Posts". Here you can delete posts by date either in all forums or one single forum of your choice.

[tubedogg]

There currently is no protocol or method to cull inactive users built into the system.Actually :) There is - under Users there is a Move/Prune option. Using this you can mass-move users from group to group and/or mass-remove users based on your search specifications, with confirmation first of course.