Where to download Impex text importer

[quantnet]

I saw many mentions about using text importer to import users from cvs, txt files but don't seem to find out where to download or how to use the text importer.

[Steve Machol]

You have posted this question in three separate threads. Please don't do that. I replied to you in one of those threads.

[XXP]

...where to download [the text importer]

It comes down with whole ImpEx package when you down load that. There is a "system" module in the "Systems" folder called "txt_file.php". That's it.


...how to use the text importer.

The "how-to" on this is pretty thin. To use the stock txt_file importer:

1. Prepare your text file for import.
   1. Your text data can only be 4 columns wide if you use the stock converter module.
      • The four columns may contain
        • "username" (required),
        • "email" (required),
        • "password" (optional, must be plain, unencrypted text. [Converter says it'll take MD5 encoded but it's arcane and too much hassle to try to use.])
        • "ID" (optional. If your old system uses a unique number to identify user records AND if you for some reason need to use that ID number in the new system then you can try to transfer it as "ID". Numerous arcane messages in the accompanying text make it seem like maybe it's better to avoid using "ID".)
   2. Do NOT tabs for delimiters. Do use either commas or vertical bars to delimit your data columns.
   3. Transfer the data file to your server and note the disk path to it.
2. Download and install ImpEx on your server as directed.
   • NOTE: only move the txt_file converter in the "Systems" folder. You don't need the others and they'll be confusing.
3. Go to the Admin Control Panel and find "Import" at the top of the left-hand column. Click on "Import" under "Import".
4. In the next window you will see the list of available systems for import. Should be only "txt_file" but in any case, select "txt_file" from the drop down menu at the top and click "Go".
   • (Do not click on the converter name in the bullet list, no matter how obvious and correct it seems, or you'll end up on a mysterious side trip to the vBulletin.com home page.)
5. In the next window you'll be shown the two main steps for doing the conversion with buttons to press for each. Click on the button for the first step.
   • Select your chosen delimiter from the list box.
   • Fill in the disk path to your data file and click the "Go".
   • You should see a list of checks that have been run againsta your data file -- all hopefully ending in "OK, including the last one with a big green "OK". Cool. If not all OK, you'll need to fiddle your data file until you get OKs.
6. Go back to the window with the two main steps and execute step 2 to actually do the data import.
   • In this one you match your incoming data columns to the data fields you wish to fill in the vB user database. You select one of the four choices noted above or "None".
   • You can tell the converter how many rows of your data to do in a group before taking a brief timeout (to give the server a short breather. Nice idea.) The default is 500 and is probably fine.
7. Click the "Go" button and watch it go.
8. Check your data.
   • NOTE: imported users will all be considered "permanently banned" by default. Don't log on as one of them or you'll blow your Admin session away and you'll get banned to boot. Ack!
   • Just go into the user list and check to see if they all look good.
   • If you want to bring them all in as "Registered" uesrs, simply delete the temporary imported users group. All of the imported users will be automatically moved to "Registered". Cool.
9. AFTER YOU HAVE CONVERTED YOUR USERS TO REGISTERED: go back to the ImpEx page in the vB options and select the clean-up link at the top of the page. Follow the instructions to clean out most of the import artifacts from your database. (A few are left, but they seem harmless.)
10. Remove the ImpEx software from your server.

All done. Invite the new users and fix up some pop corn.

[brihan]

Thank you for the explanation. Perhaps I could get a little more assistance from anyone.

I made it this far and now I'm having trouble:

In the next window you'll be shown the two main steps for doing the conversion with buttons to press for each. Click on the button for the first step.

• Select your chosen delimiter from the list box.
• Fill in the disk path to your data file and click the "Go".

There is not a "Select your chosen delimiter from the list box"

So I go ahead anyway, enter the file path (it's in my root) "/public_ html/userstest2.txt"

When it processes everything is marked "OK" except the last one:
"public_html/userstest2.txt - NOT OK"

I've tried both comma and pipe delimited and I've tried the file path in many different was all with the same result.

I don't know if it is telling me that the text file is bad (only one line in it with name,email,password) or the path is wrong.

Now that I read this I come back to "why don't I have a choice for what type of delimited file I have?" Has this option been removed or an I missing it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Brian

[brihan]

My path was not correct

public_html/userstest2.txt

Once I figured it out it worked fine.

[XXP]

Swell. Thanks.