Opentopic import...

[funkmiester]

Hi - I went through a test run to see what to expect with Impex and overall it was very successful.

The only 2 issues I see are:

1. Two forums have no posts in them (the forums themselves were created, but no posts inside - 'Never / 0 / 0' shown in the three columns)

2. From the main categories & forums page, when I click on a users name to get their profile info (underneath the topic name), out of about 10 users shown, I get the same user's profile approximately half the time, even though the link quite clearly shows a different user id number (&f=xx). If I'm actually reading a message inside a forum by one those effected users, and then click on their name, their profile is displayed correctly.....it just seems to be from the main forum page.

3. Messages that originally were made up of just 'html' code are showing as blank. I set the forums up where they live, so that 'html' was allowed.

In reference to No.1 - am I able to run the import process again to just bring across the 2 missing forums posts? Or is it an all or nothing deal?

Any ideas how to fix No.2 & 3?

Thanks.

[Steve Machol]

Did you update all the user, thread and forum counters?

[funkmiester]

Yes. Immediately after the import the main page showed 'Never/0/0' for all forums, after the counter updates, I was able to see the correct information, with the exception of the 2 forums. The source definitely has posts included in them. I thought perhaps it was because the forums were only displaying posts from the last 30 days, so I set them to show all threads, but still nothing.

I'm not clear why the user profiles are acting up on the main page only?

One other question - more for later on I think....the "Update Post Counts" section says, "....Do not run this if you have pruned posts, manually changed post counts, or imported from another forum package and you wish to maintain your users' current counts...." - what will happen if I ever need to run this with a mix of new VB registered members and imported members....will it effect my imported members post counts (reset them to '0' or some low number)?

[Steve Machol]

Updating the post counts will set the counts to the exact number of posts in the database. Unless you've manually edited post counts or made aq change to not substract deleted posts, this won't make any difference.

As for your other problems unfortunately I haven't a clue. You may need to wait until Jerry is online Monday. Meanwhile you can try filling out a support ticket but this may still need to be looked at by Jerry.

[funkmiester]

Ok, thanks for your help Steve. I ran the "Update Post Counts" without an issue.

I'm doing all this on my local machine, with the idea that I'll be able to backup and restore to the actual server when the time comes.

I just wanted to get over any issues and at least know what to do to fix them when I do the actual migration.

Hopefully Jerry will know what's up just by reading this thread

[funkmiester]

Is Jerry around? I just need some ideas about my question no.2 above in my original post? And also no.3, although is not as important.

Thanks.

[Jerry]

Is Jerry around? I just need some ideas about my question no.2 above in my original post? And also no.3, although is not as important.

Thanks.

Well I'm in the UK GMT, so there isn't going to be much chance of getting me at 7:30 am

Question 2 :

So the URL does actually have a diffrent id but goes to the same users profile ?

So either the profile is duplicated or the import has effected the id's that are linked to the threads, though if the number itself is diffrent I can't see how its that.

Are the profiles diffrent in the database for the range of id's that you checked ?

[funkmiester]

Just so I know....what does the "&f" represent?

The URL I'm seeing when hovering over the username (for example, JohnDoe) from the main categories & forums page is in this format:

/member.php?find=lastposter&f=19

and when I click on it, the next page shows me this in my browsers address bar:

/member.php?find=lastposter&f=19

BUT, it's not showing profile info for JohnDoe, but instead Mary Smith.

I can click on 1/2 a dozen different "&f=xx" links and it still takes me to Mary Smith's profile.

This only occurs from the main categories & forums page - if I'm reading a thread and I click any users profile, it displays the correct profile information.

And when reading a thread, the "u=xxx" link information, does match up to what is shown in the database.

As I mentioned I'm running this on my local machine, but in a 2 days, I plan on installing and importing on my webhosts space, so at that point I can give you a URL to look at this directly, as I assume I'll still have the same issue (but hopefully not)!

Hope that sheds some light, but if not, is there anything else you would need to help figure this out?

Thanks.

[Jerry]

/member.php?find=lastposter&f=19

&f=xx

Get the last poster in the forum where the forum id =19

------------

The rest of the info does point towards something messed with the updates or the post dates for a user being out of sync with the actuall post order etc.

Still investigating.

[funkmiester]

Ok, thanks Jerry for the info.

Just to clarify and to ensure we're on the same page - it's not every user profile that when clicked, displays the wrong profile info - it's somewhat random. So, for example, if there are 20 on the main categories & forums page, I would say 12 of them take you to the wrong users profile, with the remaining 8 taking you to the correct profile.

I'll wait to hear back from you, thanks for your assistance so far.

[Jerry]

Yea I'm fairly sure I know what you mean and what is going on. Its the diffrence between who actually posted last in a forum (i.e. as vBulletin will figure it out) and if the importer puts the wrong date info in for some posts.

The logic of vBulletin will be correct though it's doing it with incorrect information (bit like most things in the world !!).

So I've got to track down where the post date time is being parsed wrong etc.

I think

[funkmiester]

Do you think it's safe to go ahead with the Import on my "live" site and implement whatever fix you may come up with.....or should I wait because it may require some more drastic action?! I was planning on going "live" sometime on Sunday, but will hold off if you recommend to do so.

I only ask, as on the surface, it doesn't appear to be a show-stopper, but more of a nagging inconvenience and something that might confuse my community - I can live with that, if it's resolveable and without impact to anyother functionality.

Let me know, thanks.

[funkmiester]

I went ahead and did the import on my "live" site with the same results as mentioned above.

So, any update on this one?

[funkmiester]

Aside from the above, I also have a user whose username is blank on each of the imported pages! When he posts a new message or reply, his username does show up, but only on those threads. That issue is also effecting tying his imported posts to his id. You can see him in the member list, but on each of his posts where his username should be, it's just whitespace. When you click on "Find" for him, nothing is found, except his post-impex messages. The user is able to post etc, it just appears to effect his imported items. However, his post count is shown correctly.

That's what I've sound far, hopefully that's it. Overall the whole process has worked very well.

[Jerry]

Going to need to open a support ticket for this one as I'm going to need to check the postdate in the database vr the source data and also see what is getting parsed for the blank username.