Yahoo! Text - Doc needed

[dc3dreamer]

I want to import messages from my existing Yahoo! group into an archive forum. I do have an RFC-822/Unix style email archive going back a year (it's in my Thunderbird mail folder). I don't think I want to import users. I'd rather have my users re-register on my VB system.

Anyway, I can't find any info in the VB help or online VB manual about the Yahoo! ImpEx module (Tier 1 or 2). I've also searched this forum for Yahoo and found only unanswered messages from a couple of others requesting help/info.

What does the Yahoo module do? What does it require? Will it create threads based on Message-ID: and In-Reply-To:? Can it read from a Mozilla/Thunderbird email folder file? Are you forced to run the users import module before importing messages?

Is there any documentation available? I don't want to scorch my database.

-- Bob

[Guest]

Currently there is no importer for Yahoo Groups. You should post a request for one in this thread:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=100464

Also you should do imports on a test database first, this will avoid any errors that might break your database.

[Peter Walker]

Hi Brad,
there is an importer for Yahoogroups in the latest version of Impex. The only problem is that the process has not been fully documented and there are no descriptions available on how to use it.

I am hoping Jerry will explain the entire process for us.

Regards

Peter

[dc3dreamer]

http://solo.dc3.com/forumimg/yimp.png

This is the importer I am talking about. It appears to be for Yahoo! Groups. Hmm, this apppeared as a real image in my Advanced editor, but apppears as a link now? Is this a setting that VBulletin.com made?

...You should do imports on a test database first, this will avoid any errors that might break your database.

Assuming I can figure out how to copy databases, how do I switch databases? Mine is running on a remote server. And would I have to take the real forum offline?

[Guest]

I was not aware of that importer, please excuse my misteak

As for copying a database, if the database you are working with is small you can use this method:

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/maintenance_backup

Otherwise you should back-up with SSH, this method is explained here:

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/moving_servers_backup

Once you have a back-up of the database you can restore it anywhere you'd like, personally I do this on my local machine as I find it a little quicker to work with begin on dial-up. Doing it on a local machine will require that you have a webserver installed with php/mySQL support.


If you would like to do this on your webserver upload the vBulletin php files to a directory named /vbtest/ (lock this directory down with .htaccess so the public can't access it). Restore the database back-up you made to a new database then point the config.php file to your newly created 'test' database.

This will give you a working copy of vBulletin to test imports on, if you need any help doing any of the things I've said then just let me know and I'll try to go into more detail.

[dc3dreamer]

Brad --

OK, that helps wiith a testing strategy. I appreciate the info. I'm not going to be able to devote time to this now for a few days, as the tech support queue for my astronomy software products has gotten "big". I should be able to return to it in a few days. Hopefully by then we'll have documentation on the Yahoo importer.

[Jerry]

The importer asks for the mail file and attempts to parse the messages and users from there.

Though I would wait until I can work with Peter Walker with the access version as that will be much more robust and efficent :

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1000163&postcount=8

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=121487

[Peter Walker]

Hi Jerry,
glad to hear you can help and I appreciate it.

I have uploaded a copy of the Access database generated by pgofflist and containing the messages and usernames from my Yahoogroup. I will send you a PM telling you where you can download it.

Regards

Peter

[dc3dreamer]

Brad --

I do need help. My VB is on a remote system with no SSH/telnet access. I do have phpMyAdmin. But I for the life of me can't import a saved sql file into a fresh database, all phpMyAdmin gives me is "No SQL query!" I've tried gz and plain text, exports from the VBAdmin Maintenance page as well as exports with a variety of option settings from the phpMyAdmin exporter. None are accepted into the phpMyAdmin importer. I checked the SQL and it doesn't have stuff like CREATE DATABASE or USE xxx with my live database name in it... But it suuuuure looks like SQL DML to me.

Do you maybe have some advice? I'd hate to think I couldn't restore my database if something went wrong! It's a good thing I'm going through this exercise now :-)

-- Bob

[Steve Machol]

You can try this:

Backup with phpMyAdmin:

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/maintenance_phpmyadmin_backup

Restore with phpMyAdmin:

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/main/maintenance_phpmyadmin_restore

[dc3dreamer]

Thanks! Sorry I didn't read the docs!!!!!

[dc3dreamer]

Dang it! Their phpMyAdmin upload/restore service is limited to 2MB, and my backup is about 5MB. I'll have to get with them and find out what I can do... I was on the right track (but didn't have the DROP TABLE option set), but failed to see that fine print.

Thanks again for the help.

[dc3dreamer]

OK, here's the trick: Instead of using phpMyAdmin, which is subject to timeouts, etc., youo need to use MySQL Administrator, which runs locally on your system and connects directly to the database.

http://www.mysql.com/products/tools/administrator/

There are Linux, Windows, and Mac versions. Install this thang, fire 'er up, and you're all set. What a great tool! Take the defaults when doing a backup, then RTFM for restore to a database other than the one you backed up.

-- Bob

[dc3dreamer]

OK, doing Yahoo-Text import -- I am stuck on step 3: It appears to have passed Step 1 (all ok including my users and DB files) and Step 2 (users got imported). But Step 3 yields:

30.43% :: Default Yahoo Category
Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in /hsphere/local/home/rdenny/forums.dc3-dl.com/test/impex/systems/yahoogroups_text/003.php on line 136

and I cannot use the Importer any more. All attempts to do database cleanup, etc, result in the above message no matter what I do. I had to restore my database from my pre-ImpEx backup in order to get to the Import panel.

Is it possible that this line of code

$try = (phpversion() < '5' ? $user_object : clone($forum_object));

should be

$try = (phpversion() < '5' ? $forum_object : clone($forum_object));

?? I believe my php is < 5.

LATER EDIT: Yes the above seems to have fixed that problem. Step 3 succeeds and leaves the database OK. But now Step 4 isn't importing anything... probably a difference in "unix" mail file formats :-)

[Jerry]

This is why this importer is being discontinued.