XF 2.2 Cloning a Xenforo install without threads/posts

[arn]

I find the size of our database to be cumbersome in making a development/staging site. It's a bit of a pain, and takes up a lot of room on our development server. To the point where we can't easily have multiple installs to do testing on different things.

We already don't copy attachments/avatars, which helps, but I'd like to be able to import a copy of our forums but with no threads/posts, or an abbreviated set of threads/posts.

Is this possible using some procedure? I figure if I start dropping posts/threads indiscriminately, it's going to break things.

Edit: I suppose I could batch delete threads on the dev install and clone that one. I'm not sure how long that will take, but I suppose that's an option.

 

[Paul B]

Deleting the content before or after importing is really the only way to do it.

I would probably import the backed up DB and then just prune, using the batch tools as you suggest.

 

[briansol]

you can limit within the dump command.

perhaps, take the first 10 rows of posts/users/etc. you may have some 'dead' things (ie, if user 11+ posted in the first 10 threads) but assuming you had more threads than users in the first few days, it may work.

mysqldump --opt --where="1 limit 10" database table > dump.sql

 

[Paul B]

A partial dataset like that would cause problems due to orphaned data, missing records, etc. and I would advise against it.

 

[arn]

you can limit within the dump command.

perhaps, take the first 10 rows of posts/users/etc. you may have some 'dead' things (ie, if user 11+ posted in the first 10 threads) but assuming you had more threads than users in the first few days, it may work.

mysqldump --opt --where="1 limit 10" database table > dump.sql

Thanks! This led me down this path which seemed to work. I got a functional site. I'm sure some things might break if you dig deep, but for theme adjustments and certain add-on testing, I think this will work fine.

My MySQL dump went from 35GB to 4GB using this sequence:

mysqldump --no-data DATABASENAME > dump.xf.sql
mysqldump --no-create-info DATABASENAME --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_post --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_thread --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_andy_history --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_andy_search_log --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_attachment_data --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_attachment --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_change_log --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_conversation_message --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_conversation_master --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_conversation_recipient --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_conversation_user --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_edit_history --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_ip --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_moderator_log --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_ozzmodz_spaminator_log --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_search  --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_import_log --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_es_thread_similar --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_user_alert --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_thread_watch --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_image_proxy --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_change_log --ignore-table=DATABASENAME.xf_mail_queue >> dump.xf.sql
mysqldump --no-create-info --opt --where="post_date>1602610176" DATABASENAME xf_thread >> dump.xf.sql
mysqldump --no-create-info --opt --where="post_date>1602610176" DATABASENAME xf_post >> dump.xf.sql

1st command dumps schema
2nd dumps data except for these tables. Some are add-on specific, but I looked at the largest tables that I didn't think were needed
3rd dumps threads newer than 1 year ago
4th dumps posts newer than 1 year ago