Has anyone tried the new Xenforo 1.2 to Xenforo 1.2 importer in RC2?

[Lone Wolf]

I inherited responsibility for the vbulletin forum I am now converting. It has been through e107 to vb3 to vb4 and it took forever to clean up the left over files from years of additions and transitions. The database will probably never be clean until we move to Xenforo but I did my best until then. Between old plugins and 4400 PMs lost in the e107 to vB3 conversion it sure was a mess. I understand your pain.

This is exactly what I'm talking about.

Well not knowing their intentions its hard to say. But assuming the plugins don't modify any of the stock data fields such as an encrypted conversations plugin would. Its pretty easy to write a script to drop all tables and columns that don't exist in The stock install. Now this won't save any data you might want to keep from plugins still being used but the importer likely wouldn't either unless it was being hooked into.

As software becomes more lay person friendly, more and more Admins without technical knowledge are starting up sites. Most of them (like me) wouldn't have a clue about what you just said re: scripts that drop tables but they know how to transfer data to a clean install.

 

[rainmotorsports]

This is exactly what I'm talking about.

As software becomes more lay person friendly, more and more Admins without technical knowledge are starting up sites. Most of them (like me) wouldn't have a clue about what you just said re: scripts that drop tables but they know how to transfer data to a clean install.

That's understandable but at the same time I would recommend administrators pickup some basic knowledge on relational databases and SQL syntax. Often many simple but devastating problems that this knowledge will help you fix or know where to go when something happens. SQL errors will tell an experienced forum webmaster exactly what the problem is whether its a left over file trying to query a table that not longer exists or a column that's missing from a table but the data was not vital and a simple query to recreate will get it up and running again. But the big problems like a script turning your database into swiss cheese that knowledge won't help too much.

Different plugins add to the database differently. A plugin that manages existing data won't leave anything behind and when its removed the db is the same. A donation plugin will usually have its own tables and these if left behind can usually be dropped with no consequence. A plugin that adds a users xfire to their post bit usually adds a column to the users table and that can be dropped. But then there are other situations. A plugin that encrypts the conversation system for example will modify the data in the stock database. If this isn't uninstalled correctly clean import or not those conversations are lost or garbled. For the previous easy cases a quick look at a plugins install or uninstall SQL will tell you what's added and what to remove.

But thats all best case type stuff. If you didn't uninstall at all then you have problems right away with hooks/listeners Trying to call code that doesn't exist anymore. I haven't had much experience with Xenforo yet and I have only been at it with vbulletin for a year. While having a coding background and some basic knowledge in web development puts me a bit ahead of a laymen in reality I know very little.

Having a Xenforo to Xenforo importer is nice. But as for cleaning up an install it should be the last thing for most sites. Once you start using plugins that store data that you want to keep these are things that won't make it through these imports. The plugin either needs export import capability. Import from an existing database capability. Or you have to be able to get your hands dirty. Galleries, donations etc. When it comes to that data a Xenforo to Xenforo import is almost as hard as a vbulletin to Xenforo conversion.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

This is fantastic... and changes some of my possible plans on coming changes to my sites. Thank you for adding this, even if it is still in testing... it means a final product is closer than no product.

 

[Carlos]

*Prays* Please don't toy with my heart. This is exactly what I've been looking for!

I will even renew licenses faster you can say "1.2 Released!" I'll gleeeeeeefully grin and merge a site of mine into another. Things will come full circle!

Having a Xenforo to Xenforo importer is nice. But as for cleaning up an install it should be the last thing for most sites.

This "cleanup" you speak of is not really a problem. I imported a site that was originally on vB3, then upgraded to vB4 - and it had all of these plugins - such as media (videos), and a sort of downloads area. My xenForo was clear of these plugins and then some more.

Secondly, I've imported two like-minded softwares from one into the other before. In fact, I imported vB3 into vB3 - and one of those sites had a lot of plugins... the import cleaned up the "mess" of the plugins. So, uh... Not sure whatchoo mean.

xF to xF importer has a lot of uses. One of them is your type of "concern." The other use is for sites that have more than 1 instance of xenForo and have plans to consolidate one site into the other. I own 4+ licenses for my 4+ sites. One of my old sites was on xenForo and I wanted to merge it into the other.

 

[tyteen4a03]

xF to xF Importer is coming. It's just that the current code is incomplete.

 

[rainmotorsports]

This "cleanup" you speak of is not really a problem. I imported a site that was originally on vB3, then upgraded to vB4 - and it had all of these plugins - such as media (videos), and a sort of downloads area. My xenForo was clear of these plugins and then some more.

xF to xF importer has a lot of uses. One of them is your type of "concern."

I think you missed what was being said. When you import a another board into Xenforo there is nothing left of previous plugins. That was not at all a concern. That is in fact a solution to that sort of problem if you happen to be coming from an old messy site to Xenforo.

The concern is some people want to clean up an existing Xenforo site by using an Xf to Xf importer. The purpose of using Xf to Xf to combine 2 Xf sites is EXACTLY what I was saying it is the best target for. Using the Xf to Xf importer to clean up a single Xf install is something that is likely not high on most peoples list. It is a viable option for a site that runs no plugins with valuable data specific to the plugins as the Xf to Xf importer is not going to import this.

But hooray because 1.2 is out.

 

[lostincable]

I am wondering, when I setup my Xenforo install I did it without the innodb setup.

Rather than changing all my tables individually could I just create a new database with innodb setup and import from old to new?

 

[Anthony Parsons]

You would lose your existing thread id's I believe, thus all your Google results would be down the toilet.

 

[Jeremy]

You can choose to retain IDs on an import.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

That is nice...

 

[lostincable]

Interesting, so its sounds like it would work?

Anyone have another easier way to change everything over to Innodb?

 

[Paul B]

Doing an import just for that is overkill.

Just alter the table engine for each table.

 

[Anthony Parsons]

Just alter the table engine for each table.

That's what I did for mine... being a VB convert into the first XF release.