XF 1.5 How to test with vBulletin import for later final import?

[Peace]

I'm sure others have already figured this out, so I figured I'd ask here.

We have a pretty big vB4 forum and I need to work on a lot of mods / themes before we can go live with xF. It'll probably take 2-3 months to get everything built.

To build this stuff, I've imported our current vB4 setup into a test xF installation. This helps me see the forum structure, moderators, users, etc. as I develop our features.

The problem, of course, is that in 2-3 months, there will have been a hundred thousand new posts on the live forum, with new users and content, etc.

So my question is, when I'm done developing my xF test site, how can I nuke the old import (since I'll be writing tons of pointless test posts / likes / etc) and bring in a fresh import, while still maintaining my themes and mods?

Basically, keep the shell that I've built, but bring in the final, most recent database import before we go live.

I understand that some of my changes (for example, data fix to switch [mention] to [user]) will need to be run again after the final import, so I'm saving a list of the queries I'll need to run then.

Thanks!

 

[Paul B]

So my question is, when I'm done developing my xF test site, how can I nuke the old import (since I'll be writing tons of pointless test posts / likes / etc) and bring in a fresh import, while still maintaining my themes and mods?

This thread explains how to do that: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/importing-guidelines.25325/

 

[Peace]

This thread explains how to do that: https://xenforo.com/community/threads/importing-guidelines.25325/

Perfect, thanks!!