Lack of interest Import: add a unique identifier per import

[Benjy]

Hi,

In order to run multiple imports, yet still keep track of which ID couples relate to which import, and instead of truncating the xf_import_log, I suggest adding a column which would uniquely identify each import.

Original thread: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/multiple-imports-question.11047/

 

[Kirby]

Although this thread is a bit old, the underlying issue still has not been solved:
When performing muliple imports in XF 1.5 the log table does get (optinally) archived and thus the mappings can be retained.

Unfortunately, the XF 1.5 import model uses a semi hard-coded value - either xf_import_log or the value of constant IMPORT_LOG_TABLE.

This does make it rather difficult to handle redirects for multiple imports.

As we haven't seen any XF2 code related to imports yet and thus didn't have a chance to give feedback, I would like to suggest that the approach does get changed to allow handling multiple mappings within one call - ideally there should be just one table with an auto-incrementing value for each import.
This is what we've done on numerous imports on vBulletin 4 for years and it has proven to work very well.

 

[MaGeFH]

I second this suggestion!

 

[Mike]

I'm pretty sure this suggestion predates the archiving system and the archiving system would effectively implement the suggestion.

Unfortunately, the XF 1.5 import model uses a semi hard-coded value - either xf_import_log or the value of constant IMPORT_LOG_TABLE.

This does make it rather difficult to handle redirects for multiple imports.

How exactly? By definition, your redirects will be at different locations (otherwise the URLs are ambiguous) and you would define the IMPORT_LOG_TABLE value as needed in each redirect (like you would need to define which import your redirects relate to).

I don't see much benefit (and disadvantages) of trying to conflate multiple import logs together.

 

[Kirby]

An example use case would be a PhotoPost vBGallery Import to XenForo Media Gallery:
PhotoPost vBGallery does have a "member category" feature, eg. a category with this setting enabled will generate virtual categories for each user that has uploaded photos to it.

The resulting URLs are like gallery/browseimages.php?c=<categoryid>&userid=<userid>

To redirect this URL I have to look up the XenForo User ID (import 1) and the XenForo Media Gallery Category ID (import 2), eg. I have to deal with 2 imports for this single URL which is currently a bit difficult due to the semi hard-coded table names.