XF 1.5 Importing now some old threads from vb after my first import years ago?

[snoopy5]

Hi,

I switched from vb 3.8x to XF a couple of years ago. From 10xvb forums into one XF forum. Accidentely I deleted at that time a specific subforum in each of the 10 vb forums after the import into XF. I was too lazy to fix that at that time.

Now, years later, I would love to import these missing subforums with content and images into the current XF forum.

I still have the mysql databases of all vb forums. But I do not have anymore their old domainname.

Is there any way to import these missing threads into the XF forum without damaging the XF database? I made the import always with the archives import scripts.

Is this possible and if yes, how shall I do this?

Thanks

 

[Paul B]

You can import without having the forum installed, you just need the database.

However, it isn't possible to import a subset of threads, or particular forums only.

You would need to delete the forums/threads in the source database (which would require a viable forum to do so) before running the import.

 

[snoopy5]

You can import without having the forum installed, you just need the database.

However, it isn't possible to import a subset of threads, or particular forums only.

You would need to delete the forums/threads in the source database (which would require a viable forum to do so) before running the import.

o.k., let's assume I get the old vb forums running with a new domain name which is not related to the original domainanme of the vb forums.

If I then delete all subforums of i.e. vb1 except the one subforum that I still need to import, can I then just run the importscript to get this subforum into XF as usual or do I have to pay attention to specific things?

 

[Paul B]

Yes, you could do that but bear in mind the pre-requisite steps, one of which would be members.
So any duplicate member accounts would have to be dealt with during the import (such as merging).

 

[snoopy5]

Yes, you could do that but bear in mind the pre-requisite steps, one of which would be members.
So any duplicate member accounts would have to be dealt with during the import (such as merging).

Is there a possibility to just rename all users of the vb import "guest"? I do not need really the original usernames. Only threads, postings and images.

 

[borbole]

Is there a possibility to just rename all users of the vb import "guest"? I do not need really the original usernames. Only threads, postings and images.

Is this on a fresh import? What you can do is delete all users in the vb forum and then do the import. Or you can delete them after you import to xenforo and run this query:

UPDATE `xf_user` SET username = 'guest';

But make first a backup of your db for just in case.

 

[snoopy5]

o.k. I decided to import all vb forums into a fresh and empty test XF forum. After finishing this I will delete all forums within XF which I do not need and will then try to import the XF test forum into the real XF forum. Will this work or did I miss here something?

I also realized that I switched in the last year of my vb forums some of my vb forums do save the attachements to the file system instead of the db. Now when I do the import, it ask me:

"Attachments or avatars are being stored in the file system. Please confirm the path to these."

Unfortunately I do not have these attachements as files anymore.

Now my question is: Since I saved before the swith to the file system the attachements in the db, is it possible to change something in the db so XF will take during the import the old attachements from the vb db instead of the file location? If yes, how do I do this?

Thanks

 

[Paul B]

o.k. I decided to import all vb forums into a fresh and empty test XF forum. After finishing this I will delete all forums within XF which I do not need and will then try to import the XF test forum into the real XF forum. Will this work or did I miss here something?

That should work.

Since I saved before the swith to the file system the attachements in the db, is it possible to change something in the db so XF will take during the import the old attachements from the vb db instead of the file location? If yes, how do I do this?

I wouldn't know how to change that in VB - you would have to ask VB support.

 

[snoopy5]

....
I wouldn't know how to change that in VB - you would have to ask VB support.

But how does the import script know where to look for the files?

I have vb forums, with which the import script does not ask for ocations. It just takes it out of the db. And now with this vb forum, it asks for the location of the images.

So there must be a point within the import script, which decides where to look. I need to know how to change the import script, so that it alwas looks only in the db for the attachments, no matter what the settings of the vb forum is...

 

[Mike]

It's down to how you had vB configured. If the attachments were files, we detect that and ask for the location. In this case, the data is not in the database.

 

[snoopy5]

It's down to how you had vB configured. If the attachments were files, we detect that and ask for the location. In this case, the data is not in the database.

Do you mean with this that once I decided in the vb forum to switch from db to external files, vb exported the attachments out of the db into the new file location and therefore the vb-db is empty in that table?

 

[Paul B]

I'm not familiar with VB but I would expect that to be the case.

 

[snoopy5]

I'm not familiar with VB but I would expect that to be the case.

That would be a pitty....

I was almost ready totry to reinstall a fresh vb forum, change afterwards the db name to the other real vb-one and then switch back from external attachements to the internal db-storage. But if no old atttachemenst from the time before the external switch are left there, it does not make sense to try that...

 

[snoopy5]

I have found an old back-up, but can not find the directory where the attachemenst are stored by default from vb (if not in the db). Does anybody knows this by accident?

 

[borbole]

I have found an old back-up, but can not find the directory where the attachemenst are stored by default from vb (if not in the db). Does anybody knows this by accident?

If my memory serves me correct, if you move the attachments out of the database and into the filesystem, then you must create the folder yourself and enter the path at the Acp. As bu default no folder for that will be created automatically.