Update a trial site.

[Robert F Schmitz]

Hi, I have installed my new license of xf and imported my vb site. When I am ready to make the switch from the vb site to the xf site, can I just re-import or do I need to do a fresh install and then import?

How is the best way to handle redirecting in regards to the search engines?

 

[Floris]

If you import now and then in a month you move the xf data to the live site
then obviously any new content on the vb site (members, posts, etc) won't be in the live site.

 

[Tigratrus]

Floris, I think he knows that. I think you're misreading his question.

The way I read it:

Assume XF is installed on the live site already, he wants to know if he can simply re-run the import to pickup the content that has changed since the initial import, or if he should start with an empty XF DB and run the entire import in one shot.

Can you just re-run the import to pickup any new content/users? I know the import is quite fault tolerant and will simply pick up where it left off if it's interrupted. But after you've gone all the way through and completed the import I don't know if it can do what amounts to a differential import or not. It's an interesting question...

My gut reaction would be to play it safe and do the full import into an empty XF DB, but if Mike says a differential import would work it would save large sites a lot of time.

Best way to handle the redirects is to Use Kier's redirect script http://xenforo.com/community/threads/redirection-scripts-for-vbulletin-3-x.5030/

and if you're using VBSEO look at Shadab's super helpful .htaccess redir line generator: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/redirection-scripts-for-vbulletin-3-x.5030/

Hope that helps Rob?

 

[Jake Bunce]

I recommend installing another copy of xenForo and running the import again from scratch. Use the test forum as a point of reference when doing your final import, as opposed to building onto your test forum and taking it live.

It is better to do the final import from scratch. The test forum won't contain new content that was added to your live forum since you ran the initial import, and there is no option to pull in only the new content. So you would have to run the entire import again and deal with duplicate content from the initial import.

 

[Paul B]

Can you just re-run the import to pickup any new content/users? I know the import is quite fault tolerant and will simply pick up where it left off if it's interrupted. But after you've gone all the way through and completed the import I don't know if it can do what amounts to a differential import or not. It's an interesting question...

My gut reaction would be to play it safe and do the full import into an empty XF DB, but if Mike says a differential import would work it would save large sites a lot of time.

As Jake posted above, the import process can't import new data only on top of an existing import.

Jake's advice is sound which is to do a few test imports to understand the process and iron out any kinks and then do it for real on the live forum.

There's nothing to stop you configuring the forum in advance in terms of styling, usergrouops, even nodes - which is what I did.

 

[Tigratrus]

As Jake posted above, the import process can't import new data only on top of an existing import.

Jake's advice is sound which is to do a few test imports to understand the process and iron out any kinks and then do it for real on the live forum.

There's nothing to stop you configuring the forum in advance in terms of styling, usergrouops, even nodes - which is what I did.

::nods::

That's exactly what we've been doing. I've now run through the entire process starting with a fresh copy of our live site and migrating the vB DB into XF. We're now working on the testbed on building out the XF style/pages etc to be what we want them to be when we go live.

:auses::

Actually that raises a good point. Is there a good way to migrate created pages from one install to another? I'm guessing you can't just copy over xf_page as there would links to xf_node, xf_node_type etc?

I should probably start a separate thread on that topic so others can find it...

 

[Paul B]

I'm guessing you can't just copy over xf_page as there would links to xf_node, xf_node_type etc?

Exactly.

About all you can do is copy the whole DB or just the page template content.

 

[Jake Bunce]

Actually that raises a good point. Is there a good way to migrate created pages from one install to another? I'm guessing you can't just copy over xf_page as there would links to xf_node, xf_node_type etc?

Copying individual tables bad.

You should recreate the pages in your Admin CP.

 

[Edrondol]

Don't forget, if you do more than 1 import of the vB data it will double your post counts/likes/trophy points.

 

[Tigratrus]

Copying individual tables bad.

Heh.

And the concomitant: "Backups good!"

I was just looking at the table structure in the DB and it confirmed what I was pretty sure to be the case.

:: shrug ::

Well, nobody said all parts of a migration would be as easy as the forum data migration itself, the migration script just spoiled me for a bit . So much for shortcuts.

Exactly.

About all you can do is copy the whole DB or just the page template content.

:: nods ::
That's kinda what i expected, we're not talking hundreds of Pages, so it's not that big a deal. Nothing like all the template resolutions we used to have to do on a 3.x upgrade before plugins made most of the mods so much less template edit intensive.
Thanks to both of you. I think I might borrow Brogan's method and simply make a text file with all the template edits and pages in it separated by comments, then just rip through making the changes on the final install on the live server after the database is imported. My last script (text script for me to follow, not a computer script) like that was for upgrading from 3.5 -> 3.7 vB, reorganizing the entire forum structure and rolling out Joomla! as the homepage and site infrastructure. This should be fairly minor by comparison .