Moving the Board?

[JGZinv]

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• Post n°1

Moving the Board?

 by JGZinv 4/11/2010, 10:15 pm

Well got some stuff to cover... so I 'm just going to spill the beans.

DualFans is looking to possibly restart itself. Kazuki our old admin has offered to
establish a new forum... phpBB as part of the site.

I've already sold him on the idea of bringing the Dual, Tenchi, Abh, and related fandoms together at one board if at all possible to encourage growth and stability.

Right now, it's not even fully active yet. But I'd like to look at the idea of establishing
sections for each fandom possibly, with their own themes and colors.

Ultimately it's up to the people here. If you don't want to move, then here will stay right
where it is. I just think it may be a an opportunity to get more traffic, we'd have a far more
flexible forum underneath us. I haven't been able to fix a lot of the stuff around here simply for
that reason alone.

What say ye?

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[tanis1lionheart]

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• Post n°2

Re: Moving the Board?

 by tanis1lionheart 4/12/2010, 2:06 am

I think it's a good idea.

Maybe going to a vbulletin or at the very least having rotating/section specific themes would be rather cool.

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[Almael]

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• Post n°3

Re: Moving the Board?

 by Almael 4/12/2010, 6:52 am

It's sad not to have our own site but I don't mind to join our Dual or Tenchi comrades.
We can have traffic with each other anyway, hence, boosting each others section's traffic.

The only problem is the need to move all the posts, and accounts.
We will move them, right? Right?
*hightlighted by search lights JGZin leans for dear life against the wall in front of the cruel Abh mob*

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• Post n°4

Re: Moving the Board?

 by JGZinv 4/12/2010, 12:58 pm

Not sure how well you guys know forum workings, but here's how it goes far as I know... and really
besides the ones I'm admin on already - I'm kinda out of date.

Moving a board requires you to have a copy of the database. Essentially that contains all the data that composes not only the posts but the board structure. IE divisions of sections and categories.

Unless you're doing a 1 to 1 transfer between same versions and on the same forum software, you need a converter of some kind... or in some cases do it all by hand.

Right now - the temp board is a phpBB3, which is at least current, there's no ads, and we can operate it without restrictions. phpBB has been around ages, so it's got a lot of support.

Now with all that said, I'd like to think there will be a converter out on the web for what we need, but I don't want to get hopes up. Right now I really need to find out if I can even get a copy of the database here since the backup system is controlled by the host.

This wasn't really planned, it's all just kinda resulted over the course of a night of IM'ing.
That said I did contact my Tenchi forum admins, and they are pretty much ready to move too.
One wanted to transfer posts, but that's much more likely since it's a old Invision Power Board rather
than this.

There's where we stand right now.

Once I can do some research - I'll be able to say more.

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• Post n°5

Re: Moving the Board?

 by JGZinv 4/12/2010, 4:18 pm

Ok here's what I know after some reading.

Forumotion (host) basically claims they own every post on every forum, and people
that want a copy of the database can go fly a kite.

That said, a rather nice person created a crawler that'll copy the data from the board and
rip us a database. To do this, I'd have to set the board over to phpBB mode, which it's in Invision
right now.

Merging is probably going to be the worst issue, since we're talking about 3 different boards.
Each one having it's own users, topics, polls, posts, structure, and add-ins.

Right now my worst issue is probably that I have no experience with php, mysql, apache, and python, which are all used at one point or another. I may know a couple people that might be able to help though.

Essentially, even if I started right now, it's going to be a long tedious project. So we'll see what goes after I have some other things setup.

At least in short we can get our posts off the board.

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[Almael]

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• Post n°6

Re: Moving the Board?

 by Almael 4/12/2010, 4:29 pm

Yeah, we need to transfer the database, but the problem lies in the structure...
I have onnly managed some forums before like 6+ years ago and haven't done a move yet.
So, I dunno if it's possible, but if we can devide the subboards it would be more convenient to put them into a new structure.
If worse come to worse we will have to copy paste post it all... *shudders*

As to the different stuff used we will have to see after the DB is done. Most should have similar case for conversion which we can use for batch ... (smart) changes.
I will look around/educate myself, too.

This wasn't really planned, it's all just kinda resulted over the course of a night of IM'ing.

A one-night stand in which you wake up the next morning and are ... married!
*out of nowhere a rope comes down before JGZin*

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• Post n°7

Re: Moving the Board?

 by JGZinv 4/12/2010, 4:52 pm

Actually, long as I had a job to take care of things... I don't think that'd be too bad.
I'm rather pro-marriage myself.

If you can help out or guide me somewhat that'd be a huge help.

Here's what I've got in the way of resources right now:

Forumotion converter:
http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=861505

Merging boards:
http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=1917165&p=11592515&hilit=merging+databases#p11592515

Converters:
http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=1641375

http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=1213555

http://sourceforge.net/projects/rafphpbb/files/

I do hear reports that the IPB1.x to phpBB2 converter was better than the 1.x to phpBB3 converter... but a lot of the information is so old.. I don't know what to trust.


So in our case here:

Convert forum > Forumotion ripper > phpBB3 database cleanup > merge phpBB3 databases > cleanup

Other forums:

Buy database copy > 1.3 IPB to phpBB3 converter > phpBB3 database cleanup > merge phpBB3 databases > cleanup > repeat

or

Buy database copy > 1.3 IPB to phpBB2 converter > cleanup > phpBB2 to 3 converter > phpBB3 database
cleanup > merge phpBB3 databases > cleanup > repeat

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[Almael]

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• Post n°8

Re: Moving the Board?

 by Almael 4/12/2010, 5:54 pm

I can't find better info either, but from what I read it seems most people do convert to phpbb2 first and then to 3. I see no reason as to why.

someone posted a converter here
http://phpbbacademy.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=2031&view=previous

problems others encountered, dunno if you need the info but just in case (couldn't find more or better anyway)
http://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1027545
http://www.allquests.com/question/2232213/IPB233-to-phpbb2023.html

no luck yet as to deviding, separating structures...

Edit:
links/info to possible tools, need searching those linked sites
http://forums.aspfree.com/asp-free-lounge-32/forums-database-structure-93061.html
useless after all

Edit:
merging phpbb
http://startrekguide.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=143

phpbb support/management tool
http://eming.com/en/phpbb-released-support-toolkit-1-0-0/ with 2nd login feature

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• Post n°9

Re: Moving the Board?

 by JGZinv 4/12/2010, 6:35 pm

Problem is we're talking about IPB 1.3 boards.

Reason for the 2 to 3 conversion as previously there hasn't been a decent 1.3 to phpbb3 converter
that worked halfway right. So many people tend to go the longer route as it converts more sections properly.

Good find on the phpBB2 database merger script though. That may come in handy.

I'm not sure I'll have access to the hosting panel. Anything you can tell me about
how to get setup to run everything locally so I can test the databases and merge them, just hand the guy the finished product after I've worked on it - so he can load the forum database?

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• Post n°10

Re: Moving the Board?

 by tanis1lionheart 4/12/2010, 10:49 pm

Wow, this stuff is a lot more complex than I thought.

I figured all you really had to do was copy the databases and pray it works...

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• Post n°11

Re: Moving the Board?

 by JGZinv 4/12/2010, 11:02 pm

Nah it's all code - and hoping someone else was educated enough to write it correctly.

Even at the most basic level, think about the fact every post has a number associated with it, a user, and a topic location. What happens when you merge two databases of posts, and they both use numbers 1 through 5285 for example? You have to renumber it all, convert users, restructure everything.

Building a bridge to an island is probably less complicated.

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[Almael]

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• Post n°12

Re: Moving the Board?

 by Almael 4/13/2010, 7:40 am

Well, it's lots of management/organization work which is beyond a human's lifetime to do.

-----------------------------------------------
Here are a good walkthroughs how to set things up.
http://www.funzt.info/?p=102
We may need to customize certain points(Linux)...but thankfully most tools are free
Good advices and further links
http://www.frihost.com/forums/vt-19541.html
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2005/10/18/install-phpbb-2-in-windows-xp-running-on-apache-2-php-5-and-mysql-4/
in-depth phpbb install guide
http://www.phpbb.com/support/documents.php?mode=install

basicly we need to install a server locally and then the databases ( each one it's own subfolder in the same 'upper' folder)
collected all the needed software links; for others read above 2nd links:
http://httpd.apache.org/
http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi
http://packages.debian.org/sid/libapache2-mod-php5 for windows it seems we have to rely on apache: http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html for the rest
http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/
http://www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/index.php
www.phpmyadmin.net/home_page/downloads.php
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Rc.conf for windows...

There is bound to be trouble with all this, but using apache seems to be the best as it has lots of support and is very well documented. Also there are all possible tools are available for it.
So, the question is: is apache compatible with the new site?

In any case, the plan is to install it all then test the databases we got before merging in case they are not complete or faulty. Then merge in pairs and test. Test of the complete merged DBs. From here we could attempt restructuring. I still have not found any good info or anyone having done this. :/ Final test of the DB.

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• Post n°13

Re: Moving the Board?

 by tanis1lionheart 4/13/2010, 9:17 am

Maybe it'd be best if you just tried and move the profiles and create sticky topics in the specific sections that are most popular from each forum.

That's a sort of compromise, yes-no-maybe so?

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• Post n°14

Re: Moving the Board?

 by JGZinv 4/13/2010, 1:34 pm

Member profiles are their own database - technically the "database" is made up of like 10 smaller files that are each databases themselves.

So we're kind of at a point where it's all or nothing - but we're not sure about the quality of what we'll end up with.


Al - I have enough computers laying around that I can setup a dedicated box for this.
TBH I haven't read through your last set of links, but I tried something long ago with setting up Python, apache and mysql and was lost then... so hopefully, either I can get some coder help somewhere or find the complete idiots guide. I've got an older php/sql/apache book actually... but I think it was written in alien.

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• Post n°15

Re: Moving the Board?

 by Almael 4/13/2010, 3:19 pm

Yeah, the DB is divided into item classes so to say. Each with it's own format, but that's nromal in the computer world...

The problem with member data is actually the members themselves eg their access to the new site. Inactive members might want to have a new nick....maybe not that a problem if they abandon their old ones, but having several accounts is.

Al - I have enough computers laying around that I can setup a dedicated box for this.

Good, I would be troubled right now. *sigh*

Before we start we should agree on the server system. What do the other admins say?
I can't exactly guide you but I should be able to get the gits. We only need it running.
I will try to get the books.

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• Post n°16

Re: Moving the Board?

 by JGZinv 4/13/2010, 3:31 pm

Member wise, there's only a couple instances of duplicate names across all three boards.
Myself, MitsukiLover, one of the Tenchi admins... probably under 10 tops.

Ultimately I've seen that polls, avatars, and passwords were typically what were lost when converting/merging.
To me if that's all we lose... not a big deal at all. Just means the first week or two will need attention by the admins to get people settled in.

As to what it's running on - no idea.
Kazuki (DualFans admin) is providing the hosting - which is using this service:
http://www.web.com.ph/

All I know is they are using cPanel - I don't have access to the hosting level.
Kaz should be getting me admin permissions at the new phpBB though in a day or two.
Kaz has some experience with setting up forums, but the last time he did something was 2002-ish.
He's also not online all the time like I am.

This is why I'd prefer to handle the backups and merging, and just provide him with a single database
that he can load up to the forum. Overall it should be a faster plan, and less confusing at least for him.

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[Almael]

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• Post n°17

Re: Moving the Board?

 by Almael 4/13/2010, 3:55 pm

The philippines....I hope we won't regret this, but I do thrust Kaz.

According to www.cpanel.net cpanel it seems to be a Linux system. Can't confirm compatibility, so I guess we have to ask or rely on faith. Let's not rush.

Last edited by Almael on 4/13/2010, 5:04 pm; edited 1 time in total

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• Post n°18

Re: Moving the Board?

 by JGZinv 4/13/2010, 4:03 pm

Do note my Kazuki is not the same as the Abh Nation member Kazuki.
I'm not real fond of the location either, but no matter where we go, everything still
needs to be done.

I've got some hosting as well, but I don't want to mix business and hobbies.
Granted we've got a domain for dualfans, but eh... I'm just not sure.

Last edited by JGZinv on 4/13/2010, 5:59 pm; edited 1 time in total

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[Almael]

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• Post n°19

Re: Moving the Board?

 by Almael 4/13/2010, 5:01 pm

Oops, ok I take that part back.

Well, I'm only worried because it's within range of the chinese octopus. Just a day and a half agao they hijacked us, japanese and whatnot ISP ids by 'accident'.

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• Post n°20

Re: Moving the Board?

 by JGZinv 4/13/2010, 6:00 pm

I'm more concerned that Kazuki won't always be reachable.
But he's on some forum of DSL now... so maybe things have changed.

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• Post n°21

Re: Moving the Board?

 by JGZinv 4/14/2010, 1:21 pm

I'm backing up the pc I'll use for all this mess... will still have to wipe it and reinstall everything useful.
I'm looking at probably late on the 16th before it's operational for what we need to do.

Then comes the mess of how to do it.

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• Post n°22

Re: Moving the Board?

 by Almael 4/14/2010, 1:43 pm

That'sreally soon, but yeah better back up everything. Burn yourself those system restores also. May not help much when you really need it but you can't dismiss the chance.

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• Post n°23

Re: Moving the Board?

 by tanis1lionheart 4/14/2010, 2:35 pm

Wow....talk about over my power level.

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• Post n°24

Re: Moving the Board?

 by JGZinv 4/14/2010, 2:43 pm

It's over 9000!!!!!!!!

*Ahem*

Really I planned on wiping the box, it's a 3GHz P4 running XP, this was just added incentive.
It was my main rig before I went to the C2D system I have now.

Anyways, just trying to get programs and files off... the rest can burn for all I care.

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• Post n°25

Re: Moving the Board?

 by Almael 4/14/2010, 3:29 pm

Geez, V. stop trembling and smashing the expensive powermeters. That's bad for moral.

Are you going to deinstall stuff or just a new clean instal of windows? I usually forget to save some real old work files/notes etc. so check your stuff. With the new mass external drives we can now have it all there so it's kind of better for important stuff.

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• Post n°26

Re: Moving the Board?

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