the bottom line.... what can be saved if i need to make a fresh installation?

MonkeyShiva

assuming a highly corrupted issue within Vanilla's core (or whatever), can i start from scratch but retain discussions, membership details etc.
what's the bottom line?

luc

Files are corrupted?
Just overwrite them from a fresh download of vanilla.

Otherwise, I'd say, you just need your database and the conf/config.php file.

MonkeyShiva

Luc thankx once more.
I had an interesting night. I decided to scrap the whole installation and make a second Mysql database. I uploaded a fresh copy, from scratch, and installed it. It went through ok though seemed haunted by some of the mistakes the previous version had suffered. Also, although it should have been a completely empty forum, with new everything except the name and the url path, it still contained the details of the members. Ghosts in the machine or a browser cache?
They were gone this morning.

So.
2 thoughts if you have the time - and thanks to all you folk who care enough to throw us a line from time to time -

Once I get the new forum respectable and working, will I be able to swop databases - um - without it getting scary again?

and - i'll try to look elsewhere for a solution to this one - why can I still not sign out? guess what?

page not found ;-/

for details of this bizarre story it links with http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/comment/138408#Comment_138408

the point really I guess is that a healthy Vanilla is inseparable from the techno IQ of it's members. not all of us have it or can quite see how this beast works or how fragile it is ....

MonkeyShiva

This isn't good. I thought I must have made an error. I deleted the new database and threw everything called Vanilla off my harddrive. I cleared the browser cache and downloaded a completely fresh copy of the new 2.0.17.9 version. When I got it up, and it wasn't exactly being co-operative, I could see that it is carrying over information from two previous theme changes. Where this data is coming from, on a complete, fresh installation to a new Mysql database, is beyond me. The config. file carries all the details of the new one, as expected. Two different themes appear to be in conflict, past attempts to remove the banner from a theme called VanillaPress 2010 are being played out here. This is what made me think about the need to upgrade in the first place.

Can anyone help rid me of this ghost? Is it possible for example that it's the structure of my website itself that may be causing a conflict?

;-))

Linc

I assume you neglected to delete the extra themes from your server before you tried to re-upload a new copy of Vanilla.

MonkeyShiva

@Lincoln
No. I deleted everything, the entire folder from the server using WinSCP. The only part of the original that I have kept is the Mysql database (still hoping to rescue the membership details and their posts). But surely there's no mechanism for leakage between databases on the server?

MonkeyShiva

@Lincoln @luc
As things stand, for a reason which seems related to a 'creeping' error in attempting to remove the 'house' banner in VanillaPress 2010, I have a bug which, ironically, might best be solved by not attempting to use Vanilla (see above).
Could you circulate this problem to anyone with the necessary expertise who might be able to clarify it?
Is it possible that structuring the site this way:
www.xxxxxxxx.com/vanillaforum/
and the remainder of the site at www.xxxxxxxx.com/yyyyyyyyyyy/frontpage.html
could create this conflict?
I did check around the docs and these pages when I first started but couldn't find anything ....
just a thought

MonkeyShiva

I have, perhaps, solved this mystery. WinSCP has a cache. Whether or not it has been the 'cause' of this issue, I repeated the entire excercise once more and seem to have cleared the problem.

@luc, @Lincoln - Many thankx for the assistance.

Incidentally, I am glad to be verbose, and to tell this story at length. The problem with Vanila (as is) is that there is a huge gap between the expert level and the entry level experience. The posts are not being clearly edited for relevance (versions, inappropriate use of plug-ins etc), for technospeak, or even for 'truth'. And, looking around carefully, a lot of the coding just seems iffy (whether it is or not).

I know that Vanila claims to be run by volunteers but the overall business plan is undoubtedly commercial, as it has to be.

I'd have thought that a healthy 'free-to-use' foundation of supporters would have been a major first step, a huge asset.

Vanilla isn't really making use, in my opinion, of the value it's own core expertise.
It's a forum but doesn't always provide the goods - the information - in a particularly intelligent way. Surely it would pay the commercial side in the long run to invest in an editor to sort out this forum and find more imaginative (and sometimes less imaginative solutions for the future?
hint: tags-'version 1.x.x' : 'experimental' : 'this doesn't work' : 'don't panic, everyone gets this' etc.

? Does anyone know how I can rescue my old data, we were all doing so well :-/

MonkeyShiva

i wanted to depart this thread by saying that the new, refreshed install is working seemlessly - and i have begun an on-the-fly customisation of the "montreal" theme which is also coming together. when better to attempt this than when you have no members?
they'll be back