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Backing up - reinstalling in new directory - migrating

Hi,

I've been reading through the forums here and only found so much on this topic. Could someone clarify some of the below?

  1. Backing up the Vanilla DB is this only done through phpMyAdmin?

  2. If the above is yes, then if reinstalling in a few directory say from forum.example.com to example.com/forum is all that's needed is a phpMyAdmin DB search and replace for the URL (plus moving plugins, theme etc)?

  3. Future proofing a forum here. If I wanted to migrate from Vanilla forums to say phpBB is there a procedure or is it simply to import the Vanilla DB into a fresh install of phpBB?

I've seen a lot about importing other forums in to Vanilla, but not much the other way round. Any help is much appreciated.

Comments

  • @whi606 thanks for that insight. I would have forgotten about the user details in the config.php linking to the DB.

    Interesting that there doesn't need to be any DB changes. Does Vanilla automatically change the url's if you change directory? And if so does it also handle 301 redirects or is that a manual thing?

    Lastly, can the Vanilla DB be imported into another forum? phpBB or Vbulletin etc?

  • x00x00 MVP
    edited January 2013

    urls stored in the database, i.e. internal link in posts, you either have to use server rules to redirect, or pre parse that data to substitute the urls with rewrites. I do have a custom version of the porter that does rewrites, but I don't offer support for it.

    Vanilla has it own rewites, which is a similar alternative to server rewrites. if you understand server rewrites, then you will find it straight forward. These are general server management / webmaster questions, that people should educate themselves about if they are occupying that role. It not really to do with a particular software, but general web software where you have user contributed content with internal links which would need to be redirected.

    When you are moving to a new directory, if something occupies that old space, then you have to confident you can do the server rules so that that you could resolve and differentiate old form new, therefore it is obviously easier there is no overlap.

    The final question is really up to those alternatives to answer that. Obviously it in the interest of every forum to get more usership. Also there are plenty of third parties that do conversions, it is not rocket science.

    phpBB/vBulletin is of the old school, they are not like modern MVC oriented framework, where traffic is directed by a dispatcher, it is much more like discussions.php, page.php, search.php, etc where those represent separate scripts. Personally MVC framework are much nice to develop in on the whole.

    However this is the software not the data, the data is not fundamentally different.

    grep is your friend.

  • @x00 If I'm reading this right it's just a "search and replace" query needed in the DB then change plus some HTaccess after this Vanilla looks after itself.

    Glad too hear the data is not fundamentally different, it's more the DB structure I was worried about. But yes, I'm going to search out some phpBB/vBulletin scripts/plugins that can convert a Vanilla forum import.

    I'm doing this before a full commit to Vanilla, which I do like, as a forum. The main reason being future proofing my data and commitment to running a forum - if anything happens to Vanilla I'd like to be able to get something else up and running asap. eg. Vanilla closes, gets compromised etc - all of which I hope doesn't happen.

    Lastly I am slightly concerned with Vanilla's SEO. I have Vanilla SEO plugin installed and indexing has started to happen, but it's google is coughing up the generic Vanilla meta data so I'll have to keep an eye on that.

    In the meantime I'll run a trial DB backup and migration just to see how bumpy the ride is :)

  • No it is one or the other not both. One in a permanent solution, other uses 301 redirects.

    grep is your friend.

  • True. However I've found good results in the past by using both in terms of SEO. Maybe different with Vanilla if it's automatically doing 301's?

    BTW for anyone reading along on this I found http://vanillaforums.org/addon/seocompanion-plugin which seems to work quite well for adding META data. I'll just wait to confirm if Google is picking it up, but it's showing through in the code so hopefully it will.

  • sorry yes that will pick up any stray links.

    However if you were on a forum with convoluted url structure, it is worth checking and getting it right regardless.

    grep is your friend.

  • LW1LW1 New
    edited January 2013

    On second thought reading through just the phpBB forums I see exporting Vanilla to phpBB is not easy at all. If anyone knows of a solution could they let me know So far I have this https://github.com/WWWebWizard/Vanilla2-to-phpBB3 which is a little beyond me.

  • x00x00 MVP
    edited January 2013

    I think you are asking in the wrong place, any conversion is very rarely perfect, but you can generally get it better then archive.

    I would ask what exactly would you want out of phpBB, just a workhorse? I mean I never really liked phpBB2, and phpBB3 is just an improvement on that, it is still remnant of that era.

    With vanilla you get built in framework which is pretty versatile, and it is not that hard to theme.

    grep is your friend.

  • Yes, I've posted to phpBB forum as well.

    To answer your question. On two previous occasions I've had the misfortune of losing or nearly loosing a lot of data due to either a company closing up and a community scattering and on another occasion realizing that nearly 2 years of weekly backups were corrupt.

    With this in mind whenever I install software that will be used in the public arena I like to be sure I can a) back everything up in the event of host/server mishap. 2) Migrate the data to another application. Call it pre-event-disaster recovery ;)

    Either which way I had a look at phpBB and based on community support and documentation it seems like a good alternative. I do like vanilla and am trial testing it now. From what feedback I've received so far the biggest comment has been "It doesn't look like the forum's I'm used to".

    While I don't want to go off on a Vanilla vs anything else tangent I also have to look at what the end users want today. Old-school people like old style forums while younger people seem to like Facebook groups over forums. I personally thought Vanilla would be a mix of both along with less software bloat that other forum software comes with. So, I went Vanilla.

    That said like I mentioned at the start I'd like to get the backups and migration areas under my belt before pushing forward.

  • x00x00 MVP
    edited January 2013

    Traditional table style forums are supported by some themes and also the latest versions of vanilla, as a core feature.

    The best backups are database dumps. I would not rely some special format. There is a an export format, but I usually always use dumps.

    grep is your friend.

  • Yes, I'll have a look see through some other themes to see what I can poke out. Just running the embed theme now to allow a few users to check it out. If it works out then yes I'll look at adjusting it's look for users.

    Regarding database dumps etc. I think you're more advanced in that sector than me! I'm just looking for the best solution without jumping up too high on the learning curve ;)

  • x00x00 MVP
    edited January 2013

    I would say vanilla is kind of medium skill. if you content the way vanilla is then you don't have to worry. If you are looking for a s solution, then you have to find one that does exactly what you want, becuase you won't find one that magically transforms.

    Certain things are worth learning. If you learn how to do a database backup, you don't have to rely on anything else.

    grep is your friend.

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