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WordPress/Vanilla integration with existing board

AlisonMooreSmithAlisonMooreSmith
edited June 2007 in Vanilla 1.0 Help
After testing a WP/Vanilla integration (with Janine) for a few days, I think I'm ready to try the real thing. I have a NEW WordPress install that I want to integrate with an existing, year-old Vanilla board. I'm pretty good at HTML, CSS, and the like, but PHP, MySQL, et.al. is still mostly foreign to me. I'm not even sure I know how to completely back up my message board. (Help!) I'm not asking for a tutorial (although I'd welcome it!), but any hints and advice on how I might go about this (after the mystery backup), without making a total mess of everything, are welcome and appreciated.

Comments

  • AlisonMooreSmithAlisonMooreSmith
    Anyone? Anyone?
  • jimwjimw
    Did you look at the other discussions that have a description how to do this?
  • AlisonMooreSmithAlisonMooreSmith
    Yes. I've been reading the integration threads for a number of months. I don't recall anything specifically about how to use an existing Vanilla board. I can do the integration with a new install of WP and a new install of Vanillad, but I don't want to lose my discussions when I integrate.
  • jimwjimw
    I know you can extract from one WP to another. Perhaps you could try that into your new install.
  • MarkMark Vanilla Staff
    Well, the hardest part is that your Vanilla install isn't fresh - but that's not the end of the world, either.

    I'm sure you've already read the Wordpress Integration document, right?

    The hard part is that the integration relies on wordpresses user table rather than Vanilla's. And since you already have existing users with existing comments and discussions, you'll have to move your users over to the wordpress tables and re-link your discussions and comments to the new id's.

    I'd like to help you out more than that, but I've got "work" to do. Sorry :(
  • AlisonMooreSmithAlisonMooreSmith
    jimw, not sure what you mean. I only have ONE WP file, the new one. What would I extract from? And what would I extract? Thanks, Mark. Yes, read the docs, that's how I did the trial run. I have been thinking about the id issue. There are only 40 registered users, so I can manage the transfer. I have no idea how to re-link discussions, though. Anyone have input on that?
  • squirrelsquirrel
    Do you want to merge the WP users table and the Vanilla users table, or do you want to dump the WP users table and replace it with the Vanilla user info? The former would be tricky but I could possibly write an import script to do the latter.
  • squirrelsquirrel
    Also, I assume you work with your MySQL DB using phpMyAdmin, yes?
  • AlisonMooreSmithAlisonMooreSmith
    squirrel, thank you! Either approach is fine. I have entered a few users in the WP database for testing, but that's no big deal to do again. We tried to install phpMyAdmin on the server about a year ago and it was buggy, so we've just been accessing through the terminal. I'll ask the sysop (my husband :) ) to look at it again. Can't find any leads on how to re-link discussions once the database changes.
  • squirrelsquirrel
    Ahh, terminal is better than phpMyAdmin. I assumed you were using a standard hosting service that doesn't trust its users.

    I think this can work. The only quirk I foresee is the passwords. WP uses a different password encoding than Vanilla, so your users will have to use the password reset feature of WP to fix their passwords.
  • AlisonMooreSmithAlisonMooreSmith
    Great. We host our own sites, so I suppose we trust ourselves. :) I don't think the reset will cause a big problem for anyone. I'll just post to let everyone know what they need to do.
  • squirrelsquirrel
    edited March 2007
    Actually I lied. This would be easier with phpMyAdmin because you would get a pretty interface, but at least the command line is nice and unambiguous.

    BIG DISCLAIMER: I have not tested this, but it should work. Hail Mary full of grace, and all that.
    1. Back up your database, obviously.
    2. Export the data in your existing Vanilla users table with mysqldump, like this:
      mysqldump --skip-opt --complete-insert --extended-insert --no-create-info --order-by-primary --result-file=vanilla_users.sql --user=user_name db_name LUM_User
      Replace the values "user_name" and "db_name" as needed. Your sysop should have no trouble with this. The full documentation for mysqldump is here if you need it.
    3. Open the result file "vanilla_users.sql" and do a search-replace on the following values:
      • Replace all `LUM_User` with `wp_users`
      • Replace all `UserID` with `ID`
      • Replace all `Name` with `user_login`
      • Replace all `Password` with `user_pass`
      • Replace all `Email` with `user_email`
      • Replace all `DateFirstVisit` with `user_registered`
      Save and close "vanilla_users.sql" when you're finished.
    4. Now import the data into your WordPress users table, like this:
      mysql --user=user_name db_name < vanilla_users.sql
      Again, replace "user_name" and "db_name" with the actual values.
    And there you go. Your users might not even need to reset their passwords (upon closer examination it looks like Vanilla and WordPress both use single md5 hashing on passwords). A handful of fields in the WP users table won't get set using this method but I don't think that will bother WP. Good luck!
  • AlisonMooreSmithAlisonMooreSmith
    Wow, thanks so very much! Perhaps you could check just one other little problem we're having? :/ We can't get Janine to work anymore: http://lussumo.com/community/discussion/5851/vanilla--wordpress--janine/#Item_1
  • scheremscherem
    AMS,
    Does this mean it worked for you?
  • scheremscherem
    edited June 2007
    @squirrel

    (Deleted old comment)

    New question: If I follow Mark's steps with a pre-existing Vanilla install, do I risk losing all my forum data? Also my User Table has been modified due to extensions (example: Captcha). Will this be an issue?
  • AlisonMooreSmithAlisonMooreSmith
    Yes, lots of issues in between but it's working. You can see it here.

    I used an existing Vanilla board and, no, I didn't lose the forum data.

    Still have a few issues with Janine, but squirrel hasn't been around for while. :/
  • scheremscherem
    What kind of issues? I'm looking at a young board (1 week old) but it has already 175 members and 2845 comments. I haven't even looked at Janine-- is it needed?
  • AlisonMooreSmithAlisonMooreSmith
    Depends upon what you want to do with the integration. What, exactly, do you want to integrate?
  • scheremscherem
    mainly just the login system for now--- I'm new to this whole thing, and trying to get my head around what I want to intergrate. I think the login is a must (one login to rule them all), and possibly the profiles.

    What else can be integrated?
This discussion has been closed.