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Point new install to old database?

rhino777rhino777 New
edited May 2010 in Vanilla 2.0 - 2.8
I can't for the life of me seem to get the pre-RC1 version of Vanilla to upgrade to RC1 properly. Although I can get through a fresh install. Is there any easy way to take a fresh install and point it back at my "old" pre-RC1 database?
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Comments

  • paste it over the old install?
  • Yeah that's the recommended way to do it but it doesn't seem to work.
  • Does the server vanish or disolve? Does your screen flash wildly?

    I mean, "doesn't work" is quite generic, we need details to be able to help.
  • rhino777rhino777 New
    edited July 2010
    Sorry I'm usually more thorough than that:

    "Fatal error: Interface 'Gdn_IAuthenticator' not found in /var/www/bbs/library/core/class.passwordauthenticator.php on line 31"

    is my first error when I try to go to the root website.
  • Just to be clear I'm following these directions:

    Upgrading RC1 & RC2 Vanilla 2 Forums


    1. Sign into your existing forum with the user that has UserID = 1
    2. Back up your database.
    3. Back up all of your existing files.
    4. Unarchive the new files and copy them over your existing files. Make sure that your hidden files (ie .htaccess) are copied to your server.
    5. Navigate to the page in your forum that updates your database (this will not work if you did not sign in as UserID = 1): www.yourdomain.com/path/to/vanilla/utility/structure
    6. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click the button to run the update scripts.
    7. Navigate to your forum and test away!

    I'm not 100% sure on step #5. I've tried several directories and either get permission errors or a completely blank page. I'm wondering if the path to the vanilla utility structure was changed from pre-RC1 to newer versions. Nothing really sticks out as being the right path. Thanks for any help you can provide.
  • i'm attempting to do a pre-RC1 to RC3 and run into other fatal errors. @rhino777, did you ever figure out step 5? i'ld really like to update my database to work with the latest release, but still preserve my forum....
  • rhino777rhino777 New
    edited July 2010
    Nah that's where I'm stuck at also. I can set up a RC3 fresh site but it of course wants to create a new database. So let's bump this again. Any tips on pointing a fresh RC3 install to a pre-RC1 database? Or can I create a new database and somehow import all of my "old" posts?
  • BUMP
  • el bumpski
  • TimTim Operations Vanilla Staff
    edited August 2010
    Step 5 is pretty simple, but we often find people getting extremely confused. I'm going to explain how Vanilla URLs work here. Please ready carefully.

    If you're reading this, your browser's address bar has the following in it:
    http://www.vanillaforums.org/discussion/11126/point-new-install-to-old-database

    Lets break that URL into its constituent parts

    The Scheme:
    http://
    It should be pretty obvious what this is.

    The Domain:
    www.vanillaforums.org
    This is the domain on which your forum is installed.

    The Webroot:
    http://www.vanillaforums.org/
    This is the hardest one to understand. On vanillaforums.org, we've installed the forum at the topmost level of the web server's document root, so there are no additional folders in the URL. Lets say, however, that we installed Vanilla into a subfolder on our web server, and lets say we called that folder "myforum/". Now the web root would be: http://www.vanillaforums.org/myforum/. Basically, when in doubt, the web root is the shortest URL that gets you to the discussions list.

    The Path:
    discussion/11126/point-new-install-to-old-database
    This is the "request" that Vanilla is processing for you. In this case, if we converted the path to pseudo English, it would sound something like: "give me the discussion with id number 11126". The title part is optional, and is only there to make links look nicer and to improve user experience and search engine optimization.

    Now, back to Step 5

    "Navigate to the page in your forum that updates your database (this will not work if you did not sign in as UserID = 1): www.yourdomain.com/path/to/vanilla/utility/structure"

    "Navigate to the page in your forum" - This tells us to start with the Webroot. Cool, so right now our URL looks like this:
    http://www.vanillaforums.org/

    "that updates your database" - This is filler text, ignore it. It simply describes the page you are about to visit. URL still looks the same as before:
    http://www.vanillaforums.org/

    "(this will not work if you did not sign in as UserID = 1)" - This tells us to be logged in as the ORIGINAL CREATOR ACCOUNT of the forum. This is the user your created DURING THE INSTALL PROCESS. URL still looks the same, but we should now be logged in as the primary admin.
    http://www.vanillaforums.org/

    "www.yourdomain.com/path/to/vanilla/" - This is a common way of specifying URLs whose beginning is unknown to the writer. When we write "/path/to" it is a way of saying "the fully qualified path to ". This is basically a reiteration of the first part, where we say "Navigate to the page in your forum". URL stays the same.
    http://www.vanillaforums.org/

    "utility/structure" - And now we just tack this on the end of our URL:
    http://www.vanillaforums.org/utility/structure

    And that's it! If you did everything correctly, you should get a page that looks something like this (theme may vary):
    image

    Vanilla Forums COO [GitHub, Twitter, About.me]

  • Thanks for the help! I navigate to my root structure before copying the new vanilla files over top of the old ones (just a single domain name just like your example) and tack on /utility/structure and I get a "database does not need to be upgraded" message which tells me that that's the correct path. I copy the new files over top of the old ones and go to mydomain.com/utility/structure and I get the error: "Fatal error: Interface 'Gdn_IAuthenticator' not found in /var/www/bbs/library/core/class.passwordauthenticator.php on line 31". If I copy over everything except the conf folder I get "Fatal error: Class 'Module' not found in /var/www/bbs/applications/garden/modules/class.menumodule.php on line 20".

    Any other tips? Thanks again!
  • bonk!
  • *bump once more before I give up*
  • Any more help for us suckers that installed during the pre-RC days? :)
  • TimTim Operations Vanilla Staff
    Thanks for the help! I navigate to my root structure before copying the new vanilla files over top of the old ones (just a single domain name just like your example) and tack on /utility/structure and I get a "database does not need to be upgraded" message which tells me that that's the correct path. I copy the new files over top of the old ones and go to mydomain.com/utility/structure and I get the error: "Fatal error: Interface 'Gdn_IAuthenticator' not found in /var/www/bbs/library/core/class.passwordauthenticator.php on line 31". If I copy over everything except the conf folder I get "Fatal error: Class 'Module' not found in /var/www/bbs/applications/garden/modules/class.menumodule.php on line 20".

    Any other tips? Thanks again!
    Copy the 2.0.11 files over the top of the old files, and then DELETE "/var/www/bbs/library/core/class.passwordauthenticator.php". DELETE IT WITH PASSION.

    Then try.

    Vanilla Forums COO [GitHub, Twitter, About.me]

  • RaizeRaize vancouver ✭✭
    @rhino777 curious as to why you haven't upgraded?
  • wouldn't an export import tool solve this issue?
  • @Raize because I can't! That's the whole point of this thread...hehe...going to try Tim's new suggestion later tonight though and see what happens.
  • OH MY GOD IT WORKED!!!11

    I also had to delete the WhosOnline plugin but yeah we're finally up to 2.0.13.....wooooo! You don't know how long we've been unable to read old messages....hehe....THANKS TIM!
  • So I just upgraded again to 2.0.16 (which did fix a couple more bugs we noticed...thanks!) but not html links have died. They just come up as text and not links...same for youtube embeds and such....any ideas?

    Thanks!
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