1. We want to export data from Yet Another Bulletin Board (PHP)
into Yet another Forum (ASP)
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we need to export the following:
- member information (user proifle info)
- discussions and topic information
- personal messages (to and from users to each other)
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and we wish to populate YAF with this same data.
2. * if the passwords are encrypted, we will need to assign a default password to all these accounts.
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3. We have this additional information from a consultant about this process:
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They are all in a MySQL database, in almost all these PHP BBs. ? All you would have to do is export that PHP database to a common format, like CSV, or excel, or access, or any number of formats that the YAF can read in. ? They may in fact use the SAME field names, in which case YAF may be able to read the YABB database directly.
However, the field names and order in the database will be the sticky point here. ? Each BBS will want to store that data its own way, so you will almost certainly have to do a lot of manual editing.
What I would do is CLONE the entire database on the server to a different name. ? Then I would install YAF and let it create its own blank database. ? Then you compare the cloned YABB database with the structure of the YAF database, and essentially cut and paste the parts of the cloned DB into the YAF DB.
This all happens while the YABB is still functioning with its original DB. ? Once you have most of the stuff converted, just do the last entries and then convert the users to the new YAF forum.