Importing Discus into a new VBulletin board

[docvader]

I'm in the process of setting up a new Apple Xserve to host the ever burgeoning discussion forum on my web site, russbo.com, and I was thinking of changing from Discusware's Discus forum, to this VBulletin. (I am overly impressed with the functionality and professionalism of your board). Problem is, I have over 8500 messages on the current Discus board, most of which I would like to keep because of its informative value.

I realize that currently there are no hacks for importing Discus to VBulletin, though some people have done it. Quite frankly, I am not computer literate enough to do this importation myself. I'd be willing to employ someone to do this for me, once I purchased the license for VBulletin, and had it set up on my server. VBulletin appears to offer all that I wanted in my new forum, but, it's hard to leave all the data that has been accumulated over the past two years.

Any suggestions? I'd greatly appreciate some help with this issue. Please don't hesitate to contact me directly.

Thanks! Appreciate the time and effort.

Richard Russell
doc@russbo.com

[ManagerJosh]

I'm not familar with the board you use. Is it MySQL powered? Etc..

[docvader]

Hi Josh,

Thanks for the quick reply.

The Discus site is here : http://www.discusware.com/discus/index.php

It says it has a "(Pro) Optional MySQL database back end for even better performance", though I'm not aware how to implement this, nor am I aware that I'm using it. The board seems to run via PERL and cgi scripts.

MYSQL appears to be an option, according to the following:

"DATABASE REQUIREMENTS (OPTIONAL FEATURE)

Discus and Discus Pro 4.0 offer an optional interface to a back-end MySQL database. (All features of both software packages will work even if you do not have such a database available.) To store Discus data in a back-end database, your server needs:

MySQL database software running and accessible to you
The ability for you to create and alter tables in database
Perl DBI and DBD::mysql modules to initiate connections to database "

According to the builder of Discus, "The administration instructions for Database Manager are complete and provide the needed information. Changing between flat text files and the MySQL database is a straightforward process, where you supply parameters to connect to the database, then initialize the tables, then import the data from Discus, and finally toggle the database on within Discus. All of this is handled within the Database Manager"

I just have not looked into converting it to the MSQL database. To be honest, MYSQL is a bit beyond me. ("If I can't shoot it and kill it on a computer, I can't do it..." :))

Here's the link from the Discus board, as to how to import data into MYSQL:
http://support.discusware.com/center/resources/admdoc40/dbmgr02.php

Josh, I appreciate your input on this. I would really like to convert over to Vbulletin, not only because of the capabilities of your software, but because of the huge gathering of support that it seems to have.

Thanks!

Rich

[docvader]

Oh, the forum that I'm currently using is here:

http://www.russbo.com/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi

Thanks again,
Rich

PS: BTW, nice Sims website. Impressive!

[ManagerJosh]

are you using a MySQL Backend?

I might be wrong, but it resembles UBB a lot.....

[docvader]

No, I didn't configure it to use MYSQL. I'm just using it as the default text file/perl/cgi script. But from what I've read on the above mentioned pages, it appears that an existing board can be configured to use mysql.

This link describes the importation of the Discus text files into a mysql database:

http://support.discusware.com/center/resources/admdoc40/dbmgr04.php

Thanks,
Rich

[ManagerJosh]

Originally posted by docvader
No, I didn't configure it to use MYSQL. I'm just using it as the default text file/perl/cgi script. But from what I've read on the above mentioned pages, it appears that an existing board can be configured to use mysql.

This link describes the importation of the Discus text files into a mysql database:

http://support.discusware.com/center/resources/admdoc40/dbmgr04.php

Thanks,
Rich


Basically all it does is give you instructions on how to convert your stuff into a MySQL. Could you tell me which version of the Discuss forums are you using?

I see a normal version and a pro edition.

The import procedure will definitely require MySQL. If you could provide a copy of the MySQL (just the structure), i want to confirm my hunch that a lot of it resembles UBB.

[docvader]

I'm using the Pro version.

As for MYSQL, if it's not on the server, the Discus people recommend getting it off the mysql website. I guess it's just pretty standard.

Thanks,
Rich

[filburt1]

Check out Marc Liyange's site (http://www.entropy.ch/home/), he has premade packages of MySQL and PHP for OS X :)

[ManagerJosh]

just wondering filbert, how does this relate to OS X?

[docvader]

I'm going to start running part of my site from an xserve, using OSX 10.2, particularly, the discussion forum and the video library.

Rich

[docvader]

Josh,

Not sure if this helps, but I just noticed that a Jedi Knight II web site moved their discussion forum from Discus to VBulletin. They have an unheard of posts numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

Here's their link: http://www.lucasforums.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=163

I don't know how they did it, they have not gotten back to me. It certainly is impressive though.

Rich

[docvader]

Well, I'm ready to buy VBulletin and install it on my server, but, I'm still hung up with this importing Discus data stuff; got too much information that I can't afford to lose on the Discus forum. I've got MYSQL proficient friends looking at this for me, but, it doesn't seem that we're savvy enough to do the import. It's really a hanging issue for me, as I do need to get the data off my old forum if I'm going to change.

Anybody out there that can help? I'd really appreciate it.

Thanks,
Rich

[bryanb]

Hi Docvader,

Were you ever able to do the import? I am looking to do the same. Please let me know. Thanks!

[docvader]

No, it was damn near impossible. I have no scripting skills, and even if I did, it would have easily taken a good week or two of solid work, converting Discus's database to something that Vbulletin could interpret. Basically, it's not worth it.

I did keep the Discus data around though, as I had a lot of information in that part of my site. Basically, I'm running two boards. I kept the Discus board on my server, shut off the posting capabilities, and kept it as an ARCHIVE, which I link my current VBulletin to. It was the easy way out. People use it to search things, but they discuss current, and older issues, on the new VB board. You can see what I mean at www.russbo.com

[bryanb]

Hi Docvader!

Makes sense. What about your user's profiles and such. Did you start from scratch with this? Or were you able to import this somehow?

[docvader]

I had everyone re-register. But, I did check out the number of posts that people had on the previous forum, and gave them credit for that in the new VB forum. You can set their post number individually in the user CP. So, people had to start over, but, started with their original number of posts, so that they kept their "levels".

[bryanb]

Thanks! But this is out of the question for me. I have around 1700 users and this would just be way too time consuming.

Has anyone else had success with this or have any suggestions?? Please let me know...

[docvader]

I have over two thousand users. I basically told everyone that if they wanted to keep their present status, they had to email me with their post number. Since only a few really cared (the high posters), it didn't take that long to set their levels.

You have to remember how Discus is set up, compared to VB. They're two different animals. Getting one into the other is not going to be easy. Someone did it on this forum, I had contacted them and discussed it, and they basically said that after writing some sort of script to do it, they had spent more than a week full time finessing the data so that it could be imported into VB. UNLESS someone more recently has been more successful creating an import script, personally, I wouldn't waste my time. The re-registration process was easy, people had fun creating new avatars and learning the new board, no one misses Discus (in my opinion, a good board, but far inferior to VB), and the top posters who cared, kept their levels. People still search the old Discus forum as an archive. It has worked very well for me.

Hope you find what you're looking for. But I discovered that this time and energy was better put towards other things.

[bryanb]

I just wanted to update this thread concerning converting a Discus board to vBulletin. So far most everyone I ran into said it couldn't be done, and most of the threads on this board that dealt with this issue dwindled off leaving the possiblity of this happening only in your dreams. Until now.

I found a programmer who could the job, and an EXCELLENT job at that.

I was running the latest version of Discus with about 1500 members (pruned it down since my last post). I was running this on Mysql by the way. The board was over 5 years old with about 20,000 posts.

Greg (the programmer) converted all of the user profiles to include passwords, all of the threads and topics - everything! All I needed to do was to recreate the Discus "topics" to vBulletin "forum" which was a piece of cake. There was absolutely no data lost.

I would highly recommend anyone considering converting their Discus forum to vBulletin to contact Greg at:
http://www.outtacyte.com
Greg Julius
OuttaCyTE Web Technologies
830.437.2424 Fx: 830.437.2373

He did an outstanding job! You can view the new and improved forum here: http://www.casinomeister.com/forums/

What a great product, by the way! I'm glad I switched (sorry Discus!)