Is there anyway to import a comma or tab delimited file of posts?
 

More specifically, I would like to import chat transcripts into a single thread, with each line of the chat transcript being a post in that thread. Is this possible either with ImpEx or straight MySQL? I am handy with SQL, so I have no problem creating a thread, then inserting post records if I can do that without screwing everything up.

This is from addonchat, so the usernames are pulled from the vB DB, so I should be able to join on username to get the userid, and then import into the posts table. Combining the date/time into a unix timestamp, I imagine.

So, a couple questions. If I manually create a thread, lets say called "Tuesdays Chat Transcript", record that threadID, would I only have to insert into the post table, or is there more to it than that?

How would I convert the date/time below into the proper date format for vB (is there a MySQL function)?

What is the parentid in the post table?

If what I am describing will work, is there anything else I am missing? Do I need to insert corresponding records into any other tables?

I assume I would have to reset counters after doing the manual insert? Which of the those maint functions will I need to run?

Thanks and here is a tab delimited sample of the transcript data below. My plan would be to make turn these records into a series of insert statements for MySQL:

Have a look in the Articles section on using the vB DataManagers to subkit your threads/posts to the database.

Thanks, I'll look at that.