Move and modify forum

[zardos]

Hi, I want to move my forum to a new URL and do some upgrades, I Am going to do some serious modding, So i want to first install the forum software on the new FTP, do the modding when everything is finished I want to close my old forum and move/install all my users, threads and posts on the new forum. how do i do this?

//Robin

[WetWired]

1. Install vB at the new location
2. Password protect the directory or turn off the board so that users can't use it (this is your test board for now)
3. Install your mods and styles and get them working close to how you want
4. Take screenshots of your mods' options
5. Download your modified styles
6. Put your mod and styles downloads and screenshots together for quick access
7. On your old server, set the cookie path to / and your cookie domain to nothing
8. On your old server, close the forums
9. On your old server, run mysqldump to get a copy of your database. If you had your forum setup to save attachments and avatars as files, you'll need to tarball(or zip) those up, then download it all.
10. Upload your database backup and uploaded file archives(if any) to the new server
11. Decompress the uploaded files to their correct locations
12. Restore your backup onto the new server
13. Run upgrade.php if the versions of your old and new forum locations are different.
14. Setup your new cookie domain and cookie path, if neccessary
15. Put in your plugins and styles from your prior work
16. Setup your mods from your screenshots.
17. Check everything out
18. Open your forum

This is the way that I do it, at least.

[zardos]

This was what i was afraid of :/ And if I download the style, will this include all template changes i made not only the css?

[WetWired]

When you download the modified style, it includes everything about that style in an xml file. (Though, if there are parent styles, you'll want to download them, too, separately)