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

[tnedator]

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:

Date	Time	Message ID	Message Type	Source User	Target User or Room	Message
						
8/23/2008	0:00:32	5	Message	BigDaddyBronco	GB vs. Den Chat	goodnight chat
8/23/2008	0:00:37	5	Message	Italianmobstr7	GB vs. Den Chat	NFLN is replaying the game right now
8/23/2008	0:00:39	5	Message	Dream	GB vs. Den Chat	See you BigDaddy.
8/23/2008	0:00:44	5	Message	Dream	GB vs. Den Chat	I miss you long time.
8/23/2008	0:00:45	5	Message	Italianmobstr7	GB vs. Den Chat	Will be nice to see it on TV instead of justin.tv
8/23/2008	0:00:48	5	Message	Italianmobstr7	GB vs. Den Chat	i'm out
8/23/2008	0:00:54	5	Message	Slick7	GB vs. Den Chat	see you BDB
8/23/2008	0:00:55	5	Message	Dream	GB vs. Den Chat	By Italian.
8/23/2008	0:00:56	5	Message	broncogirler	GB vs. Den Chat	night guys!
8/23/2008	0:00:57	5	Message	Italianmobstr7	GB vs. Den Chat	see ya

[Marco van Herwaarden]

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

[tnedator]

Originally Posted by Marco van Herwaarden

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.