Can forums and sub-forums be copied (duplicated) in bulk?

[Cancorp]

Hi gang,

Here is my scenario:

I use vBull in a corporate setting. We have a system where each employee has their own forum and they each have sub-forums of the same title, ie:

Employee A
-ideas
-suggestions
-problems
-widgets

Employee B
-ideas
-suggestions
-problems
-widgets

Employee C
-ideas
-suggestions
-problems
-widgets

Is there a way to bulk copy a forum and sub-forum so that all we would have to do is change the parent forum to the Employee's name?

Right now our tech guy is creating the forum for each Employee and then creating the sub-forums for each employee wich is wildly time consuming.

All the permissions are identical, the only change would be in the parent forum where we would have to change the name to the appropriate employee.

Please tell me there is a faster way to accomplish this rather than having to create each parent and sub forum individually?

Thanks for any suggestions.

P.S. Running 3.0.5


Now I received this reply from Jake over at vBull.com

Automating the process would require a custom script. I recommend you post on www.vbulletin.org about this.

Incidentally, why do you want each employee to have their own forums? If your motivation is to give each employee their own private space, then you can probably accomplish the same thing with one set of forums where the Can View Others' Threads permission is set to No. This will make it so users can only see their own threads.

My reply to this was:

I suspected as much. I'll try over there.

The reasoning behind each one having their own forums is that we are a real estate company and each agent has listings and needs. This was the most effective way to deal with them being able to post their listings and needs and still maintain some degree of order.

For instance, we have Realtor A with sub forums of Listings and Requirements. Then under Listings we have sub-forums of Office, Retail etc... and under Requirements we have Office, Retail etc.... This pattern repeats for Realtor B - Realtor Z

To just glom it all into one mega Listings or Needs form is impractical as it would be disorganized and frankly, things would just get lost in the shuffle.

I know this likely wasn't the intended use for vBull, but we find that it is going to work nicely, just a little cumbersome to set up initially and/or when a new agent joins the firm.

So, I guess I am asking if anyone here thinks that this can be done or has done something like this and would be willing to share.

If you need to, feel free to PM me or just post here and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Thanks in advance!

[Cancorp]

Anyone??

This would make life so much easier if it could be done. If it is more complicated than it seems (as I am not that experienced with coding) and you can do it but would want some compensation, PM me and we'll work something out.

[Andreas]

This seems to be a somewhat common request, but unfortunately nobody has taken up on it.
Probably because this isn't that easy.

I'll try to create a "Forum Duplication Tool", but it will take some days.

[Andreas]

OK, I think I got proof-of-concept code working, but it does not yet have a GUI.
This is how it will (should ) work:
You can select which forum shold be cloned.
Then there is a Textarea-Field to input the new forum names (1 per line).
The script will the copy this forum (and all its subforums) as often as necessary and name it accordingly.
Optionally, it can also clone moderators, forum permissions and access masks.

It does (of course) only copy the structure, not the contents.

[Andreas]

Here is a script that seems to do the job.

WARNING!: This code isn't even beta, and it is supplied as-is.
Use it at your own risk (i'd strongly recommend not to use it in a production environment).

Usage instructions: Place this file in Admin Control Panel-Directory and point your browser to it. The rest should be self-explanatory.

Let me know if it does work

[Cancorp]

Originally Posted by KirbyDE

Here is a script that seems to do the job.

WARNING!: This code isn't even beta, and it is supplied as-is.
Use it at your own risk (i'd strongly recommend not to use it in a production environment).

Usage instructions: Place this file in Admin Control Panel-Directory and point your browser to it. The rest should be self-explanatory.

Let me know if it does work

Wow! Thanks so much (I think :nervous: )

I will give it a whirl tomorrow at work and let you know how she flies. I'll make sure to back everything up first.

I know that a lot of people will be very happy if this works.

Originally Posted by Cancorp

Wow! Thanks so much (I think :nervous: )

I will give it a whirl tomorrow at work and let you know how she flies. I'll make sure to back everything up first.

I know that a lot of people will be very happy if this works.

OMG!!!!

KirbyDE, you are absolutely the man (or woman - lol).

Worked like a charm.

Will copy parent forums with all their children (unpopulated - won't copy existing posts in forums being copied, which is exactely what I wanted). Also copies Moderators, Access Masks and Permissions (option to copy or not).

You truly saved me and my web guy a ton of time

This ought to be a standard vBull option and if Scott M or Jake B see this thread, give this some thought and be sure to give KirbyDE cudos!

I know at least 3 other people who were looking for something similar and I'll be pointing them to this thread.

[agentjay]

Hello all - I am resurrecting this thread in hopes of finding the same answer, but in today's world. We are using the cloud version, and are attempting to duplicate a setup we have x 50! One for each state for our forum. Is there a way to do this? The tech team advises that it's not possible under the AdminCP, but putting this out there to see if anyone can crack the "code". Would it be easier if we had our own server?

MANY THANKS IN ADVANCE,
Jon

[Randhal007]

I also have almost the same problem, hopefully with answers here to resolve the issue I was having