Ryangel's vB3 Journal -> vBJournal 1.0.0 Importer

Introducing.. Jim Port!


[high]Who is Jim Port?[/high]
Jim Port is the name that I gave to the import script..
Journal Import -> admincp/jimport.php -> Jim Port


[high]What can Jim Port do for me?[/high]
He will automatically do the following:

• Backup Ryangel's Journal database tables
• Revert database changes made by Ryangel's Journal
• Remove Ryangel's Journal templates
• Remove Ryangel's Journal phrases
• Install vBJournal database tables
• Alter database tables for vBJournal compatability
• Transfer data from Ryangel's Journal to vBJournal
• Install vBJournal phrases
• Install vBJournal templates

[high]Are there any known issues to using Jim Port?[/high]
Obviously, the database tables aren't 100% compatible with each other.. Jim Port cannot identify which of the journal entries is the journal's latest, and therefore no data is inserted in to the latest entry title or date fields. This was a worthy sacrifice as the majority of users will update their journals on a common basis anyway, and once a new entry is posted the latest entries will continue to function as intended.

Jim Port currently cannot strip the slashes from entry or comment titles and text. As such, journal.php must be modified slightly in order to display these correctly and the edits have been documented in the readme. These edits will not have any side-effects on any new comments or entries made beyond this point.

Also, during the beta testing phase it was reported that any deleted journals (ie. if a user had deleted all of their entries) would still show up as empty, but the comments from these deleted entries would continue to be displayed in the Recent Comments section of the journal. There is no easy fix for this other than manual deletion..


[high]What versions of Ryangel's Journal is Jim Port compatible with?[/high]
To cut a long story short, I don't know 100%. However, as long as you are running a ported vB3 version of Ryangel's Journal and not the original vB2 version, then this should work as it was intended.. I tested it on version 1.1d and at least one of the beta testers tried it on version 1.2 and both appeared to import flawlessly.


[high]What versions of vBulletin is Jim Port compatible with?[/high]
It should work on ANY version of 3.0.0..


[high]Jim Port looks similar to the v3arcade Installer, are they twins?[/high]
Yup, the journal import script is heavily based on the v3arcade Installer by John. I've tried to get in touch with him on numerous occasions about making sure it was ok with him, but currently remain unsuccessful. Should he wish me to cease using it, the zip will be removed and I will attempt to try and write this in some other way.

I feel that I have learnt a lot from his work, and would like to thank him for this.


[high]Miscellaneous notes about Jim Port[/high]
Lines of code in admincp/jimport.php: 1816
Days to write: 4
Private beta testers: tmhall, DanielP (vb.nl)

The backed up Ryangel's Journal database tables *ARE NOT* removed automatically. This was intentional in case admins wanted something to fall back on should anything go wrong, and can be deleted manually if you are satisfied with the import process.


[high]I'd like to buy Jim Port a beer![/high]
Well, you can't buy him one as he's nothing but code, however, if you'd like to buy me a beer my Paypal address is [high]obk395@yahoo.co.uk[/high]. All donations will be drunk with thanks!

[zetetic]

Originally Posted by Oblivion Knight

Ryangel's Journal stores your entries and comments with the slashes and some weird HTML encoding still in the table for both the title and the text. For example: [disable](It\'s warm in here >_&gt[/disable]

The journal.php edits are done to make these display correctly by stripping the slashes and unencoding the weird HTML stuff on-the-fly. So in the above example, this now shows as: (It's warm in here >_>)

Oops, that just caused me a little confusion when I went to modify journal.php to parse bbcode in the recent comments section, as I explain here.

Another thing I just noticed is that I ended up with duplicate "jBuddy List" sections in the memberlist template. You might want to tell people to skip that template edit.

[Oblivion Knight]

Originally Posted by tmhall

Another thing I just noticed is that I ended up with duplicate "jBuddy List" sections in the memberlist template. You might want to tell people to skip that template edit.

Do you mean the modifylist template? Ryangel's Journal doesn't edit the memberlist template IIRC.

I'll make a note of it..
I forgot since I've edited the Journal to use the Buddy List instead of using a separate jBuddy List.

[Reeve of shinra]

Cloud-Warrior -- Is the RSS exporter for the vbjournal released here? And what changes did you have to make?

[zetetic]

Originally Posted by Oblivion Knight

Do you mean the modifylist template? Ryangel's Journal doesn't edit the memberlist template IIRC.

I'll make a note of it..
I forgot since I've edited the Journal to use the Buddy List instead of using a separate jBuddy List.

Doh! Yeah, that's what I meant. I also just posted on Anton's thread about a few missing phrases in his install routine that are missing in yours too.

Under Control Panel Stop Messages:

journal_mood_deleted_successfully --> Mood deleted successfully.
journal_mood_updated_successfully --> Mood updated successfully.
journal_inserted_mood_successfully --> Inserted {1} successfully.

[zetetic]

Also I'm pretty sure RyAngel's hack came with a journalupdate.php file in forum root that can be deleted. If it didn't come with that hack I'm not sure where I got it.

Just let me know when I've pestered you enough.

[Oblivion Knight]

It's all useful feedback Tom, cheers!

I'll add those phrases to the importer for future use. Ryangel's Journal did come with the journalupdate.php file, but you only needed to use it if you'd previously used the vB2 version of the journal on your database. I'll make a note of it though..


Zip will be updated shortly..

[zetetic]

Excellent.

[FleaBag]

Hey Oblivion_Knight, what's the URL of the step I need to go to to carry on from where I left off with the updated file?

[Oblivion Knight]

Originally Posted by FleaBag

Hey Oblivion_Knight, what's the URL of the step I need to go to to carry on from where I left off with the updated file?

I hope you didn't test this on your live forum, because ideally you need to run the importer from scratch with Ryangel's Journal tables set to their original names.. :nervous:

Please note that the changes mentioned on post #24 and beyond have not yet been implemented, I haven't had the time. When they are, the version will be changed to v0.31..

[FleaBag]

Yep on a live board, I've always had the luck of the Irish before lol. So am I screwed?