Archive Database for older vBulletin threads and posts - Here is an idea - anybody?

[Quarterbore]

My forums are not so huge that this is essential yet but it seems that it would be logical that some type of Archive database and forum code should be possible with vBulletin. What I would like is the ability to have a second database (on the same server would even be OK) where old forum forum posts could be moved to...

First, lets assume we set up a CRON job that looks for posts that have not had any replies in X-days or longer in forum based on a setting in the Forum Manager.

If the thread has not had any replies in the last X-days, then a script would open that thread and first copy the key thread and post information to an archive database. In addition, extra columns would likely be needed to indicate the "current" forum name so that if in the future forums names would change that the archive would still be usable.

Once the thread has been archived, the original thread would be deleted from the current and active forums. Personally, for an archive server, I would not care about any attachments.

Now, if a person did a search on the active forums and they did not find the information they needed they would have an option to search the archive database. This would be usergroup defined and limited...

The Archive search would work like the advanced search where the member would get a list of forums (generated from the forum name as pulled over when archived) plus have the ability to search via Keyword (subject or all), Username (thread or post), and the rest of the criteria.

To make this more user friendly, an AdminCP tool could be built to rename the forum name of threads in the archive for cases when minor forum name changes occur in the future. Additional AdminCP controls might be needed to make some forums only viewable by some usergroups, ability to delete some archive threads (say someone objects to something in an archive), or ???

When threads are pulled from the archive, these threads would be READ ONLY and they would have a special vBulletin files that would search for them and display them. (Say archivethread and archivepost like in the examples that follow: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/archivethread.php?t=1 or https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/archivepost.php?p=1).

The big advantage of this would be that the primary forums database would be kept to a smaller size with the older threads getting moved to the archive but old thread information would be saved for the future. The main forum database would still contain all the member information and drive the permissions for who can search or view the archives.

I have looked at the code and tried to formulate a plan on how I could do this but I am just not a good enough coder to do this. I don't personally see this as an impossible task and it seems like a mod like this for larger forums might be useful to reduce some of their server load.

I welcome opinions on the idea and I really welcome someone to create a modification like this...

[trackpads]

I had this thought a while back but not as well as you have researched it. Your point is right on. A second database is perfect.

Great idea!

[Zachery]

A whole extra license just to run an arcive forum?>

[Quarterbore]

If it was a big enough forum, sure.... Just the same....

The main forums would have the member info, the current posts, and even the scripts that search and serve the data from the "archive" database.... This would be on the same domain.... Why would that require 2 licenses?

It is just a "LITE" version of old posts inside of the main vBulletin forum in a read only format, right?

The advantage has to do with the amount of time the server would need to spend pulling up the thread info, post info, or just handle the database in general.

[Zachery]

Eh, might want to look into mysql 5's archivey thing.

[Quarterbore]

Originally Posted by Zachery

Eh, might want to look into mysql 5's archivey thing.

OK, "mysql 5" isn't a member name here so I assume you are not refering to a forum mod....

If we do this using a server mysql based command, it would be hard for the server to know what forums should be archived or to add attributes to prevent problems later if for some reason you were to delete the forum where the old threads were archived from, right?

It looks like basically the vB_threads and vB_posts tables have the information that would need to be archived... Add an extra field in the vb_threads table where the current forum name could be captured and it is a case of a new database with essentually just these two tables...

I know the code is more complicated then that but not all that much more to get a basic archive database for old posts....

[Zachery]

mysql is a server program.. you know the one that vbulletin needs to work?
5 is it the version number im refering to
mysql 5 has a archive function. look into it

[Quarterbore]

Originally Posted by Zachery

mysql is a server program.. you know the one that vbulletin needs to work?
5 is it the version number im refering to
mysql 5 has a archive function. look into it

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/...ge-engine.html



I am really quite sure that your server recomendation is not the answer... That is no more of an archive then the vBulletin Archive that we have with our forums now. The current archive is just a different format of the same old same old...

[scotty]

i've hacked my 3.0.x forum with a little mod: I created a seperate post table and wrote a small function to archive (backup) "old" threads. this posts will be removed from the "original" post table and don't bother the lots of querys to the post table any more.
I will migrate my forum in the next few weeks from 3.0.x to 3.5x and have to rewrite my code for 3.5.x; maybe this part will become a "releasable" mod.

[Quarterbore]

Still interested in this... Darn I wish I had time to do it... anybody looking for a project?