User List Import

[jacobi]

Greetings all, and happy New Year!

I have been lurking here for a little while, and have found I am not alone in my problem: I would like to import an existing membership database for my organization (in text-delimited format) as a starting point for my forum. (Then I can e-mail all of my members on how to get started).

After trying a number of search strings, I found several posts where people asked about this, but they kind of disintegrated into thin air.

On another Web site I manage, we use Discus, where the administrator may or may not choose to use MySQL as a backend, but it has an import facility/utility that allows the admin to paste delimited text, which it parses into the database.

Any/all suggestions are most appreciated!

[Xenon]

well shouldn't be too hard to do

just a little script is required, which reads out from that file,and filles in the information into the user and userfield tables...

i'd say it would be a job of 5 perhaps 10 minutes for any hacker out here.
just the thing to manege the db at first a bit, to include all the fields can take a bit more (wether explaining or doing it self per admin rights)

[jacobi]

Anybody out there?

I would like to go "live" with my forum soon, but one of the features I touted to our organization was the ability to browse a list of our members. If we have to wait for everyone to register, that feature won't be a reality for months, unfortunately.

I tried to upload a CSV tab delimited file in a MySQL management program, matching the relevant fields (including the appropriate group id number), and it showed up in my admin group list, but did not show up in the user list. The admin CP showed that number of members, but I could not manage the data. There seems to be something I'm missing.

Thanks again,
Adam

[Logician]

After trying a number of search strings, I found several posts where people asked about this, but they kind of disintegrated into thin air.

Actually why this does not exist is highly related to the fact that there can not be a "magical script" that can work for all.

The conversion script must be a custom one depending on the user details of the site applied for everyone. So for example your memberinfo might be including membername, email, location, age, while some other site owner's list has membername, profession, interests, birthday.

Therefore you can code a script that will work for your site but you can not easily turn it to a "full release vb hack" which will work for other users as well who are trying to achieve the same goal..

[Xenon]

Originally posted by jacobi
I tried to upload a CSV tab delimited file in a MySQL management program, matching the relevant fields (including the appropriate group id number), and it showed up in my admin group list, but did not show up in the user list. The admin CP showed that number of members, but I could not manage the data. There seems to be something I'm missing.

Whenever you import a member into the user table, you have to create a row in the userfield table also
after you have created this row (just userid must be filled, the rest is irrelevant) the user can be edited from within your acp

[jacobi]

First, Xenon - thanks for the tip. I bet that'll do the trick and I can't wait to try.

Regarding Logician's post...
The conversion script must be a custom one depending on the user details of the site applied for everyone. So for example your memberinfo might be including membername, email, location, age, while some other site owner's list has membername, profession, interests, birthday.

I realize this, which is why I customized my member info file to match with vBulletin's fields. I actually painstakingly reorganized the data columns to work with the import, which is why the MySQL database was populated correctly. If the MySQL import worked (and I was just missing what Xenon pointed out), I'm wondering if a be-all, end-all script couldn't prompt the user to match fields and then change the field names/descriptions later. Just a thought.

[jacobi]

Well, I imported to both the "user" and "userfield" tables, and it worked like a charm. In fact, I probably should have just done that in the first place because I did have the profile data for the userfield table; I was simply looking for instant gratification.

[charlesm]

Hi,

We a have a user list that we need to import for a client and would prefer to pay someone to write a script that works rather than bodge it ourselves...

Essentially we will have a CSV file that determines the user name, password, email addresses and a series of fields that relates to the their options (this may or not be necessary).

This will then need to be imported into the main database - initially when it is installed and then possibly every six months.

The board is being is installed within a secure extranet, so the only way that people can be added will be either via the admin section or via this install.

If you need anything else to price this, please let me know,

[kaihawaii]

is there a generic hack fpr these issue, for importing such userfiles, e.g.:

"email"
"name@one.com"
"name@two.com"

or

"email","firstname","lastname"?

it should upd. all the needed tables for 2.6 and must be customizable before on the customfields.

[brobson168]

Hi, we are just setting up a chat room for DECUS - the UK Digital Pensioners association. We have very similar requirement - we wish to import from a CSV file our member details (we have over 500 member so typing them in is a major task).

Can anyone help?

Cheers

Brian Robson(brian.robson@btinternet.com.UK)