Hi, I just installed the new version of threads and am getting ready to import my old classic board into the new system.

But...I'm not ready to roll out the changes to my users yet. What I want to do is set things up so I can play with it a bit before I make the switch over officially. So, does anyone know if I can do the import today to move all my old board information and allow me to play with settings for a week or so before I make the official switch? If I can do that, do I just run the import script again when I am ready to update everything? Or can I only run the import script one time?

Thanks in advance for your help.
Winter

The import script can only be run one time. If it's run again it will just duplicate all of the data.

What you could do is go ahead and install version 7 and create an admin user. With this you could login, edit everything to your liking (colors, headers, footers), etc. Then do the import once you're ready to go live.

Thanks Rick. I already installed and chose not to create a admin user because I was planning on importing my existing accounts. At this point do I just re-run the install, or is there a way to log in and create the admin account.

Thanks,
Winter

If there are no users in the database the very first user you register will have admin control. So, just go ahead and visit your Register User page and sign up and you'll be able to get into the control panel.

Winter - What I did was install .threads and import from .classic while .c was still up and running. The import for my forum took 9 hours. After some fine-tuning, I opened it up for beta testing to my members concurrently with the .c board running.

Now that I'm happy with it, and the members got to get used to how things work differently... this weekend (assuming traffic will be lightest), I'll need to close down .c (so no posts or new sign-ups are missed during those 9 hours), drop all the tables in .t, then import again. And then, hope for the best!

I REALLY recommend that you involve your members in the process - "test out the new board!" - because most of my visitors were shocked and dare I say, turned off, when they saw the difference. But the more they play with it, now they LOVE it! (P.S. Shock them less by only using one side column - they really didn't like losing all that real estate they were accustomed to). But like anything else, they will get used to it!

Hope that helps give you an idea what's in store...

Well, I did just that! I installed Version7 and decided to play around with it. I did run the importer from Classic and everything came over. So are you telling me that when I move my "live" boards over to Version7 this weekend it's not going to overwrite the database and import all of the new members and posts since I originally imported? EEESH! That means a complete reinstall! No? That means to start exporting my styles templates and inserts.

Yes, the importer is meant to just "Add on" to what is currently there. Normally you could just wipe out the db and run the install/createtable.php script and everything would be ready for import again. However, since you've done style changes you'll need to do one step prior to that.

Before wiping out the database, you'll want to export your style(s) and then delete them from the control panel. At that point you can wipe the db, run install/createtable.php and then do your import. Then you can reimport your styles.

Just so I get it straight, when you say "wipe the db" you mean remove the ubbt_ tables from my mysql database?

Yessir. You'll remove them all, and then when you rerun the install/createtable.php script it will recreate everything.