Interesting one that has so far stumped the Groupee Support too so throwing this one out to the wider wind...

After upgrading UBB Classic from 6.50 to 6.73 (I backed everything up first and took screengrabs of the settings), the existing list of 4 Forums are no longer visible.

I've checked the existing paths structure (same as before), checked 755/777 permissions, rebuilt all 4 options in the Control Panel and the Forums still aren't showing up through the standard... /cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi? route.

Only if I did a direct URL such as the following:
/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=000115;p=0 or
/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=1;hardset=0;start_point=0;DaysPrune=0

...(changing f for Forum Number; t for Topic Number) will the Forums and Topics show up.

Any ideas guys?

Your help would be truly appreciated.

Thats a tough call since there are only a few people that visit here that still use classic.
But anyway I recall there was a file in the forums folder that held all of the forum data, not the posts which are in a separate folder but one for all of them.
Probably one of the var files which you should not over write if existing during a upgrade.
You said you had 4 forums so you should have four folders ,forum1 ,fourm2,forum3 and forum4.
But there is another file that I believe was just above them in the path to them.
I would guess you have a corrupted file.

But it may be better to just restore your old version in another folder check that it works then upgrade again. if that works then move classic to the old location and update your var files per the documentation for moving.

Well, if you're upgrading to threads it should import all of your old stuff (you'll likely need to re-assign categories though).

Classic had a cache, have you tried purging all files in it?

Well he already stated that groupee was not able to help.
He is upgrading within the 6.x series.
So I would suspect a corrupted file due to:
1. Wrong file type transfer used.
2. Overwritten file that should not have been.
3. File corrupted due to dropped connection during transfer.

vars_forums.cgi


Contents Example:

1|^|Forum 1|^|Forum 1 Description|^|On|^|is not|^|is|^|allreg&allreg|^|SGKPMU|^|1|^|default|^|ON|^|yes|^||^|all&all|^|000001|^|date|^||^|1


This should give you an idea how to rebuild the file. One line per forum in this file.

Thanks guys. (All) your help here is really appreciated.

Here's the first forum's code. The other three have the same structure. Can you see anything awry in it?

|^|AIRWOLF THEMES Discussion|^|Air your constructive views on AIRWOLF THEMES products - past and future|^|On|^|is|^|is|^|allreg&allreg|^||^|1|^|1000|^|ON|^|no|^||^|administrators,moderators&all|^|000001|^|date|^|This Forum has been set up to allow Airwolf fans and the Wolf Pack to air their views on Airwolf Themes products - past and future.|^|0

Not really sure. I can't remember what each value in the array is for but if you are going to try to repair the board and not re-install. Here is what I would do.
Add a forum in the control panel. Make the settings for what you would have for the existing ones.
Make a test post. If it works double check the new forum in the var file against the others.
Then just disable the test forum from view.
Should take a whole 5 minutes to do and this should at least verify something is working at all.

NOTE:Old school teaching from classic was always never delete a forum just disable it. And recycle for a future forum.

Just tried adding a 5th Forum. Doesn't show up either when the boards either in Admin mode / fully Open Mode.

/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi

Rebuilt the Meta-Data and Cleared Cache again. Still no difference. This is SO frustrating.

Okay I feel your pain.
I would double check your permission settings and also look at the file sizes for 0 bytes. The could be a clue to a bad/corrupted file.
I am talking all of the files.
Like I posted before it might be more simple to restore the backup. Get it working and deal with the upgrade on a different folder to test. Since I see your site has been down for this duration.
BTW I have never seen a issue like this upgrading within the 6x version. But from 5x to 6x all kinds of things happen especially when the code was modified.

There's a vars_cats.cgi file sitting at 1-byte in size, which is empty when I open it in a text editor?

I think that's normal for your installation since you aren't using categories at all.

You be missing the forums number in the beginning |^|AIRWOLF....

If your folder for that forums is Forum1 then the number should be 1.

Example:

1|^|AIRWOLF THEMES Discussion|^|Air your constructive views on AIRWOLF THEMES products - past and future|^|On|^|is|^|is|^|allreg&allreg|^||^|1|^|1000|^|ON|^|no|^||^|administrators,moderators&all|^|000001|^|date|^|This Forum has been set up to allow Airwolf fans and the Wolf Pack to air their views on Airwolf Themes products - past and future.|^|0

Thanks, but that didn't work either.

If you would like to zip up your Variable files and UBB files and send them to me through email I will go over all your files and see if I can figure it out for you.

I will PM you my email address.

That is the most amazing & generous offer I've ever heard and thank you so much.

But I really don't want to trouble you guys with this any longer as I decided today (after a week of fighting with it, with no guarantee in the end) to just do the Import/Export from Classic (all the posts & Member's details exported perfectly to 7 big fat TXT files nicely for me) and go the whole hog and come along for the ride with UBB Threads with the rest of you. It'll take me most of the day no doubt but I just can't not have a Forum any longer (we've a launch of a new 'Airwolf' TV series soundtrack product out today and my In-box is heaving with folks howling for its return).

Guys, honestly I've been *SO* impressed by how friendly and helpful it is here. I've never experienced that before on the web for Tech like this. Kudos to all of you. It has been truly respected and appreciated!

I'll be back regularly to browse the other forums now. Many thanks again.

Don't be a stranger. I have checked out your site and being an Airwolf fan I will be back to look it over even more closely.

If you have any problems and such just ask anyone here will help you to their best ability.

As a caveat if you are going to ubbthreads.
The importer script only works with a functioning classic board. It does not import a classic export file into threads.
At least as far as I know from when i upgraded.
So that means if you don't have your classic board running even the old version(which I believe will import to threads). You may be starting with a completely clean slate no posts from the prior board.

Of course whatever the problem is you have now may not impact the conversion(import).

Actually, I think the import may work regardless of if his classic is working or not in this case; the forums are *there* just not showing on the index. The importer should still be able to grab the content from the data files.

Yea Giz I am thinking it may work also but I think he should try JAISP's suggestion and edit the var file and add the 1 at least to the first forum line and see if it works.

Okay I think I may have a resolution for you. With the category option.
I was able to duplicate your problem.
Try this in the control panel.
Control Panel » General
Expand Forum Summary Options
Deselect Enable Categories?
It appears that you may have had a category existing and the upgrade may have enabled the above setting.
If the four forums are not assigned a category they will not appear if the item above is enabled.

Didn't he say he tried that?

here

Yea I guess so if that is what he was replying to.But my next post I was able to duplicate his problem.

Well I guess he got threads working and it imported the old topics.
At least for a few moments. Then they disappeared.
Possibly permission settings.

I'm trying that Categories idea.

Didn't seem to work. The whole ultimatebb.cgi is stuffed now.

Anyway, I've spent quite a few hours installing Threads. At least all the Users data came over, just not the existing Forums/Posts.

Damn, it's ugly in default mode. Lucky I screen-grabbed all my Classic colour / font settings before any of this happened. Will struggle on with this manual chore.

Well it looked like it worked for a moment. Then all of the posts disappeared. Maybe it is a permission issue?

Try checking;
Control Panel » Group Management
Users Forum Permissions
Make sure things like Can see forum are selected.