So let me ask again for crystal clear understanding.

Client Joined: Jul 18, 2003 Posts: 977

I am going to try one question at a time...Will things work or not if I install the Distro and point them at my current db that has data in it? Thank you for your time.

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 12:06 pm

Probably not!
For a number of reasons -
You may have modules installed which has altered the core nuke table schema so you will have a mis-match.
You may already be using NukeSentinel that is of a different version and therefore possible using a slightly different table sctructure.

As can be seen from this forum, I just did an upgrade from a highly modded site 7.5 patched with 2.9 and Sentinel to RavenNuke 7.6
Yes it was a pain to do the database compare and re-install my mods again but I would do it again as the improvements in speed and lower resource useage have been fantastic.

Funnily enough, I found it easier to do this than just upgrade to the next version of nuke and the amount of files I found that I didnt even need that were accidentally left over from previous upgrades came as a BIG suprise.

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 1:01 pm

thank you for your reply and I understand.
Okay next question, does this distro have the Enhanced Downloads Module in it?

registered · Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 3:17 pm

blith wrote:

thank you for your reply and I understand.
Okay next question, does this distro have the Enhanced Downloads Module in it?

No, it does not. Say, this one question at a time is working great! So far we are 2 for 2! ROTFL

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 4:24 pm

So whats the next question? I'm sitting here tapping my fingers waiting lol

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 4:26 pm

Okay thanks. On to the next question, On my current site I have members, forums, and news stories I want to keep. Which tables should I import?

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 4:42 pm

blith wrote:

Okay thanks. On to the next question, On my current site I have members, forums, and news stories I want to keep. Which tables should I import?

Ok, in my opinion, this one is not as easy. Sorry... My personal feeling is that you must use a tool such as phpmyadmin to dump the DATA (only) from your tables and see which ones have meaningful information in them. These are the only candidates for moving of data over.

For those tables that have data, I would take some time to review the data structures to see if you need to "adjust" your dumped INSERT statements. For example, if you happen to find that a field was added to nuke_users, depending upon where it was inserted, you will need to insert either , '', or , '' or some other default value that it might be expecting.

Other opinions?

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 5:04 pm

I can only draw on my own personal experiences here.
I had some modules which I knew I would be re-inserting into my new site and also lots I wouldnt. So to be sure, I backed up everything - the whole DB structure and data.
I wanted the structure to use as a comparison against the frshly installed database of RavenNuke 7.6 to be sure they matched (which they didnt due to some crap left behind from an add on module) and of course the data itself to re-insert into the DB - after 2 years, there was no way I was stating with an empty DB.

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 10:08 am

Two other considerations. First, there are many "relations" between tables. So, for instance, if you successfully re-import the text of a Forum posting then the post id has to link back to a successfully re-imported post id in the bbpost table which in turn has to link back to a userid in the users table which probably links to many other things such as membership in groups. So, unless you get ALL the tables re-imported exactly you are likely to be staring at discrepancies and problems for a long time to come.

Second, if you have a "live" system then the tables are changing even as you work on the upgrade. So you will need a test system to work all the problems out on and you will need to document very carefully in a checklist all the steps you take. You'll need to practice the conversion several times and test the results on a test system. Then, when you think you have it "down" you'll need to disable your system so that users can't change any tables and you'll have to run thru all the steps. And hope.

Just some other things to think about. It ain't easy.

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Aug 27, 2002 Posts: 17088

What I have been doing on sites that I convert for people is to setup the distro virgin. Then, I empty all tables (not drop). Then I try to import the data from their old database. if it goes in, then great. If not, I then compare to see why not. Usually it's a column mismatch of some kind. Obviously there are many ways to go about this. I have on my list of to do's to add a db compare utility to tell you ahead of time what your challenges will be.

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 10:38 am

A DB compare utility would be absolutely indespensible for those considering upgrading to RN7.6 instead of doing a fresh install.

Thinking ahead........
If it could export the 'differences' to a text file it would certainly aid the support staff here in advising whether that particular case is going to be a relatively easy job or a complete nightmare.

Great idea!

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 10:54 am

okay so that is the hard part... importing all the current data. Man... I knew there would be a snag. These are the things that keep me from converting. Darn it!!

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 1:52 pm

Guardian2003 wrote:

A DB compare utility would be absolutely indespensible for those considering upgrading to RN7.6 instead of doing a fresh install.

Thinking ahead........
If it could export the 'differences' to a text file it would certainly aid the support staff here in advising whether that particular case is going to be a relatively easy job or a complete nightmare.

Great idea!

Just for clarification, I will be providing both a new install and an upgrade pack, of course Wink

. What I am referring to is a utility to help you ascertain the difficulty level from your present state to the perfect state killing me

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 4:00 pm

Raven wrote:

What I have been doing on sites that I convert for people is to setup the distro virgin. Then, I empty all tables (not drop). Then I try to import the data from their old database. if it goes in, then great. If not, I then compare to see why not. Usually it's a column mismatch of some kind. Obviously there are many ways to go about this. I have on my list of to do's to add a db compare utility to tell you ahead of time what your challenges will be.

I have seen where, such as NSN Groups, a field was added in the middle. If the field types are just right, one could potentially insert the data and get incorrect functional results. But, would this be rare?

Your idea of an "Impact Analysis" type tool is AWESOME! worship

registered · Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 12:18 am

Well one way to compare table structures - just export the structure using phpMyAdmin into an SQL file. And run a file difference program against a clean export of what version you want to use.

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 1:06 am

Evaders99 wrote:

Well one way to compare table structures - just export the structure using phpMyAdmin into an SQL file. And run a file difference program against a clean export of what version you want to use.

Thats is exactly how I did mine Smile

Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2005 2:16 am

Of course that is how experienced users would do it. But, this utility is for those that prefer to press a button and get told. The manual way is not a utility, it's a process Wink

Client Joined: Oct 07, 2003 Posts: 735 Location: Ohio

"Beyond Compare 2" can be your friend. Smile

Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 5:36 pm

Sounds like utility would be a good idea. Need the program to export to a text file and then run diff on it Smile

registered · Site Admin Joined: Jun 04, 2004 Posts: 6437

There is a MySQL database comparison utility, but I haven't been able to get it to work. The problem I had was trying to compare 2 databases on separate servers.