Migrating to Discourse platform

Product Support Self-hosting

AI-generated summary

The discussion revolves around migrating to the Discourse platform. sandeepberi81 inquired about the ease of porting historical forum content to Discourse and moving data out if needed in the future. codinghorror assured that it’s easy to export or import data through the /admin/backups feature.

sandeepberi81 asked follow-up questions, including the feasibility of adding custom metrics to the Analytics dashboard and creating custom rules for users. riking responded that adding custom metrics is on the wishlist, while creating custom rules is easy with SQL knowledge.

Regarding hosting options, riking mentioned that non-hosted installations using the Docker system are supported on Meta. sandeepberi81 asked if custom backend SQL queries are possible on hosted installations, and riking replied that it’s not automatically possible.

sandeepberi81 suggested analyzing session logs to create custom metrics, and riking agreed that the “user visit” and “post timings” tables should have enough data for analysis. riking provided a link to the Discourse GitHub repository, where the schema for these tables can be found.

1

Hello everyone,

If we migrate to Discourse, how easy is it port historical forum content over to the new Discourse platform.

Also, in the future if we decide to move from Discourse and go back in-house, how easy is it to liberate/move the data out of Discourse back in-house?

Thanks for your help!

2

See /admin/backups on your install – you can export or import your data right from your web browser, any time you want.

3

Thanks for the response!

4

Also, I had a couple of additional questions with regards to getting Discourse set up:

  • I realize Discourse has an in-built Analytics dashboard. If we want to add and report on additional custom metrics, how easy is it to add new code to query backend tables?
  • How easy is it to create custom rules for users to build trust and develop custom badges?
  • Finally, saw on the website that there are two different options for hosting the solution: on-premise and Discourse hosted? How do they differ in terms of features/support and how should one think about that?

Appreciate the help!

5

That’s certainly on the wishlist.

Very easy, as long as you have someone that can write SQL.

Any non-hosted install will be supported here at Meta as long as it uses the Docker system.

6

Thanks that sounds great.

Quick follow up: it seems like if we do a Discourse hosted installation, it’s currently not possible to write custom backend SQL queries to gather and report out on additional metrics. Is that correct?

Also, if we do on-premise, is it possible to query backend tables and create these custom metrics?

7

Was just thinking, if we can get the session logs, then is it possible to analyze that to develop and create custom metrics?

8

Not automatically, unless you go through some awkward steps including running and downloading a backup automatically.

9

Thanks @riking

So, to summarize, it is possible to analyze session logs to develop custom metrics as long we continually run and download a backup regularly through some script?

10

Well, I think that the “user visit” and “post timings” tables should have enough data for you to analyze to start out.

11

Thanks @riking.

Would the schema for these tables be available for me to look somewhere online? Thanks again!

12

Bottom of every file.