Importing from a legacy forum

Product Support Migration

AI-generated summary

Kristen is looking to import users and posts from a legacy forum running on SQL Server and Snitz forum software. The existing import solutions require a local restored database and Ruby scripting, which Kristen is unfamiliar with. Instead, Kristen proposes exporting the database to XML or JSON, converting local links, and then importing the data into Discourse. sam replies that there is no generic import tool and some Ruby coding may be required, unless the data can be converted to a format compatible with an existing importer. codinghorror points to the import scripts folder on GitHub for examples, suggesting that Kristen may need to do some Ruby hacking or a 2-phase import.

1

I am wanting to transfer Users and Posts from an antique forum. It uses SQL Server and Snitz [forum software] (which has been dead for many years …)

I’ve had a bit of a look at the import solutions offered here, and it looks like they rely on mounting a local restored database - MySQL or similar, e.g. based on phpBB - and then a Ruby script pulling the data from that DB. I’ve little familiarity with Ruby etc. but I suspect the easiest solution with my skill set would be to export existing database to something like XML / JSON etc. I could take care of converting local links into something generic that an import into Discourse was able to parse and sort out. Current forum has no attachments, so I’m just looking at Threads (with Title and Forum/Category), Original Message and Replies (nothing threaded, just chronological messages) each with a Date, Time and User.

Is this sounding doable with import tools that already exist?

Many thanks

2

Plenty of examples in the import scripts folder, there is no generic import tool.

It’s likely going to require a small amount of ruby hacking unless you somehow get your data into one of the forums we already have an importer for, or do a 2 phase import.

3

Yes, see

https://github.com/discourse/discourse/tree/master/script/import_scripts