Question How to enter messages into Kunena from another forum

xristo wrote: So let's say somebody does get a CSV file... is there a way to import that data into Kunena?

Yes, there is.

The general approach to migrating from one forum to another is this:

• You need to know where your messages and user records are stored in both places
• You need to have very good database skills
• Messages may have different record structures, field names, etc. One forum might have more data fields that won't translate and you have to figure out how to handle the fields that don't map one for one.
• Messages are owned by users; you can't move the messages from one forum to the other unless you also migrate the users

These are only a few of the issues that are involved when we talk about things in a general sense. But many of the issues won't become known until we know what we are converting from and what we are migrating to.

This forum has discussed on many occasions the specifics in migrating from one forum to another.

I would also like to propose another matter for consideration. The cost benefit! If you only have to move, say, 100 messages, it might take you a week (or more) to validate the procedure for performing the migration, and you could possibly solve the problem by asking the forum members to help you by salvaging what they want out of those 100 messages. Sometimes people want to cart around lots of really old baggage every time they move from one website to another (or from one forum technology to another) and is it really worth it? Does it really matter if you preserve the contents of a discussion that started 5 years ago about someone's pet goldfish? The people involved in that discussion may have long since left your forum and the goldfish might now have joined the food-chain, so does it really matter.

In these cases, I feel that sometimes it's worth preserving the history and it's easier to do this by placing a signpost on your website that reads "You can see our old discussions at www.blah-blah-blah.com but for new discussions please use our new forum here." And that means you have more time for participating with your users and less time worrying about being a baggage handler. It's your choice, of course, and your circumstances might be quite different to how I imagine them.