Question How to enter messages into Kunena from another forum

trogladyte wrote: Unfortunately, there's a bug in the latest Kunena which stops me entering them as a guest

:blink: Would you like to explain what you mean by this remark, please?

I am entering old posts from another board, and set guests being able to post.

When I navigat eto the board on the new site as a guest, there is a New Topic button, and it's clickable, giving me a blank topic to complete. I enter the information and there are 2 problems. There is no way to assign a name to the guest as the old board did. That's less of an issue though.

The second problem is much more of a worry. After completing the post, I click Submit and nothing happens.

What am I doing wrong please?

This is what I asked on another post (to keep things on topic - my bad last time!!). The answer I received to that was from xillibit...

This is a known issue with K1.6.2, it will be fixed with K1.6.3

Sorry I was a bit vague - I assumed it was widely known. Apologies!!

Ah ... now I understand. I think I posted a solution to that problem on the forum. Let me know if you have problems finding the workaround.

So let's say somebody does get a CSV file... is there a way to import that data into Kunena? Even if it's a jumbled mess??? I recently moved to Kunena from an old custom built forum and my users keep asking about posts in said "old forum". I was fortunate enough to get a well structured CSV files but now I don't know what to do with it.

Much appreciated

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.