Database help

[Oathkeeper]

Ok so long story short, our hosting company took a massive dump on our website and demolished everything we worked hard to build. The only evidence that a website even existed there is a backup of the database which I had on my computer. I'm planning on starting anew in the coming new year and by doing that we are planning to start the forum and website back up on another host with the last posts that were on the website.

Problem is, I had heavily modded my forum meaning that the database more than likely isn't exactly like how the originally installed database should look like. My request is how can I grab the essential parts of my database and make a new database with just those essential parts? (Members, posts, etc.)

Would GREATLY appreciate some help,
Oathkeeper


PS> My database is based on SMF 2 RC3

[Antechinus]

If the alterations to the db were just mods that you had installed don't worry about it. You can restore the backup to a new host and re-install the same mods on the new forum.

[Oathkeeper]

The thing is, I don't know what mods I installed, I've installed so many. And my end goal is to have a fresh clean unaltered board with just the basics (members, posts, etc.) in it, and then move on from there.

Thanks for the reply however.

[Norv]

There isn't currently an official script for cleaning up the database itself, however on a new installation (with no mods) you would have the same visible result: the posts, members, and so on, and no mods, so you can (re)install any mod you wish.
(if, upon reinstallation, mods find their settings in the database, they will typically use those - so you'll have them "preconfigured" after you reinstall them).

[Oathkeeper]

I can understand that there isn't an official script. Well if anyone else can offer some advice on cleaning the database I would VERY much appreciate it.

[Adish - (F.L.A.M.E.R)]

You might benefit asking about it in this board: http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?board=50.0

As suggested previously, a good idea would be just use fresh files instead. In any case, if you reinstall the same modification, there is a huge chance that you will get your settings back as it was before. That saves you time.

[Oathkeeper]

Sorry for the late reply.

I'll think about doing that in the Help Wanted area, however my goal is to have absolutely nothing except the basic required database structure, and nothing more. I don't mind having to reconfigure mods which I may have to add in later.

[agent47]

I had to go through this exact thing as my host went down a couple of days back too. We probably were on the same host. Anyways you should know that you install SMF fresh and restore database and only the essentials are going to seem to be visible. Backups of mods and stuff won't be visible until you actually re-upload packages and install them. I'm telling you this because I went through the same thing a couple of days back. Hope this helped

[Oathkeeper]

Thanks for your post agent, and I know this. My deal is I'm picky, and I want a clean database, fresh of any modifications.

[Tyrsson]

Well, if you are that picky then my suggestion would be to install another forum in a subdirectory, use that db for a comparison to clean the main db. Just be sure to keep a backup but I can tell you, there is a lot to doing this as you will have to manually remove the columns and tables that were added by mods and there can be many many many of them. Its kinda a table by table search for anything that has been added.