Hello all! New member, backup questions for switching domain names around.

[Trinot]

Hello all!

I have a question about backups. I have made a backup in the admin panel, as well as a backup of the sql database from my server. I am soon to be changing the domain names around. Basically my forum is www.hipointforum.com and right now the primary domain on my server is www.michaelsphillipspc.com so when you navigate to www.hipointforum.com it takes you to www.michaelsphillipspc.com/forum . I want to change the primary domain to www.hipointforum.com so that when you navigate to it that is what shows up. I have a sneaking suspicion that when I make this change it is going to FUBAR the forums, which is no big issue. I can re-install the forum software in a heartbeat. What I want to know is what exactly do I have to backup to get my users and posts back. That is all I am worried about is having the users not be lost and the posts not be lost.

So say I do the switch and have to reinstall the forum software.  What exactly do I do to upload the backup I have made to get my users and posts back?

I have poked around the online manual and haven't quite found the answer that I am looking for ie http://docs.simplemachines.org/index.php?topic=490

So to reiterate my question. Just say I install a brand new forum, how can I transfer members and posts from another forum to the new one? Do I make a backup in the admin panel? If I do, where do I upload it once I have made it?

Im sorry if I posted to soon before doing more searching but I have searched for several hours and still haven't been able to figure it out.

Thanks in advance!

[Dzonny]

Hello Trinot, and welcome to smf community.

For restoring question, answer is simple. You should get backup of your database by phpMyAdmin (Export option), and you should get all smf files by ftp.
Of course database has information about your members, post, topics etc... and that is most important to have when you moving your forum.

Please read this doc for more info about that:
Restoring a Database
How do I move my SMF board to a different host?
How do I restore the database data?
How do I save my SMF board?
How do I save the database data?

And of course, when you move your forum and import database, then you should download and upload repair_settings.php to fix paths for your forum.


If you have some other questin or you need support feel free to ask here.

Regards.

[Trinot]

Thanks for the help. Im on my way to get phpMyAdmin and see how it works.

[Norv]

If you only change the address, you don;t need to reinstall anything. Please upload the tool provided here: What is repair_settings.php?
to your forum folder and run it from the browser. You will see the paths SMF knows. If some will need to be changed, then please change them, then "save settings".

[Trinot]

If you only change the address, you don;t need to reinstall anything. Please upload the tool provided here: What is repair_settings.php?
to your forum folder and run it from the browser. You will see the paths SMF knows. If some will need to be changed, then please change them, then "save settings".

Cool, so I just go ahead and switch over to the new domain and if it breaks I use this to fix it? I downloaded phpmyadmin and went to the set up and I was just absolutely blown away, I really had no clue how to even start setting it up.

[Antechinus]

PhpMyAdmin is really useful but it's best if you can get it already set up as part of your hosting package. Anyway yes, you can use repair_settings.php to sort the required changes for the new domain. It works much like the SMF installer. Follow the prompts on the screen and you should be fine, but be aware that it only fixes paths for the default theme. Custom themes will need their paths reset in admin. 

[Trinot]

Question, what will become of the chat room? I am using Ajax chat? Also, just that everything does completely crash. If I reinstall the forums is there anything I can do with the backups I made in the admin panel or are they just worthless? Do the backups contain the users and the posts?

[Antechinus]

No idea about the chat. Best to ask about that in the support thread for it. The backups can be restored if things go wrong and yes, they are what contain all your user info and forum content.

[Trinot]

Cool that is good to know. Will I have to have phpMyadmin to use the backups to restore the forums? I have godaddy hosting, they have an smf installer so maybe they will have a phpMyadmin installer as well, I will check and see if they can set it up for me.

Thanks!

[Trinot]

Doh, I found out when I looked where my databases are it says this "Manage via phpMyAdmin    Simple Machines Forum". So they already have it!

Also should I convert my database to UTF-8 since I noticed this in phpmyadmin " MySQL charset: UTF-8 Unicode (utf8) "

[Trinot]

Well I tried uploading my backups to the forum, the older backups I have work but any of the newer ones give me this error,
"Fatal error: Call to undefined function chatOnlineUsers() in /home/content/t/r/i/trinot87/html/endrun/Sources/Load.php(1730) : eval()'d code on line 603"

What can I do to fix this? The forum is still up and running right now but I am not sure how long it will be because of the pending domain name switch.

Please Help!

[Dzonny]

Problem is in chat that you're using.
Have you uninstall chat before doing backup?
However think that best will be to post in mod support topic for that.

Regards.

[Trinot]

Thanks to you alls help I have my forums up and running and the domain name switch is complete. I feel SO much more comfortable working on the forums now that I understand the backup process better. I will be much more willing to try more modifications.

I have another question though, and I probably should make a new thread but I will try it here first.

Is there any way I can backup JUST the users and posts so if I wanted to install fresh and have a fresh start I could do that?
The reason I am asking is because of the chat issue, it won't let me uninstall it, it works but I can't uninstall it. So I think I have fudged up the forums a little bit when I was first learning them and would really like a fresh start.

[Dzonny]

I'm glad that your problem is solved now.

Yes, you can install fresh smf, import your database to it, and run repair_settings.php to fix paths...
I suggest to first uninstall mods and then backup your database...

If this problem is solved now, please check this topic as solved.

Regards.