Thread

This question may be related to a resolved thread.

I’m “upgrading” a site from EE1 to EE2, but instead of going through the documented upgrade process I decided to do a fresh install of EE2 due to several changes in channel configuration.

This isn’t a problem, but the old site has Discussion Forum 2.1.2 and these threads also need to be moved into the new site into latest version of the discussion forum module.

Do I need to purchase and download the latest version of the discussion forum module into the new EE2 site? What next? Is there an export/import routine I need to run to get the old threads/forum posts into the new site?

Can’t find anything on Google or the EE support forums related to this case.

Hi, Roger.

It’s a three step process.

First of all—are you using your own theme, or just one of the default themes?

If you’re using a default theme, you’d just purchase the forum upgrade, and place the themes in the /themes folder.

(You’ll need to purchase the forum upgrade in every case.)

Upload the forums folder to the modules folder, and place the language files in the /system/expressionengine/language/english folder.

If you are using your own folder themes, see:

Forum Update Notes

Does that help?

Hi Sue, thanks for the response.

I’m using a customized theme, so thanks for pointing that out.

However, I’m more concerned about the actual discussion forum threads and posts in the database. The old site is EE1 and EE2 has already been installed and configured on the new site, which is on a different server.

How can I “migrate” the EE1 discussion forum content into the new EE2 site?

I’m sure this isn’t going to be as easy as exporting a few tables from the old site’s database and re-importing them into the new site’s database.

Hi Roger,

The only officially supported method of upgrading is via the standard update procedure. However, if you look at the files included with the Forum module, you’ll see an upd.forum.php file. This is the file that the update script runs, and it contains the actions and SQL statements necessary to convert the forum tables from one version to another.

That should be enough to get you up to date; if not, you’d probably be better off going the supported route. Let me know if that helps.

Okay, I’ve successfully upgraded the site to EE2, but now I’m seeing a white screen when I try to view the forums from the front end.

Discussion Forum module data appears to be intact from the Control Panel.

I’ve tried switching themes to one of the default bundled themes, turning on error reporting and debugging setting, and a list of other debugging tricks to no avail.

I’ve tried overwriting the module files from a fresh download of EE2.

I’ve got this in my mod.forum_core.php file and can’t even get that to show up.

error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors',1);
die('FORUM');

Only white screen taunting me.

I can’t get any kind of output telling me what’s going on! HALP!

Hi, Roger -

I’m fairly concerned about how you ran this update; the updater makes a lot of changes between these two particular versions.

I am curious if you go about this the ‘normal’ way if the forums work.  That would give us an idea of where to isolate our troubleshooting. Is it possible to test that in a dev environment?

Hi Lisa,

I scrapped the original “fresh install” version of the new site and started over by going through the documented upgrade process at http://ellislab.com/expressionengine/user-guide/installation/update.html

I can provide you with login credentials to the CP via direct message if you’d like to check them out. Let me know.

Hi, Roger,

What is the state of that upgraded process?  Is it working? If not, what are the symptoms of it not working?

I admit that I’m a bit confused where you are at already, given the unusual processes you’ve gone through.

And did you also update your forum module as per these instructions?

I admit, the way I started was unusual, but that process was abandoned completely after Sue indicated that I should go through the document upgrade process. So that’s what I did. I scrapped everything I had done up to that point and started over by making a copy of the filesystem and database in my dev environment and stepping through the documented upgrade steps in that dev environment.

It appears that everything else is working properly, except for the forums.

UPDATE: I noticed the forum module version was 3.1.4, so I downloaded 3.1.5 and followed the documented forum upgrade instructions at http://ellislab.com/expressionengine/user-guide/modules/forum/forum_update.html

RESULT: Instead of a white screen I am now redirected to the site’s homepage when I visit the /forums front-end.

Ok, that’s progress.  And sorry for my confusion, Roger.

If you open up system/expressionengine/config/config.php do you see any lines about is_forum_installed or similar?

No worries, Lisa. I appreciate your help!

No lines in system/expressionengine/config/config.php mentioning is_forum_installed or anything else mentioning “forum”

Ok, try adding these to config.php:

$config['forum_trigger'] = 'forums';
$config['forum_is_installed'] = 'y';

You likely only need the second of those two, but let’s see if this moves you forward or not. =)

Thanks Lisa, this appears to have solved the issue! Front-end forum pages are now showing up! Thanks so much!

My pleasure, Roger!  If you have anything else come up, please do let us know so we can help out.

Have a great weekend!