Migration Module

John, I have successful migrated Dolphin sites to Cheetah manually.  It is a tedious process so it is probably best done leisurely over time.  The key to migrating is to first install a new Cheetah site and then start copying the table data.  The key to setting up the profiles is to first create all the profile fields in the new Cheetah site that are in the old Dolphin site.  This is easier to me than trying to import all the different tables that handle the profile fields.  Then you can import the profile data and there will be matching columns in the two tables.

The only real issue I encountered was videos.  I had to turn to Deano who instructed me that I hadn't imported the Rayz table(s) for videos.

In the case of third party modules, you convert the modules to Cheetah and install them.  This will set up the database structure you need including adding the modules to the sys_ tables that handles stuff for modules so you won't have to worry about trying to import any of that stuff.  Then you can export the data from the third party modules and import to the new Cheetah site.

Manually migrating is tedious but it can be done.  If someone wanted to hire me to migrate a site, it wouldn't be cheap due to the time involved; I wouldn't be willing to do that work cheaply.  A migration script would be nice but I am not sure how easy it would be to write and note, it would not migrate third party modules; they would still have to be done by hand.

I think a migration module may be essential if you wish to increase membership numbers. I've been playing with manual migration over the past several days and the hurdles are endless. Too many files and tables are dependent on other files and tables which are dependent on other files and tables. This makes it almost impossible for the average person to successfully do anything.

I have a site where the profiles contain many fields. I did manage to migrate those fields to Cheetah by isolating the Profiles SQL table and possibly others on my Dolphin site, converting them with the Cheetah File Convertor and replacing the Cheetah table(s) with the converted one(s). Everything appeared fine, but when I tried to migrate the members profiles, all hell broke loose. It seems that other SQL tables may need to be migrated as well and that's when it really gets messy.

I had some success, but then I started getting "Page can't be loaded" error messages. Eventually the whole thing shut down.

To make life easy, I uninstalled every unused, or seldom used module on my Dolphin site. All the Dolphin modules uninstalled cleanly, but 50% of Modzzz modules did not. I was plagued with error messages, modules were shown as still being installed when they were not, and the list goes on.

I would be happy if I could (a) migrate the empty profile fields and (b) populate them again. I would consider it a bonus if I could transfer and populate the member's photos, but I feel that's one for Dr Spock. I can rebuild the rest of the site myself.

What would be helpful, is a list of tables one needs to migrate:

(a) all profile fields

(b) all Member's profile data

(c) all Member's Photo data. Moving the photos file is relatively easy.

That would allow me, and possibly others to (almost) start afresh with a clean database and avoid migrating a database filled with garbage left over from previously uninstalled modules. There's stuff in my database from modules I uninstalled years ago.

Actually, now that i think of it, my online conversion tool for dolphin modules and templates may also convert a database export as well. The sql would have to be zipped up.

I will have to test that out. If it works, it would be a simple way to convert a database.

I have plans to do one, but i have so much else i am doing i am not sure when i would be able to get to it.

If you believe you can do it, then go ahead.

Deano; I was wondering if you had plan to write a migration module to migrate a Dolphin site to a Cheetah site?  If not, then I might start working on a migration module.