I have a live forum and wanted to install a fresh 6.4 to play with. 2 questions:

- as long as I create a new database and program/data file paths I should have no problems... correct?

- I'm currently running 6.2 with some hacks. I know what I have hacked and their have been some DB changes (such as birthdays/calendar). Would it be possible to imprt my old DB into 6.4 and runi it without hacking the 6.4 (I would restor a mysql dump into the new DB).

Okay your site is here

http://www.blahblah.com/threads

make a new database for the test site

install a fresh threads to a new directory say

http://www.blahblah.com/test

and complete the install and play. make sure the test one points to the new database. You can even import a backup of users posts in the new forum. If you do this do not run the createtables on the treads install. At this point you would upload your backup and then Make sure to run all altertables on the database.

thanks!

What happens to the birthdays and calendar information in the DB from the hacks? Will that just be ignored?

Actually if you do not want errors on the altertables it is best to delete those fields on your test forum database before running the altertables

[On that note, can one of the gurus put something together to let us know how to delete the calendar hack fields and stuff that were on there for the big upgrade to 6.4 ?]

Well do you have PHPMYAdmin?

It is as simple as clicking and dropping the 3 birthday fields in the w3t_Users table and the U_Calendar one in w3t_Boards. Althought I think the only one that causes an error from my personal experience is the first birthday table in users table.

Okay cool, thanks!

I just share my database with 6.3.2 and 6.4b1 Works groovily, and I can see exactly how 6.4b1 is interfacing with my database, to see if everything will work.

DLW: if you share the database, that means each time you do something with ONE of your boards the data in your daabase is altered, doesn't it? Then when you go to the other board, it shows up with those changes...right? This doesn't cause any problems? Maybe there would only be problems is you had a hack that added a field to the database on one, and not the other?

Tony

I don't know the inside workings of how he did it or whatnot, but I can tell you that there is no problems. And yes, I use the test board daily now and it's like I'm on the normal board; changes on one takes place on the other ie new threads, new posts, etc.

[]TonyN said:
DLW: if you share the database, that means each time you do something with ONE of your boards the data in your daabase is altered, doesn't it? Then when you go to the other board, it shows up with those changes...right? This doesn't cause any problems? Maybe there would only be problems is you had a hack that added a field to the database on one, and not the other?

Tony [/]

Yes. Yes. No.

The only changes being made are posts and the like. Nothing in the database is being changed any differently whether accessing it from 6.3.2 or 6.4b1. The only difference in the database is the birthday fields. And since nothing in 6.3.2 calls this, it's totally transparent.

Surely though there is some degredation in performance for one of the two versions. 6.4 drops some indexes (especially the one in the w3t_Last table) and creates a new one. If you have done that then expect the 6.3 access on that area and perhaps others to be slower than what it would have been.

Bingo. There are alot more changes to the tables than just the additions to the user table.

Yes I would not run 2 different versions off the same database. That can set you up for all kinds of headaches.

And the problem is that you might find an error in the dev site or the live site purely because of that. If you want to test a new version or a beta before releasing it to the public you must have two databases. Alternatively use your own pc for testing and install the boards with a snapshot of the db.

Leave me alone... I'm happy in my blissful ignorance.

But yeah, I guess for the next beta version (7.0?) I'll install php and mysql on my machine and do it that way.

Or you can use the same database (if your host only gives you one)... just create new tables for the beta version with a different table prefix.

I suppose the best solution is to make a copy of your existing database, so that you have some real data to play with.