Importing Members - Overwriting

[PJKCards]

Hello,
I recently purchased a vB license. I am going to move all members/posts over to the new vB forum. Currently on the vB forum, I am the only one registered and I am the admin, and my id is "this". On the other forum, I am the admin and my id is also "this". When I use Impex to import the members/posts, will my id just overwrite the new one, or how do you go about doing this? I was considering just creating a new acct and giving it all the permissions, naming it something other than "this", and then doing the import. Is there an easier way to do this? Thanks

[Jerry]

ImpEx is designed to never merge admin users, even if you tell it to.

You merge the users using the admincp after the import.

[PJKCards]

Okay, thanks. What part of the AdminCP do I use to merge users?

[Jerry]

Admincp > Users > Merge Users

[eJM]

Hi Jerry,

I just did an import for a client and also discovered there are now 2 accounts for the forum owner. The names are almost identical - there's a space between the first and last name in the old account and none in the new account. I tried the Merge Users, but it won't allow changes because that account is hard coded in the config.php file.

How do we go about merging the accounts that belong to the forum owner with ID #1 and whatever account number the imported account has?

Thanks,

Jim

[Jerry]

Depends if you are merging A into B or B into A.

The setting in the config file is :

$config['SpecialUsers']['undeletableusers'] = '';

[eJM]

I also added this issue to the support ticket for Len Backus, but I think it makes a good searchable issue here on the forum. So...

It would probably be better to merge the new account into the older account. That may mean the deletion of user #1, but that shouldn't matter. Config.php can be edited to safeguard any user number, correct?

Are you saying by your code above that I can edit config.php to remove the protected user, then merge the users and re-edit the file to put the administrator back in protection? That was a mouthful, but you prob'ly know what I mean.

Thanks for your assistance.

Jim

[Jerry]

I also added this issue to the support ticket for Len Backus, but I think it makes a good searchable issue here on the forum. So...

Ah ah ! The plot thickens

It would probably be better to merge the new account into the older account. That may mean the deletion of user #1, but that shouldn't matter.

Imported into origional, the origional #1 isn't deleted they just get all the posts/PM's from the imported user as if it was their own.

Config.php can be edited to safeguard any user number, correct?

Yes.

Are you saying by your code above that I can edit config.php to remove the protected user, then merge the users and re-edit the file to put the administrator back in protection? That was a mouthful, but you prob'ly know what I mean.

Yup, that's the one.

[eJM]

Imported into origional, the origional #1 isn't deleted they just get all the posts/PM's from the imported user as if it was their own.

Let me clarify: By "original", I mean the old UBB Threads board. After the import was complete, the original admin from there became member #19 on the new board. He has a join date of 2001. The new board has the same admin with a join date of just a few weeks ago. If I merge the original admin into the new admin, the member number would be #1, but the join date would be 2007, right? If I merge the new admin into the original, the join date would be right, but the member number would be #19. In my mind, the member number is less important than getting the join date right.

Oh wait, I just noticed that I can edit the join date and make it anything I want. I think I just answered my own question. I can merge the original into the new to retain the member number of u=1 and edit the join date to reflect the date in 2001 that he began the original board.

Thanks,

Jim (and patting myself on the back too )

[Jerry]

By origional I mean the admin user in the vBulletin that you've installed.

Either way two become one and then you can edit that user to clean it up how you want.

[eJM]

I merged the original (the owner of the old message board) with the new (same guy, new vB installation). I thought I was going to have to edit the join date, but it did that automatically. All is well. Thank you.