Installing on a running drupal system?

[simonvlc]

Hello,

I run a drupal powered portal for a time yet without forum module (I use a vb forum). Is is possible to merge with vbdrupal maintaining the drupal system users and posts?

Thanks, Simon.

[elmuerte]

Not at the momemt. A merging script would need to be created.

[Zenko]

Hopefully this merging script can be done soon.

-danny

[emiratesmac]

That's too bad. I have an existing Drupal site (only a few months old though with abou 300 'stories' and some 20 users) and we really want an integrated forum solution and vbDrupal seems really nice. I got it installed on my Powerbook and it works very well. But if I cannot take the existing Drupal site and keep all the stuff from it, then it's a different ballgame.

[kerrizor]

I'd love to be able to bridge the gap between Drupal and vBulliten, but I have a large, highly successful Drupal-powered site with thousands of users, highly customized, a "fresh" install of drupal just isn't an option.

Has anyone worked out how to get across the gap between these 2 products? Even a simple outline of the changes required would be helpful (and if you tell me to diff the files, I'll smack you - I've hacked the modules within Drupal so much its meaningless to diff..;) )

[peach]

You would have to add drupal_ prefixes to your Drupal tables, and then you would need to convert your Drupal userbase into a Vbulletin userbase, then install VbDrupal, put in your modules, and then add your drupal database contents.
I'm not a core developer thoughm I might have left something out.

[elmuerte]

Yes, some drupal tables need to be modified.
I am going to create a drupal 4.7 -> vbdrupal 4.7 script (and mostlikely a vbdrupal 4.7 -> drupal 4.7 script), but I don't think you can expect one for 4.6 because vbdrupal 4.6 is quite out of sync with drupal 4.6 making it very difficult to create a conversion script.

[alexanderpas]

hey... if we know the difference between 4.6 and 4.7 of both versions (D & vbD) and we can switch between both 4.7 versions.... the only thing we're missing then is a 4.7 -> 4.6 script, which can be made from a 4.6 -> 4.7 script ;)

[kerrizor]

How about modding the drupal login routines to also call the VB login data?

[A.N.Onym]

I hope this is in the right topic.

Suppose I have a Drupal site and it is installed in the root. Will I be able to seamlessly upgrade it to vbDrupal?

What I don't want to do is to install vbDrupal in another folder, then delete the Drupal installation and then move the vbDrupal in the root.

Any clue how to do it the right way?

Thanks.

[Gman]

Yes, you can seemlessly do this. What you would do is... (assuming drupal 4.7, not 4.6)

0) Backup all databases and files.

1) Install vBulletin in another directory, or a directory under drupal.
2) Overwrite the drupal install with the vbdrupal install (mostly just the database, bootstrap and user.module are affected, but we package the whole thing).
3) Run the drupal to vbdrupal conversion script found here (http://www.vbdrupal.org/forum/showthread.php?t=522)on your existing drupal installation.
4) Start configuring your new vbdrupal site

I would highly recommend you setting up a test site/server and do all this once as practice and to double check your and our work.

[A.N.Onym]

By the "existing drupal installation" you mean the newly overwritten vbdrupal one I guess? Now that you mean 'drupal core in vbdrupal' by 'drupal', I guess I got it.

I am checking at installing WAMP, so I guess I'll be fine, eh?

Thanks!

Should be installing Drupal 4.7 soon.

[Gman]

Yes, you have it right. The nomeclature is so hard. Is vbDrupal all the Drupal plus the new/modified parts, or is vbdrupal just the new/modified parts.

I think I keep saying that vbdrupal is the bridge/integration of the two, so it is more the updates/new stuff, with drupal remaining most of what it was, and vbulletin is untouched.

This is because almost all drupal module work on vbdrupal (only those touching the user need to be scrutinized).

Maybe this is something we should all agree on ......

[amroz]

Yes, you can seemlessly do this. What you would do is... (assuming drupal 4.7, not 4.6)

0) Backup all databases and files.

1) Install vBulletin in another directory, or a directory under drupal.
2) Overwrite the drupal install with the vbdrupal install (mostly just the database, bootstrap and user.module are affected, but we package the whole thing).
3) Run the drupal to vbdrupal conversion script found here (http://www.vbdrupal.org/forum/showthread.php?t=522)on your existing drupal installation.
4) Start configuring your new vbdrupal site

I would highly recommend you setting up a test site/server and do all this once as practice and to double check your and our work.

As far as a test site/server...I currently have a drupal site running just fine right now with a vbulletin forum.
For example, www.mysite.com is my drupal site. www.mysite.com/forums is my vbulletin path.

To test my site using vbdrupal, can I duplicate my existing drupal site into a sub-directory? Such as www.mysite.com/test and the vbulletin forum would be www.mysite.com/test/forums.

And, without damaging my existing site, can I copy the vbdrupal files into the test directory, overwriting the drupal files there and then run the conversion script?

It would seem that the settings file would have to reflect the site being in the test directory. Such as $vb_dir = '////mysite.com/test/forums'; AND $base_url = 'http://www.mysite.com/test'; // NO trailing slash!

My fear is that site critical files outside of the test directory would be changed, thus causing problems with the current site.

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[cameron32]

Amroz, were you successful with this test method, *and* with making the conversion script work?

As far as a test site/server...I currently have a drupal site running just fine right now with a vbulletin forum.
For example, www.mysite.com is my drupal site. www.mysite.com/forums is my vbulletin path.

To test my site using vbdrupal, can I duplicate my existing drupal site into a sub-directory? Such as www.mysite.com/test and the vbulletin forum would be www.mysite.com/test/forums.

And, without damaging my existing site, can I copy the vbdrupal files into the test directory, overwriting the drupal files there and then run the conversion script?

It would seem that the settings file would have to reflect the site being in the test directory. Such as $vb_dir = '////mysite.com/test/forums'; AND $base_url = 'http://www.mysite.com/test'; // NO trailing slash!

My fear is that site critical files outside of the test directory would be changed, thus causing problems with the current site.

Any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[amroz]

Rather than trying the test directory, I backed up my database and installed vbDrupal over my existing Drupal site. Ran the conversion script and everything seems to be OK. What I can't figure out is how to get my vBulletin and vbDrupal sites to look the same. I have another thread going here, under "Style vBulletin forum to match Drupal site" in the "How do I" section, but haven't worked it out yet. I'm a little weak in figuring out all the html stuff!

[cameron32]

Thanks for the update. I may go the same route when I do the upgrade.

I have done quite a bit of template tweaking in Drupal and vBulletin, and they are both built so differently that it's going to be difficult to make them look totally similar, although you could probably come pretty close.

I chose to use a lot of common themes between the two, but I actually wanted the forum to look a little different from the main site.

[amroz]

Best of luck cameron when you make the switch.

All I want to do (right now, anyway!) is get the block (column) on the left side of my vbDrupal site to appear, properly styled, on the left side of my forum. I've gotten as far as getting the block to show in vBulletin but can't figure out how to apply my css so it matches how it looks in vbDrupal. I just want users who flip back and forth between the two to have a seamless experience.

If you have time, check out http://donkeytipping.com/ and my forum http://www.donkeytipping.com/forums/ and you'll see what I mean.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.