WE ARE MOVING - HERE’S THE PLAN

[Gary Lewis]

Yes, I have more time now.  Thanks.  I'll watch for messages.

[Gary Lewis]

Today Stuart at Invision said:

The items that were taking a little longer to convert (where full emails are stored in posts instead of just text/html) are complete.

I have been working on some performance improvements today, figuring things out like which topic a post should be associated with was very slow due to how the structure is stored in the database. That has now been solved, the two conversions will now be much quicker.

Unfortunately, we won't be able to migrate passwords over. Your members will need to reset their password after the conversion to sign in. It may be worth posting and asking them to make sure their email addresses are correct and to update them if they are not.

I'm doing my final internal testing and then we'll be ready to do the test conversion next week.

So y'all need to make sure your email address is correct.  ASAP!

Hopefully Monday we will start testing and we will need all the help we can get.

[85lebaront2]

I will help as much as I can, but sometime next week I am supposed to have back surgery so may not be able to help much.

[BigBrother-84]

Good news!

I'm excited to test this new forum!

[viven44]

I really hope it has everything Jim wants

[ArdWrknTrk]

I'm a nihilist, I don't really want anything.
But I would like photo orientation and post numbers.

Looking forward to a test drive 👍

[Bronco638]

As a former web developer (VB.Net & ASP.Net), I'll be happy to test.

[Gary Lewis]

Dave - We will need all the help we can get!  So thanks!

But I'm not sure how technical we will be able to get.  From my understanding we will have a copy of this whole forum that is about a month old.  And we can do anything we want with it it will go away when we are through with the testing.  In fact, we will have to make sure that people do not post there thinking it is the real forum as it WILL go away.

And the testing has two purposes - I think:

1. Determine if the old content comes over correctly.  That would include posts, pictures, links, embedded files and videos, emoticons, etc.  And note that several of us have used the ability to post using HTML so we need to see that those posts are rendered correctly.  This wouldn't require logging in, but it would be good to know if logging in renders it differently.

2. See if the functionality of Invision works correctly with the Nabble import.  In other words, can you post properly using the Invision editor in the threads originally created via Nabble?  And can you add new threads to the old stuff using the Invision platform?  Plus, can you edit the content originally entered via Nabble by using the Invision editor.  This will require logging in.

What I have to remember is that we aren't testing the capabilities of InVision's forum.  We've already done that.  Instead we are checking to see that our existing Nabble forum gets ported correctly and is integrated neatly into the Invision forum.

So I am going to post most of this post in a new thread called Testing Of InVision Import Of Nabble Forum, which will be in the New Forum Platform Discussions folder.  And that thread is where I'd like to capture our test results.

[Gary Lewis]

As of this morning we have the first test of our migrated forum.  Unfortunately y'all can't see it as only admins can and only Chris/ckuske and I are admins.  But I've asked the folks at Invision how I can give you access.

As for my first blush, not everything is right as some folders on Nabble came across as folders on Invision and some didn't.  So we have a few things to sort out.

But, there is some good news.  As best I can measure it takes 1 to 2 seconds to move to a new page on WHYDTYTT where it takes 16 - 17 seconds on Nabble.  In fact, it is so fast on Invision that it is really hard to measure.  

[mat in tn]

that is good but a little funny too. I have gotten to the point that I save that thread for last and when I click on it I normally set the laptop down and go get coffee and read when I get back.

[Gary Lewis]

Mat - if you have an id on the invision test forum try to log on with it and your old password here: https://i331881.invisionservice.com/

[mat in tn]

if I have an id, I don't know it. I have no place behind the curtains of websites

[Gary Lewis]

Don't worry about it, Mat.  Turns out there isn't that much to test and I think most of that's been done.

[Gary Lewis]

Time for an update - we are ready to move!

We’ve checked things out and think we have found the few glitches in the conversion. InVision have made changes to their conversion routine and are now working with Nabble to pick a date for the move, probably the week of Sept 15th.

I expect that we will be down a few hours as Nabble will have to lock this forum so there can’t be any more posts and then run an export routine. InVision will then run that file through their converter and post the output to what is now our test forum.

Meanwhile Chris/ckuske and I will be changing some of the url-related info, moving the InVision forum to the home page and the Nabble forum to the test page, etc.

It appears that you will be able to log in with your existing password, but you may be required to accept the guidelines again as there’s a spot in the InVision data that shows whether or not you have and Nabble doesn’t have that info.

Speaking of that, we still have to get the registration process to our liking. We do have it set up where a new member cannot post anywhere until they create an introduction thread in the New Members Start Here folder. So now we need to get the guidelines to be shown and accepted and then the instructions for creating the introduction set up.

[85lebaront2]

Sounds good, Nabble is definitely getting slower at times.

[Gary Lewis]

My testing shows InVision to be about 10 times faster than Nabble. I tested WHYDTYTT and Big Blue’s Transformation, which are both getting quite slow on Nabble. It was easy to test Nabble as it took 15 - 20 seconds to refresh. But InVision was 1 - 2 seconds and it happened so quickly that my response time was a significant part of the measurement.

[Gary Lewis]

If you look up above there's now a banner that says:

On Sept 17th we are moving from Nabble to InVision.  As of midnight on the 14th the Nabble forum will be locked so that no one can post.  We may be down most of the 16th, but when we come back up, right here, you should be able to log in with your existing ID & PW.

We don't know how long this will take, and I'm sure there will be glitches along the way, but it is going to be well worth it!

[ArdWrknTrk]

[BigBrother-84]

Gary Lewis wrote

[...] and I'm sure there will be glitches along the way, [...]

Thanks to Mr. Murphy, we'll not be surprised about these glitches to come.
We did our best to prepare the battle field, so I'm pretty sure that these bugs won't be really serious.


Big thanks to Chris and Gary!


Really excited, can't wait for this new platform!

[ArdWrknTrk]

Tremendous effort on their part, and that of InVision staff to get this done!  👍