Conversion from Snitz Access to WebWiz MySQL
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Category: Web Wiz Web App Support Forums
Forum Name: Web Wiz Forums
Forum Description: Support forum for Web Wiz Forums application.
URL: https://forums.webwiz.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=27368
Printed Date: 02 April 2026 at 5:21pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.08 - https://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Conversion from Snitz Access to WebWiz MySQL
Posted By: highinfidelity
Subject: Conversion from Snitz Access to WebWiz MySQL
Date Posted: 14 May 2009 at 8:59am
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Hello everybody. We are finally undergoing a long-awaited process to migrate from a Snitz Forums 2000 software with Access database to WebWiz Forums on mySQL. There used to be a piece of software in .asp which did the conversion almost automatically and which used to be here: http://forums.webwiz.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=16577&KW=convert+snitz+webwiz+database&PID=114369#114369" rel="nofollow - http://forums.webwiz.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=16577&KW=convert+snitz+webwiz+database&PID=114369#114369 but is now no longer available. My first question is: does anyone still has that script, and would he be so kind to forward it to me or post it here?Now to the second question: we did a lot of work on WebWiz V 7.9 like customize icons etc. (it was year 2005) but later we couldn't use the software because it was not supported by our host at the time. The question is: does the mentioned script work only to convert to V 7, so V 7 must be installed to check the results? Or it would work on V 9 as well? What problems could we find if we decide to stay stuck to V 7? I see that a lot of things have been changed from V7 to V9 (icons to say one, and the general layout of the board) and we are not positive about redisigning customized icons, reset colors etc. once a year or such.
Finally, there was a fellow who already did this type of conversion who at the beginning was willing to help and do the conversion for us on a very moderate wage. We have now raised funds for him but it seems I can't have a regular email or PM connection with him, so I give up. If there's anyone else who ACTUALLY did this kind of conversion, has knowledge of tricks and troubles that it implies, and is willing to help in change of some money (don't expect a huge bunch of bucks, but it's still there for you to catch...) please email me or PM.
Thanks a lot for reading!
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Replies:
Posted By: MortiOli
Date Posted: 14 May 2009 at 10:08pm
| I was one of the members who successfully made the conversion / script a long long time ago...not sure if I still have it somewhere, but I'll have a look for you. |
Posted By: highinfidelity
Date Posted: 15 May 2009 at 7:45am
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Hi there and thanks a lot. I recall you being among the nicknames of that topic. DJair was another name in there, if this helps. Is it impossible to retreive that topic here in the forum? If that script went lost, that would be AWFUL news.
As said, we have some funds in case you may volounteer to help us in the conversion
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Posted By: MortiOli
Date Posted: 15 May 2009 at 9:25am
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I think this topic might help; http://forums.webwiz.net/migrating-from-snitz--lets-work-this-out_topic16577_page1.html" rel="nofollow - http://forums.webwiz.net/migrating-from-snitz--lets-work-this-out_topic16577_page1.html I've also found the script, which I've uploaded here - http://rapidshare.com/files/233182885/Snitz_WWF.zip.html" rel="nofollow - http://rapidshare.com/files/233182885/Snitz_WWF.zip.html I'm not sure what version of WWF and Snitz this was for, so you may need to read through the above topic to find that bit out, or if you ask Bruce nicely, he might be able to tell you what the latest version was when the above topic was made, and hopefully send you a copy! I would have thought Snitz would be the version they're running now, as that doesn't seem to have been updated for years  I would offer to assist with the conversion, but I never get any spare time to do much now-a-days, so you may be waiting a while. All I can suggest is backup your database, and use the backup as a trail for the conversion! Once you're happy that the conversion is working ok after testing on a trial WWF forum, then backup your live database and go for it! Once you're running on the old WWF version, you should then be able to follow the WWF steps to upgrade to the latest. Hope that helps! Oli
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Posted By: highinfidelity
Date Posted: 15 May 2009 at 1:41pm
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Hello MortiOli, thank you very much. That is exactly the post to which I was referring to, thanks for finding it out again. I saved the script and all pages of the thread for future reference. Just one last thing. If you read the very last post, at the end it mentions a problem regarding a messed up visualization of posts and reports a link (not working again) where the problem was addressed. Do you remember what was the problem and eventually how it was solved? Thank you. |
Posted By: MortiOli
Date Posted: 15 May 2009 at 2:14pm
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I think it was just issues with <br/> tags not being converted over, so you may find posts are a little squashed up. However, posts made after your convert will be fine. Either that, or certain characters like £, $ etc showed up as a square - this is due to a change in page encoding, but once set in WWF, they're ok.
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Posted By: highinfidelity
Date Posted: 18 May 2009 at 10:50am
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Okay, thank you very much so far.
I uploaded all the stuff and made the first steps (at this point I was already hoping that forums were never invented
). Config.asp stops immediately reporting a type mismatch in "Cdate". I understand this may probably be related to different ways of writing the date in US and Europe, but how can it be fixed? (That is: what format is the convert.asp expecting?)
Thanks.
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Posted By: MortiOli
Date Posted: 18 May 2009 at 3:43pm
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Just did a quick Google, and Cdate looks like it's a function to convert any date expression into a valid Date. So 18 May 2009 will be converted to 5/18/09. Could you post the whole error? Cheers!
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Posted By: highinfidelity
Date Posted: 19 May 2009 at 10:02am
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MortiOli, please let me thank you for the help you're giving, I knew that the conversion was going to be all but troubleless. That's why I hoped someone who already did it and was more experienced in the database structure was going to do it.
I have fixed yesterday's error. There actually was some crap amid the dates, probably a leftover of a hacking we had two years ago.
However, now I get this:
Moving all the users...
Microsoft JET Database Engine error '80040e21'The changes you requested to the table were not successful because they would create duplicate values in the index, primary key, or relationship. Change the data in the field or fields that contain duplicate data, remove the index, or redefine the index to permit duplicate entries and try again. /admin/database/convert.asp, line 86 Please note that I compacted the database before uploading, so I'd say that's not the issue. Any idea? |
Posted By: MortiOli
Date Posted: 19 May 2009 at 10:22am
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No problems - I'll assist as much as I can, but I've forgotten everything I did / ran into when we made the conversion script. Could you check your database, and see what the last user was that was moved over? I'm guessing it may have run into problems with the Guest user that WWF uses.
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Posted By: highinfidelity
Date Posted: 20 May 2009 at 9:47am
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Hi there and thanks for your hint. The problem was different but you have given me the strategy to track it down (and track down other few errors, much less than I feared at the beginning). Now the coversion program runs freely. After having replaced the three extra files to gain access with old passwords, I could log in and see that the conversion has been done pretty well. Okay. Now the next step is to migrate from Access to mySQL. Any idea from where to start, since version 7 is no longer supported? I remeber there WAS a way to do it, or I would have never started digging in this complicated migration thing...
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Posted By: MortiOli
Date Posted: 20 May 2009 at 12:35pm
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Glad to hear it's run ok! Might be best to post the problems you've ran into, and how you fixed them, in case anyone else has an issue with the conversion. Is there any files in the v7 forum you've got, which does the Access to MySQL conversion? I've got a feeling that the forum comes bundled with upgrade tools to do it. EDIT - You might be best upgrading from v7 to v9 first, then upgrading from Access to MySQL!
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Posted By: highinfidelity
Date Posted: 20 May 2009 at 1:44pm
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Nothing special, really: the author_name table had some duplicated entries of users who had been deleted. It's weird as those things are handled automatically by Snitz, and the conversion program tracks them down. However, for some reason, in the end I still had duplicate usernames in the table and had to delete them at hand.
After having done this, the conversion program stops again at every post made by one of those duplicate users (because the record is fatherless). I changed the user_ID number into another existing user_ID number (okay that'e not fair, but who cares? perhaps I will delete those posts later) until the program performed its whole task.
I will check if there is some access->mySQL facility included in the software, I don't remember one being there. Is there some specific reason why you think it is better to upgrade to v9 first, and later to mySQL? Our forum is graphically highly customized and all files had been prepared four years ago, when we first thought to move here. Unfortunately I see that bakcward compatibility has not been taken in account (all icons' dimension has been changed in v9, as far as I see, so I would need to redraw all icons one by one) so I don't know if we actually want to move from v7 at all while a V10 is on its way, and then V11, and then V12... Each time with all things to be redone from scratch.
By the way I remember there was a webwiz name removal option that was quite cheap, while now I only see a software purchase option at a very high price. Is the name removal option gone? Other bad news indeed.
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Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 20 May 2009 at 3:09pm
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I would use the database upgrade tools to upgrade from version 7 to version 9 first, before moving databsse types. mySQL is a very different database to the Microsoft ones as it is not a relational database so the schema is very different, also see issues with corrupted database with mySQL that you never see with SQL Server. Instead I would suggest upsizing from Access to SQL Server. Web Wiz Forums runs great on teh free Express Edition of SQL Server and will run more stabily. There are no dimensions hardcoded into web wiz forums to make it simple to replace images with those of different sizes. Allot of work was done between version 7 to version 8 with a new forum engine which is much more secure and stable than with version 7, which dates back to an engine built about 7 years ago now. ------------- https://www.webwiz.net/web-wiz-forums/forum-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - Web Wiz Forums Hosting https://www.webwiz.net/web-hosting/windows-web-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - ASP.NET Web Hosting |
Posted By: highinfidelity
Date Posted: 22 May 2009 at 7:56am
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Thanks for your input, I of course followed your hints. I'm now to V9, the upgrading tools worked as a breeze, although now I have problems with accented letters in the topics and the joining dates of members are all separated by question marks "?". But will try to fix it later.
Now the important step is to migrate from Access to mySQL. Is there some "official" tool to do it? I couldn't find any, event though I've read that many people did it before with success. Any help will be greatly appreciated...
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Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 22 May 2009 at 8:35am
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I would NOT recommend going from Access to mySQL. Some people have managed it, but we tend to find that they have allot of stability issues as the mySQL version uses a completely different schema as it is not a relationional database like Access and SQL Server, has difefernt data types, and handles dates difefrently. If you wanted to move from Access to mySQL then we would not support it and you should be awware that you WILL have problems. You should instead upsize the database to SQL Server using the upsize wizard in Access to the conversion. ------------- https://www.webwiz.net/web-wiz-forums/forum-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - Web Wiz Forums Hosting https://www.webwiz.net/web-hosting/windows-web-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - ASP.NET Web Hosting |
Posted By: MortiOli
Date Posted: 22 May 2009 at 8:51am
Bruce, how come you offer a WWF version on mySQL, if you don't support it? Surely when people buy a licence, it comes with 1 year of support - shouldn't the warning against mySQL be noted on the download page?
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Posted By: highinfidelity
Date Posted: 22 May 2009 at 9:12am
We decided to choose mySQL because every data manager told us it's terrific, and we decided to choose WebWiz as forum software because we knew it was possible to migrate from access to mySQL without loosing our previous data.
And the reason why we purchased a web hosted service with mySQL is this:
http://forums.webwiz.net/planning-migration-from-snitz-forums_topic22813_page2.html?KW=planning+migration+from+snitz" rel="nofollow - http://forums.webwiz.net/planning-migration-from-snitz-forums_topic22813_page2.html?KW=planning+migration+from+snitz
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Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 25 May 2009 at 10:16am
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mySQL is supported, if you read the post what is not supported is migrating a Web Wiz Forums database from Access or SQL Server to mySQL. If you use mySQL from the start then no problem as the database will be created with a different non relational schema with different datatypes, and date handling and you have a database optimised for mySQL. Access and SQL Server are both relational databases built by Microsoft that use a very similar schema and data types and Microsoft's Access Upsize wizard to SQL Server is excellent at upsizing the database. The post that you bought up highinfidelity is from back 3 years ago just after the first mySQL version of web wiz forums was released. Since then have found that people who migrate to mySQL from SQL Server or Access versions of web wiz forums have allot of stability issues due to the very different schema used that can not be replicated accurately using conversion tools. mySQL is a good database if on a budget or using Linux/PHP, but for ASP you can not beat SQL Server, and now that you have the free SQL Server Express Edition there isn't any real reason why you should choose the mySQL version, but then thats up to you. ------------- https://www.webwiz.net/web-wiz-forums/forum-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - Web Wiz Forums Hosting https://www.webwiz.net/web-hosting/windows-web-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - ASP.NET Web Hosting |
Posted By: highinfidelity
Date Posted: 01 June 2009 at 8:29am
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I still don't get the point. The mySQL database actually IS the standard one in use by the WebWiz forum, it's only filled with text and numbers coming from another database by an automated .asp script. People could write the same things from their keyboards, only the way they're written there changes.
What if we lock all the threads coming from the old forum after the conversion? Would that fix these hypothetic issues? After all we don't need to have all those old topics still active, we'd just like to have them available as a memory of past discussions in the same place.
The reason why we don't go to SQL server as you suggest is obviously because the hosting is much more expensive and we will never be able to afford it.
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Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 01 June 2009 at 10:59am
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SQL Server is the recommend database to use and it not expensive. Our own hosting starts from just £4.99 per month and includes SQL Server 2008 databases. If your host isn't giving you SQL Server for free with your hosting pacakge, maybe it's time to look for an alternative.
------------- https://www.webwiz.net/web-wiz-forums/forum-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - Web Wiz Forums Hosting https://www.webwiz.net/web-hosting/windows-web-hosting.htm" rel="nofollow - ASP.NET Web Hosting |