Is it possible to sever and transfer part of a forum?

[Foggy]

I'm one of the two admins of Politijab.

Most of us follow the Birthers, people who doubt Obama's eligibility to be president on various grounds. The "Obama's Eligibility" forums are hidden from guests, but available to registered members.

The owner has grown tired of following the Birthers. He tried to convince us; we're not convinced.

As a result, I'm going to start my own phpBB3 forum for following the Birthers. But we have 18 months of posts that I'd like to take with me (and he agrees I can have them).

Is it possible to sever the database and transfer it to a different phpBB3 forum?

If so, can someone help me with detailed instructions?

[Stoker]

There is only one easy way to do this.

Import the entire databse from the old board.
Delete everything else than the one forum you want to use.

You can search phpbb.com for this, but the solutions there are VERY complicated.

[Foggy]

Thanks, Stoker. I assume you mean BACKUP the entire database, go to the new forum and RESTORE it. Is that right? And then delete the forums I don't want?

I can practice this at home with my "sandbox" forum. But Politijab and my "sandbox" are slightly different versions of phpBB3.

Politijab = 3.0.5

Sandbox = 3.0.7-PL1

Will that affect the outcome?

[Stoker]

Yes, sandbox need to be same version = 3.0.5
You can upgrade after the DB import.

Note that you need to change server path and cookie in ACP.

[Foggy]

Yes, sandbox need to be same version = 3.0.5
You can upgrade after the DB import.

This is a problem. The last time I tried to upgrade Politijab, I made backups of the database and all the files. I followed instructions to the letter. I still think I did nothing wrong.

But the database was corrupted and I had to pay $175 to the hosting company to restore from a backup, and we lost a whole day of posts. Maybe I can find an old phpBB3 version 3.0.5 and install that in my "sandbox". And then upgrade from there.

Note that you need to change server path and cookie in ACP.

You lost me. Maybe I need to hire someone to help me with this. I'm good at implementing BBCodes, and beyond that I'm struggling.

But thank you anyway, you're giving me information that is keeping me from wasting my time on things that won't work.

[Steve]

Note that you need to change server path and cookie in ACP.

You lost me. Maybe I need to hire someone to help me with this. I'm good at implementing BBCodes, and beyond that I'm struggling.

But thank you anyway, you're giving me information that is keeping me from wasting my time on things that won't work.

cookie settings =

acp > cookie settings > Cookie domain: [ your new cookie ]

server settings =

acp > server settings > Script path: [ /folder_name/ ]( note if you need or use one eg web.com/folder_name/ )
The path where phpBB is located relative to the domain name, e.g. /phpBB3.

You should try and get this too work on local host etc with out touching any settings from the forum you want to pull the topics and posts etc.
Grab a full copy of the forums public_html folder where all the root files are stored and a full database back up.
And post back when you have them.

[Foggy]

I'll do that. We're still working on a new domain name for the new forum, and we all have day jobs. Might take a couple days, but I'll keep up with this.

[Foggy]

I found the "older releases" and there's not only a 3.0.5, there's a patch.

Do I need the patch, and if so, how do I install it