[Updated 2023-02-10] Migration complete

BLF Site-related Issues
161

2023-01-12 update:

Hi everyone, I'm testing a new theme over on the test site. I think it will now be closer to the preferences of those that prefer a slightly more traditional theme, while still being modern wherever practical. A dark mode is also now available for those that prefer it. You'll need to do a page refresh to get the new theme if you've visited the site previously.

162

Hmm...

It'd be really nice if a "Mark Read" button could be created for Discourse, but if it's not possible, it's not possible.

Once we transition from Drupal to Discourse, I would like Discourse to realize that I've already skimmed every post available on Drupal.

163

I was going to make a topic but I saw this thread. I would love to see a more advanced DIY section, with tags since traffic isn't that high. I suggest the following:

3D printing - some of us have 3D printers, and I would like to see what people want or made, and we can iteratively make it better together. If you are around me, I wouldn't mind making them either.

LED modification/testing - like dedoming, benchmarking, using films etc.

host/body modification - the usual, it can be doubly tagged with the

driver/circuit design - this is probably going to be a single thread or mostly dead, unless its a single project.

I read about the migration problem, I would not mind losing all my posts and just having my username, I would also not mind losing my username and starting again. I have no attachment to my posts or PMs. The information here is very good, but a lot of it is outdated too. It appears easier to chose what are the most visited information pages, and dump it into a wikipedia like format or just copy and paste them. Would be interesting to see when people go to the old one for what info and to note it to guide users to the new site.

Thanks for the care and love you put into the site!

164

Hi there! Fortunately weā€™ll be able to migrate pretty much everything thanks to extensive customization of the migration script. Here you can check out a test migration of it from a few weeks back, weā€™re getting close to the final theme and default layout:

https://blfdev.site

You can reset your password there using your existing BLF username or registered email address and you can log into your account.

Since putting up the blfdev.site testbed Iā€™ve run quite a few additional full imports into Discourse from BLF backups to further test the reliability and the timeframes involved in the process and work out remaining small bugs. Weā€™re getting very close now and I hope to announce a final migration date soon.

Yep, we can definitely start using tags for threads that fit into several categories, such as DIY topics and things like 18650/21700 compatible flashlights. Thatā€™s one aspect I still need to play around with a bit on the testbed site and get your collective opinions on it before the final migration.

165

Are all our historical PMs going to get migrated as well?

166

Yep, as described here:

Please login to your account at the test site and let me know how the migration process went for your PMs up through the most recent test import date mentioned above.

167

Hi everyone,

A lot of additional progress has been made with the BLF migration process to the new Discourse forum engine. As with most undertakings, the last 20% of the minor details take 80% of the total project time. But I think weā€™re now very close to the final Discourse forum theme, and most of the major configuration tweaks are now in place. Additionally, the import script has been further refined for proper conversion of the imported post formatting in most cases, and the developer of a key software utility that is used during the import/conversion process has implemented quite a few bug fixes based on the feedback received.

So after a lot of iterations, Iā€™d like to request your help in identifying any major bugs or issues with the new forum configuration, and especially regarding the fidelity of the imported BLF posts and private messages. Hereā€™s a fresh import from a BLF snapshot that was taken on Thursday, 2023-02-02 at 6:00am (GMT):

https://blfdev.com

A few import notes:

  • All users will need to reset their password on the test site (and on the final migrated BLF forum once we get there).
    • Itā€™s a fresh import of the forum data, so youā€™ll have to request another password reset email. Since this latest testbed is running at a new temporary domain name, some email services may still classify emails originating from there as spam. (Once weā€™re on the final migrated Discourse forum at our normal budgetlightforum.com domain name I anticipate better email deliverability than we currently have here.)
    • The new forum engine allows logging in with your registered email address in addition to your username. Logging in with your email address is the recommended option to obtain initial access to your migrated account, because the imported username may have been slightly modified.
  • BLF usernames containing special characters such as Ƥ ƶ Ć¼ Ć” Ć© will be converted to the closest regular character equivalent. (The BLF username BrillĆ© would be converted to Brille).
    • The userā€™s original BLF username (including spaces and/or special characters) will appear under the new full name field of the imported user profile.
    • Users will be allowed to change their imported username for a time after the site migration to re-introduce the special characters, you can try it now on the test server. Please do not change your username to something unrecognizable or completely different.
  • Check for your imported private messages both in the ā€œInboxā€ and the ā€œSentā€ messages folders. There are a few quirks regarding PMs:
    • Here on the current forum, PMs that you deleted do not actually get deleted from the database, and they are still visible in the other recipientā€™s messages. So unless you and the other recipient both deleted the same PM, it will be imported and visible for you again on the new forum.
    • Here on the current forum, your PMs that you sent to a user that was later banned are still visible to you, appearing as a one-sided conversation of only your sent messages. Such one-sided conversations will not be imported into the new forum.

If there are no major bugs discovered in the latest testbed, then I might attempt the final budgetlightforum.com production migration sometime next week. Here's a synopsis of how that will work:

  1. A brief downtime on budgetlightforum.com (current forum engine) for just a few minutes, followed by a post to notify users that the initial migration process has begun.
    • The initial migration process will take around 80 hours if nothing goes wrong.
    • During that whole time, budgetlightforum.com (the current forum engine) will be fully operable. However, any of the following actions on the current forum engine during the initial import phase will not be carried over to the new Discourse forum:
      • Existing user profile changes (registered email, avatar, location, etc.) during the initial import phase
      • Post deletions of older posts created before the initial import phase began (they will re-appear on the migrated Discourse forum)
      • Post edits of older posts created before the initial import phase began (the original post version will re-appear on the migrated Discourse forum)
  2. After the initial migration process has finished, the current forum engine will be taken offline, with a notice that the final migration stage is taking place.
    • At some point later that day, the budgetlightforum.com domain will start pointing to a login page for the new Discourse engine, still closed to the public.
    • The final migration stage will take about 8 hours if nothing goes wrong, after which the new Discourse engine will be open to the public.
168

Wow! Best of good fortune on the transition.

I will look at the latest test/dev site tomorrow

169

Some pictures are still stretched: https://blfdev.site/t/efficiency-measurements-of-a-few-drivers/68529

170

Fixed on the new test site: https://blfdev.com/t/efficiency-measurements-of-a-few-drivers/68528

171

Iā€™m confused now, I used the link from sb56637 just above and yet the issue still persists, but not with your link ??

Edit : oh I get it, the website banner links to the older test site.

172

I also logged in and created password.

173

Hi there, which website banner are you referring to? Edit: Found it, nice catch @thefreeman! That was my copy/paste error. Fixed.
Sorry for the confusion! It was easier and also more relevant as a simulation of the final migration process to use a new test domain. So just to be clear, the previous testbed was blfdev.site, and the latest one is blfdev.com.

174

When you click on ā€BLF Test Migration #2ā€, it redirects to the ā€BLF Test Migration #1ā€ website, so I clicked there and didnā€™t notice I arrived on the older test site.

175

Thanks a lot for catching that! Fixed.

The only thing I didnā€™t set with production intent in the blfdev.com test instance is the header image and favicon, so we can more easily distinguish between the two test instances.

176

:+1:

So the images are good now.

177

:+1:

Thanks for testing. Looks like you did it on the previous blfdev.site testbed, probably because of my mistake in the header link. Please give it a try on blfdev.com

Appreciate your time and kind words Don!

178

Thereā€™s one more aspect that we need to play around with and reach a consensus: Discourse normally only allows for top-level forum categories and sub-categories. There is an intentionally very hidden option to enable sub-sub-categories, but since almost nobody uses it and the developers discourage its use I would prefer to stick with just top-level and sub-categories, as I suspect the sub-sub-categories might be buggy. Also, Drupal has a concept of ā€œcontainer categoriesā€ that simply group together other categories. So we need to figure out how to organize the existing BLF categories in a slightly different way. Discourse also allows for tagging posts, which might be an interesting way to complement thread organization. For example, we could tag all the existing flashlight posts according to what the battery type is, and then move them into a ā€œLED Flashlightsā€ category and allow for filtering via tags for one or more battery type, and new posts could also be tagged with multiple battery types such as 18650 and 21700.

Then depending on what we decide I need to configure the default categories and tags that will appear by default on the sidebar. Notice that those are configurable by the user, which some might find helpful.

Suggestions are welcome! Sometime this weekend Iā€™ll try to put the categories in order on the latest testbed so you can all see it in practice.

179

OK, we have a semblance of order now in the categories.

180

Wait we canā€™t edit migrated posts/threads ?