Importing discussions from old version

Importing discussions from old version

by M N -
Number of replies: 10

Hi there- my current Moodle installation is pretty old- version 1.9 something. I am getting some website work done, including an upgrade to the new version of Moodle.

I have several classes' worth of material that I can easily just re-upload & rebuild myself, such as PDF lessons and MP3 lectures, no problems with the class materials, I think.

But- I do have a few years of forum discussion threads for an ongoing class that I don't want to lose. Does anyone know if the usual Backup-Restore/Import will work across these two different versions? 

Thanks!

Average of ratings: -
In reply to M N

Re: Importing discussions from old version

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Forum discussions are tied to users.  User handling has changed a great deal from 1.9.x to 3.7.highest.  Backup of 1.9.x courses with users won't restore users in 3.7.x.

The only way to keep this ongoing class is to 'march' the 1.9.x moodle site through hops in series 2.x and 3.x to destination version 3.7.highest.

Along that 'march', PHP will have to be upgraded as well as MySQL DB server.

So you are looking at having a lot of work done to retain that ongoing class, forum, and users.   Also 'downtime' (maybe days ... depending) ... site should be backed up and checked at each stage, plugins, if you have additional, need to be updated and upgraded as well.  Those additional plugins alone could stop an upgrade by themselves if not compat with version of Moodle.   Themes, for example, are considered plugins now.

Whomever does his work for ya, had better know their stuff and best if the 'worker' has had experience with a 'march' from 'ancient' to 'nirvana' as it is predicted to have bumps in the road! smile

'SoS', Ken


Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to M N

Re: Importing discussions from old version

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Question ... and depending upon answer(s) ... an offer to see for yourself!

Can you make a backup of the course excluding all but users and forums?

How large is the backup zip file?

Offer ... maybe ... have a 3.7.highest sandbox moodle.  Could set you up as a category manager there, and if backup within reason (imagine it's already in the Gig range) you could upload and attempt restore.

You game?

'SoS', Ken

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to Ken Task

Re: Importing discussions from old version

by M N -
This is an interesting idea, I will make a backup as described tomorrow and get back to you with the size data on it. Thanks!
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Ken Task

Re: Importing discussions from old version

by M N -
Allrighty, then. I did a backup of just the users info and the forums from one of the two courses. It's not very big, just 27.3 MB.

I also did a smaller backup of a sample course with some fake discussions in it, that one is just 59K, and tried to do a restore in the moodle sandbox. No matter what I choose in the backup, even when I choose to back up absolutely everything, on the restore, it restores all the course materials- texts, lectures, descriptions, etc. but it does not restore the users or the discussion threads. So pretty much the opposite of what I need!

This is probably a function of the different handling of users & forums that you mention in your reply above, right? So if that is the case, the sandbox you have won't work any better, although it remains a nice and helpful offer. I think I will have to create PDF archives of the old discussions like I mentioned in an earlier reply, and post those for students.
Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to M N

Re: Importing discussions from old version

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Ok, then ... but am curious ... your reponse might be helpful for others in similiar situation ... how did you "create PDF archives of old discussions"?

'SoS', Ken


Average of ratings: -
In reply to Ken Task

Re: Importing discussions from old version

by M N -

I haven't done it yet, but I figure I will just cut and paste the text into a word doc and then save it as a PDF. Not the most elegant solution, but I haven't found any other option yet.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to M N

Re: Importing discussions from old version

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

As is usual, what seems to be a simple question, has different responses if factors/details were known.

In looking back at all your postings in these forums, appears you have used forums as assignments in that on-going course.   And students were allowed to attach files to their forum postings.

Guess ... what you are most interested in are all the files submitted via forum attachments?

If correct, one doesn't have to restore the course to get all those student files.   Is the 1.9 site still acceessible via web?   Does it have a valid moodledata directory?

All you need to know is the course ID number.   In moodledata one will see a bunch of folders by number ... 1 -> whatever.  The number folder is the course ID.   In the number/course ID directory/folder one will see all files that were uploaded to the course by their humanly recognizable names.  If I re-call correctly, there could be an assignments or forum folder and digging down into them, you can find the files.

Zip up that course ID folder, download that zip and you have at least all the student files.

No need to attempt a restore.

If I am wrong, please clarify.

'SoS', Ken

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Ken Task

Re: Importing discussions from old version

by M N -
Ken,
Thanks for digging in to this, I appreciate your time & help! I did do assignments that way a while ago, I forgot about those old posts! But, what I'm trying to save this time is the discussion threads, all the posts from open forums, so finding the uploaded files as you describe won't help.

I think I will probably have to copy all the discussions and make a document of them, like an archive they can download for reference, and then start new discussions on the new site. That's the only solution I think I can technically handle with my skills.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to M N

Re: Importing discussions from old version

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

I have all my students' posts from around 10 years ago when I was using Moodle 1.9!  I'll describe how.

I have a local install of Moodle on my Mac, using MAMP.  I did this by backing up my 1.9 "production" moodle, and restored it to my MAMP.  When I need to see something, I set my MAMP to php 5.x, log in, and then have everything from way back.

I am not sure how big your Moodle 1.9 is.  This is kind of what Ken is asking.  Depending on your 1.9 size (moodledata and MySQL backups), you might be able to do the same thing: Install a complete backup of your entire Moodle on your local computer.

Short of this, another alternative is to install Moodle 1.9 in MAMP (of XAMPP, if you have a PC), and then backup/restore your specific courses into your local Moodle 1.9.

Incidentally, I cannot run Moodle 1.9 on my production server because my server has php 7.x, and not php 5.x.

I am not sure if this is beyond your technical ability.  Do you know how to SSH to your server?  I assume that your Moodle 1.9 is still available.  Maybe even running.

(Ken, you have probed deeper.  Maybe you already know that this won't work.  Or will it?)


Average of ratings: -
In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Importing discussions from old version

by M N -
Rick- thanks, this is all certainly beyond my technical ability, but thanks for posting it, I understand what you're getting at, but I don't think I can make it work. I have time to figure it out, my new site is getting installed on a staging server, so nothing has to move until it's done, and the old one continues to run as long as I need it to.
Average of ratings: -