Hi,
My Forum module just isn't 'working, and hasn't been working for a couple years, and through various upgrades. When I was first learning drupal, I think I may have done something to mess it up (perhaps I deleted the forum vocabulary, or categories, or something (its been so long ago I forgot what I might have done)), and never have been able to get it working since. I think I started with Drupal 4.6x and have upgraded to 4.7x versions and now have Drupal 5.2. I put the forum issue on the back burner while I have been working on other parts of the website. Now I'm ready to do something with the forum. But I think I may have messed up the current forum so badly that I don't have a clue of how to get it working. I have 3 other Drupal websites that I have up and running, including the forum modules. But the forum on this website (which is the one I need to be working the most).
There is nothing of value in the forum. So, if it's possible, I'm wondering if just deleting the forum and all the related stuff, and then reinstalling it from scratch, would be the simplest way to get the forum working. Any ideas? Would this work? Is there a better way?
As a note about the current state of the forum module, whenever I enter topics into the forum, the messages don't show up. Take a look at the forum here: http://www.winterssewing.com/drupal/forum . Although there are several messages in the forum, none of them show. Also, when I enter a new topic, no choice of forums shows at the top as it normally does when entering posts here in this Drupal.org forum or my other Drupal website forums.
In my other Drupal websites, when I go to the Categories>Forum: Forum Topic>Edit Vocabulary>Types, the Checkbox next to the Forum Topic is grayed out, and underneath it says "forum topic is affixed to the forum vocabulary.".
In the website that has the forum that doesn't work, It has this content below the "Type" choices.
Hierarchy:
[ ] Disabled
[ ] Single
[ ] Multiple
Allows a tree-like hierarchy between terms of this vocabulary.
[ ] Related terms
Allows related terms in this vocabulary.
[ ] Free tagging
Content is categorized by typing terms instead of choosing from a list.
[ ] Multiple select
Allows nodes to have more than one term from this vocabulary (always true for free tagging).
[ ] Required
If enabled, every node must have at least one term in this vocabulary.
[ ] Weight:
In listings, the heavier vocabularies will sink and the lighter vocabularies will be positioned nearer the top.
In the websites that have working forums, the "Categories>Forum: Forum Topic>Edit Vocabulary>Types" don't have the above info below the types choices. Could that be because I may have deleted the original Forum vocabulary (a couple years ago), and then tried to replace it by creating another Forum Vocabulary? (I think I may have done that, but not sure.)
Any Help would be greatly appreciated.
Best Wishes,
Stephen
Comments
(no title)
You can clean up everything and start over.
1. In /admin/content/node select all nodes of type "forum topic" and delete them.
2. In /admin/content/forum edit all forums and containers and delete them
3. In /admin/content/categories edit your Forums vocabulary (which is not working anyway) and delete it.
These steps are easier from inside Drupal so that you don't have to deal yourself with comments, terms etc. in the database.
4. In /admin/build/modules disable the Forum module.
5. At the top of the same page, there should be an Uninstall tab. Go there and Uninstall the forum module.
That should save you some of the next steps. (This also deletes nodes, which we did already, but not their revisions and comments...)
Now in phpMyadmin, go to your database
6. If you find a 'forum' table, drop it ("Uninstall" should have done this already)
7. "Browse" the 'variable' table. If you find any rows beginning with "forum_", delete them, especially the "forum_nav_vocabulary" row. ("Uninstall" should have done this as well)
8. "Browse" the 'system' table, find the row with name = 'forum' and delete it.
Now everything should be clean.
9. In /admin/build/modules enable the forum module again.
It should install itself and create a new "Forums" vocabulary automatically. Take note of this "sacred vocabulary ID" by hovering over its link in /admin/content/categories.
Then go to /admin/content/forum, cross your fingers, and start creating containers and forums.
Thank you Cog.Rusty: Forums Up and Running!!
Thank you! Thank You!
After having the forums not working for two or three years, they are finally up and running again! I very much appreciate your clear instructions of how to fix them. This is Great!!!
I just want to add a couple things to your great instructions:
1. First, before I started I went into my website control panel (CPanel) and made a backup of the MySQL database (just in case I messed up, or if I didn't like the result of my changes.)
2. After I had followed your instructions, and had reactivated the forum module, the Forum vocabulary did not show up immediately. I had checked the Admin/ContentManagement/Categories right after following your instructions and, at that time, there was no forum vocabulary. But then I went to "Admin/Content Management/Forums" and created the "Forum: containers and forums". I then went back to Admin/ContentManagement/Categories and found that the forum vocabulary was there. It had been automatically created at the same time I created the Forums, etc. I just wanted to note that for anyone else who might be following your detailed instructions.
Thank you so much for helping, Much appreciated!
Best Wishes,
Stephen Winters
Winters Sewing
Winters Sewing: Upholstery Information Website
I want to add one -important- step
10. Double-check if the database-table 'vocabulary_node_types' contains a record with values 'vid=1' and 'type=forum'. If not, insert it.
Baris Wanschers / Sixcolored
Sixcolored
Baris Wanschers (@BarisW)
Drupal specialist
Thanks!
This helped me solve my issue too.
I have over 1000 forums and
I have over 1000 forums and containers is there a module i can use to delete many simultaneously?
Thank-you
After a long day of developing, suddenly my forums taxonomy disappeared, having been working fine all day. Following these steps solved it. Now its 2am and I'm going to sleep much better, thank-you
I second that! Thanks to everyone
Long ago I tried the UIE Forum and was sort of happy with it, so I nuked the "Forum" vocabulary. Bad idea, it borked the Forum module. I thought this was a permanent condition until now. Thanks for all of the detailed instructions.
Many thanks for this
Excellent instructions, cog.rusty. I had the same problem in Drupal 6.10. These instructions solved it perfectly. The only differences I found were:
- There was no need (or way) to delete the Forums vocabulary in step 3.
- Steps 6 and 7 were unnecessary in this version, but I did have to do step 8.
followed these instructions, it didn't work
Followed them to the letter, I may add. Twice. (edit: five times now, still no sign of improvement.)
I'd really like forums on my drupal site, and short of installing phpbb or vbulletin, I'm not really seeing how I can do that when nuking the entire forum module and reinstalling fresh still doesn't solve my problems.
While I go do this for the third time and hope it takes, is there any advice anyone can give me?
Thanks a lot - fix my error in Drupal 6.14
Thanks
Thomas S
Thank you
I realize you wrote your post three years ago, but I wanted to say thank you for two reasons; one, for solving my problem. And two, for being extremely clear in your steps. There are a lot of us technically proficient noobs out here that simply someone to step us through things without leaving out "minor" steps that are "obvious" to the writer but not at all obvious to the noob reader. In this post I was able to walk through the solution in about five minutes, no muss no fuss... excellent and thank you!
Thanks
My forum link wasn't showing topics or posts and I was having a devil of time trying to figure out how to connect the vocabulary. Then I came across your post. I am running 6.x, and it fixed the problem. Thanks!
For anyone who has a problem
For anyone who has a problem with the forum module and still has the Forums vocabulary, it might be possible to fix the problem and restore any existing forum posts using the following check list:
http://drupal.org/node/317202#comment-1044468
...but do you really *need* forums?
this is to be a separate discussion, but the short version: forums are just nodes with comments like any other nodes, grouped and handled by taxonomies - containers simply automate a bit of this task - i'm building a site now with no forums, but using a node a discussion platform for an identical purpose, and one can use cck and views to make a much more interesting 'forum' utility and you can even still call it 'forums' if that's what users need to see, but from an admin's perspective it's much easier to style and control...
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i love to waste time: http://twitter.com/passingnotes
I wouldn't say that a forum
I wouldn't say that a forum is a set of nodes with comments, grouped by taxonomy. I'd rather say that a forum is a square box with a small number of topical sections all on one page, where a user is expected to learn fast what goes where. Familiarity of the visitors with how a forum looks plays a big part.
i hear you, but...
this goes back to what forums looked like starting back in the late 90's - then vbulletin, phpbb and all of the other commercial and open source projects (including modern iteration like lussimo's vanilla)
really, for me forums are facebook or myspace - forums evolved, allowed for avatars, subscriptions, messaging, all sorts of networking utility and eventually that assorted 'other stuff' becomes what people do, forums are the backend infrastructure - the containers - and in drupal that is simply organization around a taxonomy, or a content type, or a view or so on...and it would appear that a view output could be styled to look and feel like a forum, with drill downs into vocabularies...
but yet, i do agree that people are familiar with what a 'forum should look like' - this is why most new email programs fail, people just expect email to look a certain way (can you say, 'incredimail' - that company that crapped out last year?)
if you look at the largest and most active community sites in the world, nothing happens in forums - facebook and myspace forums are dead, and major content hubs drive discussion to center on articles, with the article being the equivalent of a 'forum top level topic' in a 'container' called 'sports' or 'politics' replete with tags for multidirectional exploration..
guess it's just semantics, but when it comes to drupal this issue begings to impose real limits for what a user can do...
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i love to waste time: http://twitter.com/passingnotes
I like both
I see forums as one of many places to congregate. Groups are another. I'm not fond of discussions on articles, tbh, as I find them confusing to follow. That was my motivation for putting a forum on my Drupal site. Having a pages of support threads plastered onto a tutorial was hell to keep track of.
So there's definitely a place for forums, especially when you want your users to start the top level discussion. But there's a place for other sorts as well. It depends on what you're looking for.
Michelle
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See my Drupal articles and tutorials or come check out life in the Coulee Region.