What is the status of UIEForum?

UIEForum has never gone into "not supported" status ... Where did you hear that it had?!

I took it offline due to some security concerns that chx had with the module (as ever, he remains an ardent anti-uieforum follower) that he raised with me recently. Out of courtesy, I took it offline while I examined the problem.
The next major release of the code will be when I move the module over to use drupal's node system, which will have to be completed before I can move the codebase over to D6.

There's no current ETA on this, and I'm really not looking forward to doing it. Drupal's onward-and-upward way of releasing new revisions is really beginning to take its toll on me. When every single part of the api changes *again*, I start to get a tad annoyed.

Anyway, you have nothing to worry about, the module is still alive and kicking, and as long as I'm involved with http://unreal.ie it always will be :) The core forum simply cannot do what normal forum users expect, so UIEForum isn't going anywhere just yet.

Thanks for the question though, and I hope I answered it to your liking.
Daniel

Zorro, we appreciate all the work you have done/will do on the module...cheers.

Could anyone reccomend a replacement or a similar module to UIEForum for Drupal v6 ?

I'm just going by the "Update Status" module which says that uieforum 5.x-2.3 is not supported. That's probably happening because its not available for download.

I appreciate the feedback.

The project where the efforts should go is http://drupal.org/project/advanced_forum

I'm using UIEforum on my website and will probably update Drupal from 5 to 6 within 2 months - any suggestions to how I can preserve things from said forums? It would be a real shame to lose it.

I've been looking over the advanced forum module, and talking to Michelle (the project maintainer).

A UIEForum->Core Forum export script is almost complete, so if you're urgently moving to D6 you can still keep all of your content, albeit without UIEforum (as there is no D6 port yet)

Thanks for that Zoro :) And not just for thinking about that export script and making it, but making and maintaining the uieforum script in the first place. I think I can't imagine how much time and effort goes into it (as well as the time needed answering people's questions in the issues area). :)

Any news on the export script Zoro? I realise it's only been a month, but I'd love to know if you've gained any progress. :) When it is finished, where can we find it?

Every time I see this issue I feel bad about #4. I just want to say that if Zoro wants to move his users to using AF, that's fine and I'll do what I can to make sure the users are happy with the move. But AF isn't necessarily better than UIEF; it's just a different approach. There's room in the Drupal world for both modules. It's up to Zoro if he wants to continue.

Michelle

Michelle: I've gotten very used to chx's snappy remarks when it comes to this module, so no need to feel bad :)

@#8 - The conversion script from UIEforum to core forum is pretty much complete. It takes a long time to run, however (up to about 4 hours on a local test install to move 80-85k posts from a dump of unreal.ie's UIEForum to nodes)
I've to investigate ways to improve this, but the body of the script itself is complete, and working.

If you're absolutely desperate to move away from this module then this export/import script will let you do that! After running it, you're then free to move to either AdvancedForum or the core forum itself.

As for continuing on with this module - I'm in 2 minds. I'm pretty much resigned to moving into nodes, regardless of the benefits of a dedicated structure for the forums/threads/posts that currently exist, as the benefits for using nodes greatly outweigh the structure argument.
However, I'm still not convinced that replies-as-comments is the correct approach for a forum system, so I can't say exactly what direction I'm going to take with this at the moment.

If anyone else would like to make any suggestions, please feel free, I'm all ears!

Daniel

Michelle: You're absolutely right and I don't know why I didn't address it. I just posted something about loving the addon and the efforts but didn't distance myself with so many words from that person's attitude. The drupal community is awesome, the feedback given (usually ;) ) excellent, and it's a shame someone just chooses to behave like that.

Zoro: I wouldn't say "absolutely desperate" mate, we've been using this module for something like one and a half, two years now :) so while we may move on it doesn't matter that your efforts to make it have been useless, we've enjoyed posting in it daily. I think for now we'll move to the standard forums --my website is growing and we're a bit hesitant to get too many things that may make upgrading difficult later :) (we're already drupally challenged). Thanks a lot for the port and I'll let you know how long it took ;) Where can I find it?

Replies as comments.. if themed correctly it could just be made to look like a flat thread right? Or am I thinking too simple :)

Asinnema: I'm very glad that you've found something I wrote so useful for such a long time, I really am :)
The import/export script isn't online at the moment, but if you'd like to try it out I can send you the current version. What it actually does is completely replaces the existing uieforum module (and therefore disabling it, stopping it from actually behaving like a forum), with some menu hooks that push all of the uieforum data down magic tubes into Drupal's buckets.

:D

You're correct in saying that comments can be themed to look like a "normal" forum, but the issue I'm facing isn't just with theming (advanced forum does a very, very good job of that, you should check it out), but with the logic involved with storing replies as comments. Simply put, I don't believe that *any* reply to a forum thread should be a comment - they should be nodes.
But, of course, Drupal will have kittens if I just dump 80k nodes into the node table, and loosely tie them together using another mapping table.

*grouphug*

Regarding the script, does that mean we'd need to copy the UIEforum structure in the Drupal forums first? :)
I'd love to have the current version - you can e-mail it to me at asinnema@xs4all.nl .

(And I happen to like kittens)

I would like to try out the script too...

UIEforum has been great for me, but now I'm about to port to D6, so I'm eagerly waiting for an opportunity to push the forum forward, either using Drupal native or Advanced forum.

Personally I think that Drupal needs a layer below nodes, it would ease the sharing of content between node types. If we call the new layer "elements" a content node like page could consist of the obvious elements "title" and "body" and perhaps other common elements like "image", "link", etc. Information on how to handle the elements should be stored in the node, for example that only one "title" is allowed, whereas multiple "image" are allowed. The clever part is that an element for this node could also be used by other nodes, so images for example could be shared between a gallery album and a specific content node. In the same way could forum entries just be elements to a specific thread (node). Anyway, this is my thoughts on the subject, and not directly related to UIEforum.

The drupal community is awesome, the feedback given (usually ;) ) excellent, and it's a shame someone just chooses to behave like that.

Behave like what? Like fight against a totally broken and insecure approach to forums which of course looks very enticing but it's still wrong. Basically, it's a separate full blown CMS besides Drupal. I told you years ago it's wrong, you never heeded to my advice and now I get chewed out? Fantastic! People will take functionality over security and performance any day, I can see that.

Also, I happen to have millions of nodes and Drupal still runs happily.

I'd forgotten about this thread... @chx - I appreciate your support and it's sweet of you to steer people my way. I just thought it was a bit much to do it in Zoro's queue. I don't think there's anything wrong with him offering a different approach to forums. It's no worse than the other bridges out there. As much as I'd love to post in the phbb & vb integration modules' queues I do resist the urge. :)

Michelle

I would also like to test the script as we are pretty much all set to move to v.6 except forums bryan.tebow@gmail.com

Thanks again for a great module, we put it to great use!

I would like the script as well ianmattcook@gmail.com.

Thanks a lot.

Behave like the end justify your means; which is trolling another module author's forum by making heated comments that don't serve anyone. People can choose for themselves which module to use, it's not your job to "fight" for or against it, and it certainly doesn't make me want to look beyond what you're saying to actually try to see your point of view.

@asinnema - Please don't dredge this up again. It's been done for a couple of weeks.

Michelle

Can I get a copy of the script so that I can convert my existing D5 UIEforum to Advanced Forum on D6? kjh@flyballdogs.com

Is the version for drupal 6 available or will it be soon? If maintenance on this script is stopped, we like to convert to the Advanced Forum. Is that convertion script public available?

Does UIE forum use all nodes? AF is becoming compatable with nodecomment s(ETA by the end of June) o it may be easier to convert to that if that is the case rather than trying to convert your nodes to comments.

Michelle

Nope, it doesn't use nodes. I have a conversion script for moving from UIEForum to core, but the performance of the script is a dog so I haven't released it yet.
As for the nodecomment approach - I'd be very happy to alter the script to create new nodes instead of comments - I hate that comments aren't nodes themselves :)

And no, maintainence of UIEForum hasn't ceased - I just haven't done anything recently ;)

AF will be compatable with both, and nodecomment can convert from comments. So it doesn't matter which way you go. I just thought it might be an easier task.

Michelle

Excellent news Michelle - thanks for the update!

So how about getting a copy of the conversion script? I don't care about the performance. The forums I need to convert aren't that big but big enough that I don't want to recreate all the posts by hand.

I guess the performance problem is caused by the x time a call is made to drupal api. Maybe its possible just to convert all the items with a few(?) SQL statements?

Any update on getting that conversion script available?