How to migrate smooth to Ultraguest?

[jonelo]

I'm was searching for a free guestbook with captcha feature, because Spambots are attacking even guestbooks these days :( I was searching until I found Ultraguest :)

Well, now I would like to move my 85 valuable entries from my existing guestbook to Ultraguest. If I'm going to add them manually, there are at least two speed bumps:

- it will take some time to add them due to the timout blocker
- timestamps of all entries will change and I can't restore the timestamps to the real values, because entries in Ultraguest seems to be read-only.

I hope you have a few ideas for this challenge!? At least the ability to modify timestamps (or an complete entry) would be helpful for me.

Thanks,
jonelo

[Andreas]

Hi Jonelo,

You will be able to edit messages (including timestamps) within a few days and I can turn off the timeout blocker for your guestbook while you add messages. Still a large job, but at least it addresses the "speed bumps" :)

[jonelo]

Hi Andreas,

within a few days? This is indeed very good news - thank you very much :)
Yes, please turn off the timeout blocker for my guestbook while I'm adding messages. How about adding the blocker option to the Guestbook Options?

Thanks,
jonelo

[Andreas]

The edit-message feature will be ready tomorrow. I might add the blocker option as a new feature, but that it a little further down on my list right now.

Please let me know which guestbook you are using and I'll turn of the blocker.

[Andreas]

You are now able to edit messages in your guestbook, but for a variety of reasons I can not leave the timestamp open to edit. Since I promised you a feature that is not going to be avaialbe now or in the future, I am willing to manually change the timestamps for your guestbook. Just send me a private message with details.

[dearkj]

Hi Andreas,

Your service is one of the best I've seen while researching guestbooks. I'd like to migrate to ultraguest but I have the same problem as jonelo. I've got 45 entries whose timestamps I'd like to keep original if possible. But it would be a lot of work for you to manually change them as well. Have you got any other suggestions?

[Andreas]

Thanks for your comments, dearkj! :)

I might be able to do this for you in the future, but right now I need to spend my time working on new features (custom fields, IP banning, timestamps and multi-language support are all on the way!).

I had promised Jonelo a feature and I was not able to keep my word. That is why I went a little further than I usually do to help out. Please understand that doing this manually is a very lengthy job.

I'm very sorry for not being able to help you out here...

[jonelo]

I relly feel like a luck dog ;) I highly appreciate the special service you have done for me, because I can imagine how time consuming the job was. However, I'm pretty sure there will come more people who are willing to migrate to Ultraguest, because Ultragest is phenomenal, and I'm also sure that I'm not the only one who is thinking about it in that way. So as feel pretty luck, I'm going to suggest a feature request for the future of Ultraguest :D

I'm thinking of an open interface for Ultraguest based on XML, for example. Let's call it the "Ultraguest fileformat" for want of a better word. Old guestbooks's content can be transformed to that fileformat, and if you can import those files to Ultraguest by a script, then everybody has a defined way to migrate to Ultraguest, and the work for a migration is primarily not on your site. What do you think about the idea?

Thanks,
jonelo

[Andreas]

Thanks for another great idea! I'll look into the XML/migration and also some way of exporting existing entries. There are a few features that has to be added first though (timezones, IP banning, multi-language support), but this is for sure very interesting!

[karenshader]

Hello Andreas --

I just registered because I really like your guestbook. I, too, have an existing guestbook which is currently getting slammed by spammers...to the point where I've shut down all new entries. The entries are stored as a text (.txt) file that I'd need to transfer...and it has 330+ entries so no way to manually add. The last time I switched guestbook scripts (about a year ago), I was able to simply upload the list.txt file with all of the entries(....?) I had to do just some minor adjustments first to the .txt file...to make sure the entries appeared correctly.

Are your entries saved as a .txt file?

If it ever becomes possible to transfer old entries over, please let me know!:)

Thanks!

Karen

[Andreas]

Hi Karen,

As of now it is not possible to upload/transfer messages automatically. I'm looking into this and I'll make an announcement on this forum if/when it becomes an option.