Questions About Moving An Mt Blog To Tch

[Highwaygirl]

Hi there!

 

My name is Julie, and I have a website (www.highwaygirl.com) that is currently being hosted by GoDaddy. I'm seriously considering changing hosts for a few reasons; TCH is the host I'm leaning towards.

 

I have a few issues I'd like to throw out there to gauge how difficult it might be for me to move my site.

 

First thing - I'm running MT 2.664 using a Berkeley database. When I change hosts I would like to do the following:

 

1. Switch from the Berkeley db to MySQL

2. Upgrade to the newest version of MT

 

I'm mostly concerned about #1. Is this something I should do before changing hosts, or can I import my site to TCH (with the Berkeley DB) and convert to MySQL once I'm here? Would it be best to install the newest version of MT on a TCH-hosted site and then bring my current files over?

 

I guess what I'm looking for here is some idea of the order of steps I'd need to take to accomplish those two things above. I have an excellent knowledge of HTML and CSS, but databases tend to confuse me and I have a limited understanding of scripting.

 

I do follow directions well, however.

 

Also, just to clarify - I can allow GoDaddy to continue hosting the three domain names I have even if I choose TCH as the webhost for my individual sites, correct? I've got no issues with them as far as their performance as a domain name registrar goes, and since I just renewed all three URLs I'd rather not transfer them at this time.

 

Any guidance you can give before I make my decision would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance for your time!

[TCH-Bruce]

Hi Julie, welcome to the forums.

 

I would open an account here, install the latest version of MT then export your entries from your current MT install and import it into your new install.

Follow TCH-David's instructions below.

 

You do not need to transfer your domains to TCH if you don't want to.

 

You can only host one domain per virtual account. To host multiple domains would require a reseller account or multiple virtual accounts.

 

You can park domains on a virtual account as long as they point to the same entry point of your main domain.

Edited June 23, 2005 by TCH-Bruce

[TCH-Rob]

Welcome to the forums Julie.

[TCH-Don]

Welcome to the forums Julie

[TweezerMan]

Welcome to the forums, Julie!

 

I would recommend upgrading from Berkeley DB to MySQL before moving your account to TCH. There have been issues with taking a Berkeley DB database from one server and trying to use it on another server due to different versions of Berkeley DB in use. If you happened to encounter this issue, it would be very difficult to work around.

 

To convert your database from Berkeley DB to MySQL, you need to have the mt-db2sql.cgi script on your server to do the actual conversion, then follow these instructions from the MT manual: Converting your Berkeley DB database to a SQL database

 

Once you've upgraded your database to MySQL, you could then migrate your database to TCH by performing a MySQL database export (this may be available in your GoDaddy CPanel), or by submitting a ticket to the TCH Help Desk and asking them to perform a CPanel site-to-site copy to copy your entire site from your account at GoDaddy to your new TCH account.

 

I would not recommend using MT's Export feature to export your MT database from GoDaddy because:

 

1) MT's Export feature only export entries, comments, and trackbacks. Your templates are not exported, and if you don't manually make a copy of them and save them to be manually installed later, they will be lost.

 

2) MT's Export feature does not preserve entry ID numbers in the MT database. If you export your entries with MT's Export feature from GoDaddy, then import them into a database on your TCH account, the entry ID numbers will change and cause most (if not all) of your permalinks to be broken.

 

After upgrading your database to MySQL and migrating your site to TCH, you could then look at upgrading from MT 2.64 to MT 3.17 (currently the latest version) on your TCH account. The instructions for how to upgrade MT are also in the MT manual.

 

Hope this helps...

[TCH-Thomas]

Welcome to the forum, Julie.

[TCH-Bruce]

I knew I should have waited for David to answer.

 

I moved from MT to Wordpress and I exported my entries and imported them into WP. So I made an assumption it would also work for an upgrade.

[jwbowden]

Welcome Julie! As you can see TCH-David is really on the ball!

[Highwaygirl]

Thanks for the welcome!

 

I somehow managed to get the database conversion script to work, so now I have a brand new MySQL database supporting my site over on GoDaddy. So now I'm at the step where I change hosts.

 

Once you've upgraded your database to MySQL, you could then migrate your database to TCH by performing a MySQL database export (this may be available in your GoDaddy CPanel), or by submitting a ticket to the TCH Help Desk and asking them to perform a CPanel site-to-site copy to copy your entire site from your account at GoDaddy to your new TCH account.

 

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GoDaddy doesn't use CPanel. They have something called phpMyAdmin 2.4.0. It does have an "Export" tab, and when I click on it I have the following options:

 

(A box listing the following tables): mt_author mt_blog mt_category mt_comment mt_entry mt_ipbanlist mt_log mt_notification mt_permission mt_placement mt_plugindata mt_tbping mt_template mt_templatemap mt_trackback

 

Radio buttons beside the box that let me select:

Structure only

Structure and data

Data only

Export to XML format

LaTeX

Select All / Unselect All

 

Check boxes for the following options:

Add 'drop table'

Complete inserts

Extended inserts

Enclose table and field names with backquotes

Save as file ( "zipped" "gzipped" )

 

I have no idea what any of this means. Can someone give me an idea of what options I need to select to export the correct settings for use on TCH?

 

Thanks again! You guys make this whole process so easy. I really appreciate the help.

[TweezerMan]

Click the "Select All" link to select all of the tables in your MT database.

 

Select the "Structure and data" radio button option.

 

The only box you need to check is the "Save as file" checkbox. I'd recommend selecting the "zipped" option, as this will substantially reduce the size of the file.

 

You may want to name the export file yourself, so you can easily find and identify it. Just type a name with no extension (phpMyAdmin will add the extension for you). When you click the "Go" button, the export file should be created then downloaded to your machine.

 

Hope this helps...