How to archive forums, keep a link, have new forums? HELP!?

Sergeant Joined: Aug 22, 2004 Posts: 105

I've searched these forums, and can't find a solution to do exactly what I need to do.

Running Nuke 8.0, all works well. My nuke site (Site A) is "merging" with another nuke site (Site B). So far, so good.

Site A will be the face of the merged site. File changes, html changes, name changes, all the visual stuff has been handled, all is okee dokee.

Site B (which will no longer be accessible) is going to stay online, with their forums locked, and Site A will have a link to the old forums for historical/reference reasons. Again, so far, so good.

Here is my snag:

I need to also lock the current forums on Site A, and have them accessible only through a link in the menu, the same as the link that goes to the Site B forums.

The Site A forums will be created fresh, and only "post-merger" entries will be seen in the nuke/phpBB forums.

(I hope this comes across clear.)

So, my question:

How can I move all the posts in my current forums, keeping their structure intact, to a new place, accessible by a hyperlink, and then create a fresh, empty nuke/phpBB forum on Site A (the merged site)?

Is it possible to just change the names of the Site A forums, make them hidden and locked, and then make a hyperlink that would show only the hidden forums? Nah, that's got to be too simple.

I'm sure this will mean creating a new DB for the new forums. I can do that, but can someone give me some direction here>

Hue? You've always been the guru. How about it? Suggestions?

Thanks in advance...........

Sergeant Joined: Aug 22, 2004 Posts: 105

Would the following approach work?

Copy the forums module contents into a new dir called OLDforums, and place it in the modules folder, and activate the module.

Export the contents of the 23 tables in the DB that start with the prefix nuke_bb, rename the 23 tables to OLD_bb, and put them back into the DB with the new names.

What would I have to change in the OLDforums dir to make it work only with the OLDforums tables, which would be locked, and be read-only?

Or, is this even a workable approach?

Is there another way to have two or three phpbb forums in the same phpnuke install?

(Help us, Obi Hue Kenobi. The Force is strong in you.)