Yahoo To PHPBB3 (New Name=Y2B3W7) Released

[gs2088c]

EULA updated 09 Mar 2012, 1946 hours ET (USA); and uploaded at 1949 hours ET (USA).

[gs2088c]

Updated version (2012.3.1) uploaded. Please remember: per the EULA, para 6.4.1: "Users must maintain the most current version of the program before support is provided."

Good day all:

It has been decided that all my programs, including Y2B3W7 will now have an accelerated cut over time to a minimum platform of Windows 7, service pack 1. The new date is 17 Jun 2012, 0001 hours (12:01am) ET (USA).

New releases of all program will have a support code generated by the program that must provided if support is requested. Without this code, no support will be provided. Details on the code will be provided when the new program versions are released.

I've been seeing rumors about Windows 7, Service Pack 2 may be released in Jun, 2012. When SP2 comes out, within 60 days MAXIMUM, the plan is to require SP2 on all programs.

[gs2088c]

It has been decided that all my programs, including Y2B3W7 will now have an accelerated cut over time to a minimum platform of Windows 7, service pack 1. The new date is 17 Jun 2012, 0001 hours (12:01am) ET (USA).

Effective 17 Jun 2012, 1910 ET (USA) a new version (2012.6.17) of Y2B3W7 has been uploaded. This means:

1. The program will only run on Windows 7, SP1 or greater.
2. The support request file must be provided to request assistance. If not provided, no support will be provided.
3. Information on the contents of the support request file can be seen in the help file available through http://www.i-really-want-to-know.com (look under Programs/Scripts, then Yahoo-To-phpBB3).
4. No previous versions of Y2b3 or Y2B3w7 will be supported.

Remember... No support request file = No support, NO EXCEPTIONS

[kazkotx]

Hello. I havent gone through the steps to use your program yet but I have read the help file. I have a few questions for you regarding general usage. In the help file there is a slight reference to using the system in an iterative fashion instead of all at once. What I would like to accomplish is essentially setting all of these things up to run nightly from a scheduled job such that any recent activity on the yahoo group is downloaded and archived into the forum. This of course would be a single direction method to sync to the forum.

So my questions are:

Can this be run from command line/script without using the gui/user interface?
Can this be run in that fashion to only execute new entries
What else might need to be done in order to automate such a thing to sync nightly or weekly?

Also,

In this scenario, I'd be executing the final setup on my 2003 server, so it might be nice if you did not block it from running on a server in the future: 5.02 = Windows Server 2003.
I am currently successfully archiving my yahoo groups daily using Yahoo2Mbox. So I find myself with a number of very large mbox files and no way to import into phpbb. So I am considering experimenting with your solution.

I certainly appreciate you efforts here on this tool.

[gs2088c]

Hello. I havent gone through the steps to use your program yet but I have read the help file. I have a few questions for you regarding general usage. In the help file there is a slight reference to using the system in an iterative fashion instead of all at once. What I would like to accomplish is essentially setting all of these things up to run nightly from a scheduled job such that any recent activity on the yahoo group is downloaded and archived into the forum. This of course would be a single direction method to sync to the forum.

So my questions are:

Can this be run from command line/script without using the gui/user interface?
Can this be run in that fashion to only execute new entries
What else might need to be done in order to automate such a thing to sync nightly or weekly?

Also,

In this scenario, I'd be executing the final setup on my 2003 server, so it might be nice if you did not block it from running on a server in the future: 5.02 = Windows Server 2003.
I am currently successfully archiving my yahoo groups daily using Yahoo2Mbox. So I find myself with a number of very large mbox files and no way to import into phpbb. So I am considering experimenting with your solution.

I certainly appreciate you efforts here on this tool.

Since these are general questions, I will answer then without the required "support request file" as outlined in my 2012_07_17 post above.

============
Before I answer your question, let me quickly setup the history.

The program was written, at least at first, for my use only to bring over my board to phpBB, so it wasn't written with alot of "bells and whistles". It was also intended as a "one time use" program. But evolved to be a more.
============
QUESTION: Can this be run from command line/script without using the gui/user interface?

ANSWER: No, at this time, I'm afraid it can't. It was intended to be a one-time deal. Plus, in order to insure no entries are over written in phpBB, the user must specify the next post number to start with, and when importing the entries, the phpBB board must be temporarily disabled.
============
QUESTION: Can this be run in that fashion to only execute new entries

ANSWER: The auxillary program that gets the data from the Yahoo board should only process newer entries, because its config file has in essence "the last post processed". It then picks up from there. As for Y2B3w7, it will check its "config" and start after the last post it processed during the last run.
============
QUESTION: What else might need to be done in order to automate such a thing to sync nightly or weekly?

ANSWER: The only promise I will make, is that I will look at it, especially in light of the Yahoo2mbox (this is the first I've heard of it), you mentioned, but that's it. Give me a few days.
============

[kazkotx]

Very nice response. Thanks.

The Yahoo2Mbox is command line run which allows you to use it in a batch file. I have the scheduler on my 2003 server running the script daily to update all of my archives with recent posts. Once you have gone through the initial hassle of gathering all of the group history using the dual-account script and timers, it is then very easy to stay up to date. And that leaves you with a mbox file of the entire group history. I have one group that is at 1.5G right now but most are far under that. So being a free script, that is still working well, that can be automated, it's a good source for input. What remains is a way to parse and bring into the phpbb3 database in an automated fashion that can run in a script. Obviously it will also need to keep track of last message number processed, but that's about it. All imported messages would be posted as the Forum group member you choose.

This end result gives you a one-way running archive of a yahoo group without needing any complicated mail server stuff going on. This would allow me to present more friendly content to my niche group, many of which already participate in the related Yahoo groups.

Now of course the ultimate setup would be a bidirectional one where a user could choose to participate in the threads from either their normal Yahoo list email, the Yahoo Group web site or the PHPBB3 forum. And threading would be amazing. It seems that the only fix for that is Mail2Forum which appears to be completely abandoned considering how their web site is now defunct. I suspect that project is lost to the noise of what should have been a simpler update to run with PHPBB3.

[gs2088c]

Very nice response. Thanks.

The Yahoo2Mbox is command line run which allows you to use it in a batch file. I have the scheduler on my 2003 server running the script daily to update all of my archives with recent posts. Once you have gone through the initial hassle of gathering all of the group history using the dual-account script and timers, it is then very easy to stay up to date. And that leaves you with a mbox file of the entire group history. I have one group that is at 1.5G right now but most are far under that. So being a free script, that is still working well, that can be automated, it's a good source for input. What remains is a way to parse and bring into the phpbb3 database in an automated fashion that can run in a script. Obviously it will also need to keep track of last message number processed, but that's about it. All imported messages would be posted as the Forum group member you choose.

This end result gives you a one-way running archive of a yahoo group without needing any complicated mail server stuff going on. This would allow me to present more friendly content to my niche group, many of which already participate in the related Yahoo groups.

Now of course the ultimate setup would be a bidirectional one where a user could choose to participate in the threads from either their normal Yahoo list email, the Yahoo Group web site or the PHPBB3 forum. And threading would be amazing. It seems that the only fix for that is Mail2Forum which appears to be completely abandoned considering how their web site is now defunct. I suspect that project is lost to the noise of what should have been a simpler update to run with PHPBB3.

I've taken a QUICK LOOK at the Yahoo2mbox, and based on the short time of testing it, things look good. What I mean is that the current program used to get posts from yahoo (PG-Offline) most likely will be abandoned for the Yahoo2mbox, if I do rewrite it.

As for support for other than Windows 7, I've received several (private) requests for that, especially since Windows XP EOL is in 2014 (08 Apr 2014), just over 1 year, 8 months away.

I have decided to lift this restriction, FOR Y2B3W7 only (although the name will not change), but none of my other programs will have this restriction removed. However there are caveats:

1. Development:
1.1. Y2B3W7 will still be written with Windows 7 as the main targeted platform, WITH NO INTENTIONAL BACKWARD COMPATIBILITY.
1.2. The "support request file" will still be required for all support requests, except for very general questions.
1.3. If the reported issue can't be reproduced, IT WILL BE TAKEN as incompatibility between Windows 7 (#1 above), and whatever version of Windows is being used by the user. This means, if it runs OK in Windows 7, but not, for example in Windows XP, then it isn't officially a problem.
1.4. The updated version of Y2B3W7 will be uploaded by Monday, 2012_08_06, 2359:59 hours ET (USA) with the restriction removed. An announcement will be placed here. The only update for the next upload is eliminating the Windows 7 check.
1.5. I may at any time, resume the Windows 7 restrictions.

2. After more testing, the decision on whether to use Yahoo2mbox will be made, and announced here, however, how long development will take is unknown.

[gs2088c]

1.4. The updated version of Y2B3W7 will be uploaded by Monday, 2012_08_06, 2359:59 hours ET (USA) with the restriction removed. An announcement will be placed here. The only update for the next upload is eliminating the Windows 7 check.

The update was just uploaded (http://www.i-really-want-to-know.com/_d ... s_/y2b3w7/). If you want to use this version, and you already have "live" data from the 2012.6.17 version, backup/copy C:\MyData\gls-data\y2b3w7, install the program, then restore/copy everything back. The databases has NOT changed.

[gs2088c]

Good morning all:

Well, after some testing last night, I've decided to rewrite Y2B3W7 using yahoo2mbox as the "download engine" (for the lack of a better term). This will allow for at least partial automatic processing.

Depending on the size of your board, the downloading of the Yahoo posts might take a bit. So, to give you a head start, I'll give you part of the steps now. When the final program is released, some of these steps will be automated.

1. You must download and install the ActivePerl program from:

http://www.activestate.com/activeperl/downloads

1.1. Before installing, please read everything first.

2. Download program version:

Win 32-bit: ActivePerl-5.16.0.1600-MSWin32-x86-295879.msi
Win 64-bit: ActivePerl-5.16.0.1600-MSWin32-x64-295879.msi

3. Install the program, but note:
3.1. By default the program installs in C:\Perl
3.2. I installed it in C:\Program Files\Perl (I have a 32-bit Windows 7).
3.3. The plans are that the rewrite of Y2B3W7 will expect the PERL program to be located here. For now, if you install it anywhere else, you'll have to modify the commands given below manually, no support will be provided for this.

4. Go to my site listed here, and download the MODIFIED YAHOO2MBOX SCRIPT. This is the only script that will work with Y2B3W7. If you attempt to use any other version, or modify it in any way, Y2B3W7 will fail to work.

http://www.i-really-want-to-know.com/_downloads_/y2b3w7
file: irwtk_yahoo2mbox.zip

5. Create a folder called C:\TEMP02 and extract the script into that location. This will only be temporary, until the rewrite is complete.

6. Create a "bat" file with the following (just what is between the two "======" lines. See notes below.

======
@echo off
cls
cd C:\temp02
"c:\Program Files\perl\bin\perl.exe" c:\temp02\irwtk_yahoo2mbox.pl --u
ser=(your yahoo e-mail) --pass=(your yahoo password) -o C:\temp02\(mailbox_name).irwtk --
next ### --x-yahoo --debug (group name as it appears in the addressbar when logged in) > log.txt
pause
======

7. Now if you start getting errors, and then files like "bad_4400.html" shows up. This means that most likely you're getting error 999. See notes below.

8. Using the command above (next ###) will automatically determine the last message the script downloaded, so you don't have to worry about specifying the next message to start with.

9. After creating the bat file in #6, simply locate it using Windows Explorer, and double click on it. Repeat this process until all posts are downloaded.

Notes:
1. If you don't know what "bat" files are, please look it up on the Internet.
2. (your yahoo e-mail) = your e-mail like abc@yahoo.com (no quotes)
3. (your yahoo password) = your actual password (no quotes)
4. (mailbox_name) = physical filename without an extension (no quotes). The program (Y2B3W7) will expect an extension of irwtk.
5. ### = the number of records to download with each running of the command. I recommend not more than 500, because Yahoo might lock your IP.
6. (group name as it appears in the addressbar when logged in) = this is the name of your group in the addressbar (e.g. my-group) (no quotes).
7. Now Yahoo may lock you (your IP) out if you download too much at one time, usually an error 999. To get around that, either download it in blocks, maybe 1500-2000 max, wait for awhile, then to the next batch, or get a new IP. Usually you can do this by rebooting your Modem, and let it recycle. For me I can unplug it from the power for a few seconds, plug it in, and it will get a new IP from your ISP. There are a few other ways, but this is the easist.
8. If you don't know that a bat file is, please google it.
9. The rewrite of Y2B3W7 will expect the downloaded messages to be in a file with the extention of "irwtk".

[gs2088c]

Hey all:

I'm holding off starting the rewrite for a week or so. There several reasons, but one of them is I want to board up to 3.0.10 first, which will be the new baseline for the program.

[gs2088c]

Hi all:

I've started the rewrite of y2b3w7 to use yahoo2mbox. This rewrite will require the use of one program, and one perl script as follows:

PERL - This is the only version, and only author that the program will be tested on, so any other version of PERL, or authors program is used by the user, it will be at the user's own risk.

============
Windows (x86) - 32-bit Windows:
============

http://www.activestate.com/activeperl/d ... 295879.msi

============
Windows (x64) - 64-bit Windows:
============

http://www.activestate.com/activeperl/d ... 295879.msi

As for Yahoo2mbox perl script that is suppose to be at:

http://www.tt-solutions.com/en/portfolio/yahoo2mbox/

As of 2012_08_15 0943 hours ET (USA), I get the error:

"Firefox can't find the server at http://www.tt-solutions.com.

This may only be temporary, but I do have the following copies of the script:

yahoo2mbox_(0_19)_pl.gz
yahoo2mbox_(0_19).zip
yahoo2mbox_(0_20)_pl.gz
yahoo2mbox_(0_20).zip
yahoo2mbox_(0_21)_pl.gz
yahoo2mbox_(0_21).zip
yahoo2mbox_(0_22)_pl.gz
yahoo2mbox_(0_22).zip
yahoo2mbox_(0_23)_pl.gz
yahoo2mbox_(0_23).zip
yahoo2mbox_(0_24)_pl.gz
yahoo2mbox_(0_24).zip

So if the above error persists, I will provide the most current script from my site.

I can't give an estimate on the time, I got several pokers in the fire.

[gs2088c]

I've started the rewrite of y2b3w7 to use yahoo2mbox.

For updated information concerning this application, go to my board, and the appropriate forum:

http://www.i-really-want-to-know.com/bo ... m.php?f=13

Support is provided at the above location.

[gs2088c]

Update on the rewrite can be seen at: http://www.i-really-want-to-know.com/bo ... ?f=13&t=77

[gs2088c]

.

Updated info on Y2B3W7: http://www.i-really-want-to-know.com/bo ... f=13&t=148

.

[gs2088c]

News on y2b3w7 at: http://www.i-really-want-to-know.com/bo ... f=13&t=173
Please pay attention to the information in RED, it applies here also.