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Hi to all out there,
OK I think I will take the plunge into LinksSQL
but...but...but
Istill have some unsolved matters before spending 450$.

I have a Flatfile Database of about 6000 links made for Links2.
All these Links have 2 to 3 Altcategories.
Now after searching the forum I understand that LinksSQL can only import 1 Altcategory and that LinksSQL does not understand the separator ~~ in the Altcategory.
QUESTION: How do I import and does LinksSQL support more than 1 Altcategory ????

2/ Can I have my Categories sorted the way I want and not automatically by alphabeth ??????

Can I easyly add a sort of switch to LinksSQL so that a page appears that says "The directory is currently offline for 3 hours we are updating" ?????

This would allow me to manually (using Exel) to work on the database ?????

Tegards,
Sanuk
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Re: [sanuk] More Questions In reply to
Hi,

1. No, the default import only recognizes one alt category. We could probably tweak the import for you so it picks up multiple, shouldn't be hard.

2. Yes, you can specify the sort order for categories, it doesn't have to be alphabetical.

3. Yes, under Setup->Misc, you can "disable" the site. Of course, the static html pages still get displayed, but any cgi would display the page disabled.

Cheers,

Alex
--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
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Re: [Alex] More Questions In reply to
Hi Alex,

Can you do that right out of the box or is this a post sale modification?

I asked this same question at: http://www.gossamer-threads.com/...llapsed;guest=370321



But your final reponse seems like the webmaster has to make a new column and then resort. Will this affect only the main home page?



Thank you for your insight.
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Re: [curman] More Questions In reply to
Hi,

In regards to number 2, you can sort on any existing column you like. There is no sort order column by default, so you would have to add one (this involves clicking on Database->Category->Properties and clicking on Add Column). There is a good walk through of this in the manual.

Cheers,

Alex
--
Gossamer Threads Inc.
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Re: [Alex] More Questions In reply to
Hi Alex,
Thanks for your reply.

Concerning the import of the Altcategories,
Is this a definitive Yes or only a Maybe ???

This is important before buying the script.

As I would also use the Import function many times to Bulk upload New links that I would have prepared using excel again ( and having multiple Altcategories).

Will this then become a MOD for LinksSQL or would you update this in the next version ????

Thanks in advance
Regards,
Sanuk
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Re: [sanuk] More Questions In reply to
Hi,

Not trying to speak for Alex, I think he really meant this as a "yes" it can be done, because it would involved a simple "check" to be made on the ALT field.

I am not familiar (any more) with how Links 2.0 stores the alt data, or even how the import decides to import only one category, _but_ because Links SQL stores all the category data in the CatLinks table, as a pair of values LinkID<=>CategoryID it is really no change at all -- or even a problem -- to insert additional categories, as long as the import program does a bit of extra parsing on the alt field. This would be a change to that line of code -- if it can insert one category it should be able to insert two. (not 100% for certain, but I can't understand why it couldn't)

I've been looking at the various import modalities, because I'm trying to work out a script that will dump keyword specified searches from a DMOZ import into a file that can be imported by Links SQL. Obviously, it's not going to please everyone <G> but it should allow targeted link additions to existing directories.


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Re: [sanuk] More Questions In reply to
Hi sanuk ....

Here is my opinion as an ordinary user confronted with the same problem. If I have understood your question correctly, the answer is "Yes, you can do it". It's what we have been doing.

Our data is all being imported from more than one source, mostly Links 2.0 and DBMan, so it is all Excel-compatible. We have used Excel to merge the data, assign sequential ID numbers, sorting, etc. By the way, your Excel columns should be formatted as "Text" so dates and numbers don't get corrupted -- the only exception should be text fields that have more than 255 characters of content.

If you want to use the LinksSQL direct import function, it is helpful to create a few dummy links first, then export them so you can compare them with your import file.

However, after experimenting, we found that the easiest way to do it is to use the "SQL Monitor" function of MySQLMan -- a miraculous program that is bundled with LinksSQL and is almost worth the license fee in its own right.

You can use SQL Monitor to import the whole of your data, or if you prefer, just the AltCategories (that is very easy to do).

Here is an outline of what we did ...

1. Set up your category and links tables to match the structure of your existing data. If you need new columns, it is easy to add them at this point.

2. Create a few dummy categories, including some sub-categories, and some that are related.

3. Create some dummy links, just enough to test your fields. The quickest way to do it is to add them directly to a category. Alternative categories are achieved with the link "copy" function (which does not copy the link record, it adds the link ID to the table which connects links to categories).

Step 1 depends on the complexity of your data, and is something you have to do anyway. Steps 2 and 3 should not take more than five minutes.

4. Use SQL Monitor to create a dump file of your LinksSQL tables. This is a file of MySQL commands that will completely re-create your tables and all the data in them. In practice, you don't need all the tables, just the four which contain your data: category, catlinks, catrelations, links. Use them as a model for your real data.

5. What you do next depends on what software you use, and how well you know it, so I won't go into detail. Our method is to copy the entire Excel worksheet into Textpad, then use search/replace to insert the SQL commands, replace tabs with commas, escape apostrophes, etc. You may need to experiment a bit at first -- but if you can do one, you can do 100,00.

6. Now all you have to do is tell SQL Monitor where to find the file. When it has finished, all your links are in the correct multiple categories. It all happens with impressive efficiency and speed.