TOPIC: Re-Syncing Events from JEvents 1.0 to 1.5

Some users have had issues when migrating their site from Joomla 1.0 to 1.5 in regards to JEvents. The 1.5 version of JEvents has a completely different file and database structure. Due to this, it is possible to have some issues... most people get through just fine, but not everyone. If you are one of the unfortunate ones, this post is for you

1) You should still have JEvents 1.4.x installed at the same time as the new 1.5 version. Due to the different database table names, this is possible. To upgrade, be sure to watch our video tutorial for assistance. DO NOT REMOVE the old JEvents until you are 100% sure that everything is working correctly in both JEvents and DT Register.

2) JEvents 1.5 has a tool in the control panel to migrate your "legacy events" into the new structure. This is a nice tool except for one little detail... SOMETIMES the event ID# is changed in the migration process. Not sure why, but occasionally this happens. Just looking in JEvents alone, you will not have any problem with that. BUT DT Register connects to the events by this event ID, so if the ID is changed, DT Register now is connecting with either the wrong event or no event at all! This is not good of course, which is why we added a simple re-sync tool in the Event Management area of DT Register. BEFORE YOU USE this re-sync tool, go to the next step. You'll need some database knowledge to get through this, so if you don't have, get someone that does to help you out

3) Go to your database using phpMyAdmin or whatever tool you have access to. You should now do a BACKUP of all DT Register and JEvents database tables just in case you mess things up worse Then, you'll want to export the data from the following tables in CSV files that you can edit in Excel (this shows the table prefixes as "jos_" which most people use, but yours may be different and that is fine):

jos_dtregister_group_event - DT Register
jos_events - OLD JEvents
jos_jevents_repetition - NEW JEvents
jos_jevents_vevdetail - NEW JEvents
jos_jevents_vevent - NEW JEvents

* If you don't have the old JEvents still available, you can still do this, it will just take a little more work.

4) Now go to DT Register -> Event Management and find the link to our re-sync tool in the green highlighted area. You can use this only if you still have the old JEvents in place. It allows you to sync the old and the new side by side then click the sync button to make the necessary changes. Use the dropdown in the second column to match up the event names in column 2 to column 1. Each will show the ID # being used for that event. PAY ATTENTION and see if any of the 2nd column IDs are the same as any IDs in the 1st column. If any overlap, you should not use this tool as it could confuse some records and make more work for you manually. Only use this tool if all of the new IDs are different from the old ones. For example if the 1st column has IDs 1, 2, 3 and the 2nd column has IDs 7, 8, 9 then click the SYNC button and you'll probably be done! Check your records and details in the front and the back and if all is well, then forget the rest of this post and go do something else! However, if the 2nd column has 3, 4, 5 (for example), then you could end up with two events both using ID 3 causing the existing records to be combined into the same event. In this case, DO NOT use the re-sync and proceed for manually fixing this whole problem.

5) You will now gather data to syncronize the events... finding the event ID# in the old system and the event ID# in the new system. In the end, we will be modifying the three new JEvents tables to reflect different ID numbers. It will be easier to convert them to using the old IDs than it would be to modify DT Register events and existing records to assign them to the new IDs.

6) Gathering the Old Event ID from JEvents:

Open your export of jos_events. The first column is "id". Make note of this ID# for each event that is setup in DT Register. This is the number that you'll be using in the new JEvents database tables. This is also the ID that DT Register is using to connect the records to the correct event.

* Key Fields in this database table:
"id" - shows the event ID# that we need.
"title" - shows the event name so you can find your event.
"publish_up" - shows the date and time of the event.

7) Locate the Old Event ID from DT Register:

If you read the readme files and watched the videos, then you would not have deleted the old JEvents and you have just located the old event IDs. You can skip to #8 now. For the rest of you, you'll have to find the ID in the DT Register table.

Open the export file for jos_dtregister_group_event. You will find this slightly more challenging than having the old JEvents data, but still possible. For example, there is no field giving the event name, so you'll have to use other details such as price to figure out what each event is.

* Key Fields in this database table:
"eventId" - the event ID that ties to the old JEvents
"registerAmountIndividual" - the base price of the event
"topmsg" - message above the form, may contain helpful details
"event_describe" - event description

If you used the re-sync tool already, you MAY find in DT Register now that more than one event is now using the same eventID.

8 ) Locate the new EventID in JEvents 1.5:

This is easiest to find in jos_jevents_vevdetail. The first column "evdet_id" is the data we need. Use info in these fields to determine the ID and the event it is assigned to.

* Key fields in this database table:
"evdet_id" - the ID # we are looking for
"dtstartraw" - this is a hard to read event date. The first eight numbers in this string will give you the date in this format - YYYYMMDD
"description" - event description that likely holds helpful info.
"summary" - event title

9) Now that you know both the old and new IDs for each event, open the three new Jevents database export files you made earlier. Also, be aware of any date fields... if you use Excel the dates will likely get changed to a different format. Make sure all dates remain in the format yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.

jos_jevents_vevdetail - change the first field "evdet_id" in the events where the new ID is different from the old one. Now copy the data in this column (except for the column title).

jos_jevents_vevent - change the first field "ev_id" and also "detail_id" to reflect the old ID. If you have this data sorted in the same manner as the previous file, you can just PASTE in the column data that you copied in the previous file.

jos_jevents_repetition - change the second field "eventid" and third field "eventdetail_id" to all show the SAME data, which reflects the old ID. Again, if the data is sorted the same as the previous files, you can PASTE in the column data.

Save each of the three modified export files.

10) Now go back to phpMyAdmin or whatever tool you are using and import these three files IN PLACE OF the existing data. Then check both JEvents and DT Register in the front and back ends to verify that everything is correct. You should be all done now! If not, track down which events still have an issue, sort through your files to find and fix, then reupload again if needed.

11) If you happen to have already done the re-sync tool prior to reading this and you ended up with some records from two events combined into one, then you will need to make modificactions to DT Register tables which is a little more involved. Here is what you will need to go through:

jos_dtregister_group_event - main table storing event details, pricing, description, etc. Set "eventId" appropriately.

jos_dtregister_user - table storing records of current registrants. Set "eventId" appropriately.

jos_dtregister_field_event - table assigning custom field usage to each event. Set "event_id" correctly if needed. Or you can always go back into Event Management and re-assign the custom field usage for the event.

jos_dtregister_events_codes - table assigning discount codes to each event. If needed, set "event_id" appropriately.

jos_dtregister_files - table assigning email file attachments to each event. If needed, set "event_id" appropriately.

jos_event_waiting - table with Waiting List records. If used, set "event_id" appropriately.

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Hopefully this data is helpful to you if your events got out of sync during your 1.0 to 1.5 upgrade. If you try to re-sync but still have problems, submit a support ticket including joomla admin access and database access and we will try to assist. Thanks!

jos_jevents_vevent - change the first field "ev_id" to reflect the old ID. If you have this data sorted in the same manner as the previous file, you can just PASTE in the column data that you copied in the previous file.

I was one of the unlucky ones that had to do this all manually because I tried to run the sync tool in DTRegister when I shouldn't have.

Within jos_jevents_vevent, I also had to go in and update the IDs in the "detail_id" field as well. For my database, they needed to match the same id that was entered into "ev_id". Everything was off and links on the front end of JEvents will took me to the wrong detailed events until I fixed this around.

Additionally, I had to open each event in JEvents 1.5.1 and resave it before DT Register 2.5.4 would see it in the Events pull down option for new events.

I guess I was even unluckier, my host only allows .sql uploads into PHPmyadmin. I got to edit the jevent .sql files instead of spreadsheets.

I got lucky after that, though. I was able to use backup copies of group_event and user to replace the post-upgrade versions.

Then I used the event manager to reset custom fields. I needed to get into the events anyway to set the new options.