How can I backdate topics and posts (for migration purposes)?

Ш Offline

Hello, i'm moving my old forum to a Nodebb engine and got several issues.

There is no possibility to set timestamp for a new topic. I need to save topic (and 1st post also) creation date and time.
When i use timestamp for post replying, it doesn't work too.
This timestamp is from 2011

DEBU[0000] post body: {"cid":87,"title":"topic","content":"my first post","tags":null,"timestamp":1309975440000,"_uid":272362} 
DEBU[0000] POST URL: https://forum.mydomain.ltd/api/v3/topics/ 
INFO[0000] 200 OK

But i got this as response:

INFO[0000] {Tid:2447, UID:272362, Cid:87, Title:"topic", Slug:"2447/topic", MainPid:2471, Postcount:1, Viewcount:0, Postercount:1, Scheduled:false, Deleted:0, DeleterUID:0, TitleRaw:"topic", Locked:0, Pinned:0, Timestamp:1676286542609, TimestampISO:"2023-02-13T11:09:02.609Z", Lastposttime:1676286542609, LastposttimeISO:"2023-02-13T11:09:02.609Z", PinExpiry:0, PinExpiryISO:"", Upvotes:0, Downvotes:0, Votes:0, TeaserPid:0, Thumbs:[]interface {}{}, NumThumbs:0, Category:struct {}{}, User:struct {}{}, Teaser:struct {}{}, Tags:[]interface {}{}, IsOwner:true, Ignored:false, Unread:false, Bookmark:1, Unreplied:true, Icons:[]interface {}{}, Thumb:"", Index:0, MainPost:map[string]interface {}{"bookmarked":false, "cid":87, "content":"<p dir=\"auto\">my first post</p>\n", "display_delete_tools":true, "display_edit_tools":true, "display_moderator_tools":true, "display_move_tools":true, "index":0, "ip":"192.168.1.17", "isMain":true, "pid":2471, "selfPost":false, "tid":2447, "timestamp":1.676286542609e+12, "timestampISO":"2023-02-13T11:09:02.609Z", "topic":map[string]interface {}{"cid":87, "mainPid":2471, "postcount":1, "scheduled":false, "slug":"2447/topic", "tid":2447, "timestamp":1.676286542609e+12, "timestampISO":"2023-02-13T11:09:02.609Z", "title":"topic", "titleRaw":"topic", "uid":272362}, "uid":272362, "user":map[string]interface {}{"banned":false, "banned:expire":0, "banned_until":0, "banned_until_readable":"Not Banned", "custom_profile_info":[]interface {}{}, "displayname":"Свуй", "groupTitle":"[\"Зергеры\"]", "groupTitleArray":[]interface {}{"Зергеры"}, "icon:bgColor":"#2196f3", "icon:text":"С", "lastonline":1.676286271926e+12, "lastonlineISO":"2023-02-13T11:04:31.926Z", "muted":false, "mutedUntil":0, "picture":interface {}(nil), "postcount":6, "reputation":4, "selectedGroups":[]interface {}{}, "signature":"", "status":"online", "topiccount":6, "uid":272362, "username":"Свуй", "userslug":"свуй"}, "votes":0}}}

So the post has current timestamp. May be i do something wrong?
At least, please add a possibility to set timestamp for new topics in

POST /api/v3/topics/

Thanks!

J Offline

Hi @шЫкель-грубый unfortunately we cannot update the API to allow timestamps to be passed in at will because the API is used by the frontend for regular posting (that is the intended use-case). If we allowed it, then people would abuse the API and make posts with their own timestamps, backdating them at will.

The only supported use case is setting a timestamp in the future, which will work if the calling user is an admin or has the requisite privilege for scheduling topics.

You have two options:

Use nodebb-plugin-import. This plugin uses internal methods that bypass sanity checks in the data, and let you migrate data in quicker.
Comment out the requisite code guarding timestamp altering. For both topics and posts, I think you will need to comment out this line: https://github.com/NodeBB/NodeBB/blob/326b92687fa5d2b68cc5f55275c565a43bf6a16e/src/api/helpers.js#L16

If doing #2, after you comment out the line, restart NodeBB and run your migration script, and topics and posts should be created without their timestamps overwritten.

J Offline

@julian said in Timestamp issues:

The only supported use case is setting a timestamp in the future, which will work if the calling user is an admin or has the requisite privilege for scheduling topics.

~~This is not documented in the write API documentation, but I will amend that now.~~

This is now documented in the write API documentation.

J Offline

This is a good question, I have updated the title and moved this to the Developer FAQ.

Ш Offline

Thanks for fast response!
I have admin privilege, but it doesn't help for now.
My old forum is not a Nodebb installation, it's vBulletin. I've wrote a migration script which takes data from sql database and add topics and posts to Nodebb via api. If there is no way to change timestamps, looks like i'll change in in redis for all necessary resources. It will make my script much more complex but i need to complete the migration.
I'll also try to comment date changing in sources. I'm not familiar with JS but it looks obviously enough.
Thanks anyway

P Offline

https://github.com/akhoury/nodebb-plugin-import-vbulletin

J Offline

@шЫкель-грубый said in How can I backdate topics and posts (for migration purposes)?:

I'll also try to comment date changing in sources. I'm not familiar with JS but it looks obviously enough.

Yes, this is probably the most direct solution. It'll get your script working with the correct timestamps, all you have to do is comment out that line in the file, and restart NodeBB.