What must I do to prepare for the forum migration to sap.com?

[graeme_perrow]

The SQL Anywhere forum will be migrating to sqlanywhere-forum.sap.com on Saturday March 29, 2014. Existing questions, answers, comments, users, reputation, etc. will be retained and aside from some cosmetic changes there will be no significant changes to the web site. Any links and bookmarks to the existing sqlanywhere-forum.sybase.com site will automatically be redirected to the new site.

On the day of the migration, both sites will be shut down for several hours while the data is moved.

Note that the new site is already up and running and you can head over there and check it out. If you have trouble logging in there please email sqlanywhere-forum-admin@sap.com and I'll try to get you fixed up. Please feel free to add questions and answers for testing purposes (there are already a few such questions there) but anything added there will be deleted when the migration happens. If you have a legitimate SQL Anywhere question for which you need a real answer, ask it here on this site.

Also, please note that email has been disabled on the new site so you cannot use the temporary login feature, and you will not receive daily digests or notifications of any kind. This is only during the beta period.

What must you do to ensure that you can log in once the migration is complete? See answer below.

[MarkCulp]

A random comment to keep this announcement at the top of the questions list

[Breck_Carter]

You kids today, you don't know what random is!

[Breck_Carter]

For a little while it looked like SCN's entire login process was crashing (not related to this forum) but later it worked. After logging in to SCN, it took two clicks to login to this forum; first click on the home page Login, second click on the login page SAP ID Service icon.

Well done!

Aside: It is AMAZING that no one noticed that this sentence in the question originally contained the wrong URL (now fixed by Graeme): "Any links and bookmarks to the existing ..."

I guess nobody reads URLS, I guess you don't HAVE to read the URL if it says "existing ...", you know what's coming 🙂

[graeme_perrow]

On the original forum, the link was correct. I ran a script that modified all the links in the database from sybase.com to sap.com, which included that one. The modification I made after the migration was to change it back to sybase.com.

[VolkerBarth]

Well done (though that doesn't come as a surprise!) - it was easy to re-login with my OpenID...

[Breck_Carter]

On the original forum, the link was correct.

Ah, yes, not unlike the "change all" editor side effect, where you run a global edit "change all x to y" that includes the comment describing the change being made, so it reads "March 29 Changed y to y"... a common characteristic error in my world 🙂

[graeme_perrow · Accepted solution]

There is really only one thing you need to do in order to make sure that you can log in once the migration is complete, and that's to make sure your email address is correct. Click on your login name at the very top of the screen (next to the Logout, About, and FAQ links), then click "User Tools" and then "edit profile". Make sure the email address is correct, and click Update.

Note that logging into the forum through the MySybase provider will no longer be available in the new forum. Instead, you will be able to log in using your SCN (SAP Community Network) user ID. This is entirely optional. In order to make this work, you need to have an SCN account but you do not need to add a new provider. You simply have to make sure that your email address in your SCN account matches the one in your forum account.

Once the new forum is available, you have three options to log in for the first time:

1. Use an existing OpenID provider other than Google. The cookie that the Google OpenID provider gives us is specific to the old forum URL and so it will not work in the new forum.
2. Use the SCN to log in. This assumes that you have an SCN account and that your email address in your forum account is the same as the one in your SCN account.
3. Use the temporary login procedure. Near the bottom of the login page, you will see "Click here if you're having trouble logging in". Click there, and then enter your email address. The system will send you an email containing a link that you can use once to log into the forum.

Once you're logged into the new forum, go to your user page by clicking on your name at the top of the page and then click "User tools" and "authentication settings". If you have a provider that begins with "https://www.google.com", click "remove" since that provider will no longer work. If you still want to use Google as a provider, you can then click "Add new provider" and then click the Google logo on the next page. If you have a provider marked "Unknown", you can remove that as well; that is for the MySybase option which is no longer available.

[VolkerBarth · Accepted solution]

So the new forum will still use the OSQA software?

[graeme_perrow · Accepted solution]

Yes. The OSQA software itself is not changing.

[VolkerBarth · Accepted solution]

Thanks! A short look "over there" has confirmed that everything looks rather familiar - that's a very pleasing feeling in response to such "how to migrate" news:)

[Breck_Carter · Accepted solution]

The NCoCT (National Committee of Conspiracy Theorists) wants to know: Why hasn't Graeme accepted this answer?

Is it not the right answer? 🙂

[graeme_perrow · Accepted solution]

It can't be that good of an answer, the system won't even let me upvote it.

[VolkerBarth · Accepted solution]

So even admins can't upvote their postings? 🙂

[MCMartin · Accepted solution]

Are there any longterm benefits from using the SCN account?

[VolkerBarth · Accepted solution]

Do you mean when using the forum or generally?

AFAIK, a SCN account is necessary for certain newer downloads, for example the v16 local doc install...

[Breck_Carter · Accepted solution]

Are there any longterm benefits from using the SCN account?

Yes. One week from tomorrow a Loyalty Program will be announced whereby at the end of the year one bitcoin will be awarded for each multiple of 500 points earned during the year.

[VolkerBarth · Accepted solution]

Ah, I see: Ordinary bitcoins or those bound to vanish somewhere?

BTW: That may fill the former SQLA "bounties" with a real meaning:)

[Breck_Carter · Accepted solution]

They're safe in a wallet at Vircurex.

[justin_willey · Accepted solution]

Very smooth transfer .. thanks!

[Breck_Carter]

Will our forum points be applied to our SCN point total?

Perhaps at a discount? e.g., 32767 forum points for one SCN point.

[MarkCulp]

No. The SQLA Forum points will not get applied to SCN points.

[VolkerBarth]

Are you sure?

I'd rather think Breck's suggestion is correct - besides the fact there's an integer division at work:)

set SCN_points = SCN_points + cast(forum_points / 32767 as integer)

[Breck_Carter]

Will we get points for keeping this question at the top of the list?

(it's tedious work, thinking of edits to make 🙂

[MarkCulp]

Breck: You are looking at this task the wrong way - you don't need keep adding new content (i.e. new answers/comments) to this topic. What I have been doing is editing my initial comment (and is why I added the comment) - a simple 'add a dot' or 'remove a dot' is sufficient (and I'm not even sure I need to do that much). All that is needed is something to occur on the thread that touches the 'last revised' timestamp on the question.

[VolkerBarth]

Never mind. We will continue to try to make some fun here - even without getting points as reward:)

[Breck_Carter]

> What I have been doing is editing my initial comment

oooooo, what Great Powers you have... the ability to edit comments with no time limitation! ...we are not worthy! 🙂

[MarkCulp]

Oh, I did not realize that the ability to edit comments was 'special'? That explains a lot of things. I thought that it would be covered in the 'able to edit other posts'... but I guess not. 😞

[VolkerBarth]

FWIW, us non-admins are neither allowed to edit our comments after the "60 minutes grace period" nor allowed to edit other posters's comments - unless we turn the comments temporarily into answers and back, of course (if one has enough points to do that).

But I shouldn't complain, we do get along:)

[VolkerBarth]

Aside: Is that a "real" meta discussion on user permissions here - or just another smart attempt to "touch" this question?

The answer is left as an exercise for the writer...:)

[VolkerBarth]

Another aside: I used the word "allowed" instead of "able" with intent:)

[Breck_Carter]

Did you know that if you save a comment, and then delete it, your name will still be shown as making the most recent change?

Then you can sit back and laugh at everyone hunting through all the comments to find "what did Volker say?"... that's just an example, I know YOU would never do such a thing 🙂

[VolkerBarth]

Yes, I do know that (and I guess it has been discussed here a long time ago) - but I do also know that I can then still have a look at the user page and will find an entry under "recent activity", such as:

Mark Culp edited Mark Culp comment on What must I do to prepare for the forum migration to sap.com?

Of course, in case anyone posts a comment and deletes it afterwards, we won't know the contents.

---

Another aside: Personally, adding and deleting a comment is something I happen to practise now and then, when I find out that I had better read the original posting thoroughly before posting a "solution" that now appears to be truly off-topic... (Well, I might leave it despite its embarrassing contents - if I have the impression others could have also drawn false conclusions - in the sense of "look, that's the pitfall I stepped in, please avoid it yourself":))

[VolkerBarth]

@Reimer: You've been trapped:)

[reimer_pods]

Just did it again (simply following your prescription ;-)!

[Breck_Carter]

According to a reliable source, the deadline has already passed, yet the new page still says "beta"... was there a delay?

[MarkCulp]

Breck: I'm confused about this posting. The forum is moving on March 29th... which has not yet past, it is this coming Saturday. The new site is still beta and all information posted there will be removed/deleted when the data from this site is copied over to the new site.

Or are you referring to something else?

[VolkerBarth]

Well, I would consider this a "random joke to keep this announcement at the top of the questions list", if you know what random means 🙂

Volker with a double-grin:):)

[Breck_Carter]

Joke? You mean it's NOT March 31st yet? Chuck Schumer was WRONG?

I am aghast!

[Breck_Carter]

Maybe the forum is moving to sap dot com just in time... to avoid this fate!