-----------------------------------
first you need to get this software
-----------------------------------

usbwebserver (http://www.usbwebserver.com/download.php) - it is free
excel (i used 2003)
ASAP Utilities for excel (to remove line breaks)(http://www.asap-utilities.com/) free version is ok
Excel Add Data, Text & Characters To All Cells Software 7.0 (www.sobolsoft.com) - free version should do
EMS MySQL Export (http://www.ems-hitech.com/) full version required
A working joomla site (your website, please backup stuff you want to keep)

This tutorial is how i did it and is written assuming you have a little knowledge about mysql and phpmyadmin, if not, it is not that hard to find out what

you need. please dont post simple questions here.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Most shared or paid servers wont let you get remote mysql access to your databases so what i did, was to recreate my website on my local PC, using

usbwebserver (phpmyadmin username = root and password is displayed in usbwebserver
-----------------------------------------------------------------

- install usbwebserver on to you pc, setting apache port to 80 (makes things easier)
- create a mysql database dump from your old e107 site (cpanel you can use database backup) or use phpmyadmin and export you e107 database.
- create a database and user in usbwebserver, i use the same details as my website.

NB make sure that you keep the collation the same (click on the table you have created then look under operations), joomla prefers utf8_general_ci. i am not

an expert on mysql, so you might experiment. it might be ok to export in latin and import in utf8_general_ci. dont know help with this would be appreciated

- import the database you dumped in to the new database on your PC

you now have a local mysql server with your e107 data in that you can access,

NB you could if you wanted download and copy website files in to the root folder and have a complete copy of you website to work with locally.


------------------------------
we now want to export 2 tables
------------------------------

- install EMS MYSQL Export, the free version will only export a small amount of you links, but will work to test.

e107_links_page (these are the actual links)
e107_links_page_cats (these are the categories)

- run EMS MYSQL Export and export these tables, run EMS seprate for each table so you have 2 csv files. make sure you also export all colums in each table,

it is easier.
- you should now have 2 csv files, look in them and make sure they have the data you expect.

e107_links_page.csv
e107_links_page_cats.csv


--------------------------------------
moving the images to the correct place
--------------------------------------


NB currently the '/images/stories' folder is hard coded. (this i think will change, but not for this TUT)


- create these folders on your joomla site:

'/images/stories/categories'
'/images/stories/links'

nb you could add a parent folder of bookmarks if you want, but if you do i suspect when bookmarks is updated to allow the changing of the root directory it

might require you to edit all enteries in the database. if you look at newley create enteries in the bookmark tables you will see. my idea is when the root

directory is available i will create a folder called bookmarks in the image directory, move the images, change the root directory in the frontend of

bookmarks and it should be ready to go with out any extra work and the links should then nice and tidy in there own folder.

- copy your links pictures to your new joomla site as appropiate. if you are not using images then you can change these instructions and use a different csv

import option.

now you link and category pictures are in place.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This section will deal with altering your cvs/data ready to use the csv import feature on Boookmarks. We will be using the 5 category version so we can

import pictures aswell.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NB bookmarks automatically creates the categories for you.
NB bookmarks requires you to use the '|' character for the csv seperator, you can not change this inside excel so you have to use the following trick.

goto your control panel (xp), select regional and language settings, select customise, change the 'list seperator' to '|' character click ok. Excel will now

export with the correct seperator. (do not ask !!)

- now install asap utilities and 'Excel Add Data, Text & Characters To All Cells', i am assuming excel is already installed.

if you look under 'import and export' in bookmarks at the bottom it gives you the csv format and import details. what we now need are csv files to be made

compatable for the import.

- open up the csv file 'e107_links_page'

- removing line breaks, during the export procedure line breaks are replaced with these squares, these send the import porcedure mental. we will use ASAP

utilities to remove these
- goto the asap utilities menu (in excel) and select text/advanced character removal (option 14)
- click on 'line breaks', then click ok, and then close. All line breaks should be replaced with a space.

Now:

rename the headings as follows

link_name --> Title
link_url --> Url
link_description --> Description
link_button --> ImageUrl
link_category --> Category

delete these columns (make sure they are gone and not empty)

link_id
link_order
link_refer
link_open
link_class
link_datestamp
link_author

- reorder the columns so they match this order

Category|Url|Title|Description|ImageUrl


we now have the correct format for links imports, we now only need to sort out the url of the links pictures.


Bookmarks as previously mentioned tags this on to the front of the stored image url 'http://www.mysite.com/images/stories/', the images in this tutorial are

in a links sub folder, so we need to add this extra bit on to the link.

our currenty picture url will be 'mypicture.jpg' and it needs to be '/links/mypicture.jpg'

- select the Url column, then got tot the add text menu
- select 'add text to the beginning of the selected cell'
- it will prompt you for the text to add.
- add this

/links/

NB if you are using the free version, keep reselecting the undone links and eventually it will get there, you might have to do a few at the end yourself.
NB any links with no images will end up with '/links/' , go through and delete them. i think in these cases if you delete them automatic thumbnailing will

occur, dont quote me on it.


last alteration - category names


you might notice all the category names are numbers.

NB you can match the categories up by using the cat id, open up e107_links_page_cat.csv along side e107_links_page.csv and you can eaily macth the categories

to the appropiate number.

you have to options for the replacement:

- option 1 -use text replace in excel and match the numbers up using the exported category csv file

NB start form the highest number and work your way down

- option 2 - import the categories as is and then rename them in bookmarks (much easier)

save the e107_links_page.csv you are working on as a diffwerent csv file on to you desktop with a sensible name, no wired characters or spaces.

the csv is now prepared for import, your pictures are uploaded.

- Goto the bookmarks import page, got the bottom
- select which category to import to, select root. (or not !!)
- select the access level you want
- browse for the file on you desktop
- go to the top of the page and click on import CSV.

your links are now imported.


what about category descriptions


the second file you exported had the category descriptions, use these to cut and copy and add them in. I do not know how to add a category image we added

other than going in to phpmyadmim and doing it manually.

NB if you open up the e107_links_page_Cat.csv you can cut and copy the decriptions in to bookmarks easily.

hope this tutorial helps.