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Export Front End Users (with their passwords) ?
Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 9:15 pm
by beherenow_uk
Hi all,
CMSMS 1.9.4.1:
I have a list of about 100 users signed up via Self reg on "Website 1". These people have all signed up with their details including a password.
Now I want to export all of their data including their chosen password to another installation "Website 2" on a another server. How do i do this? FEU doesn't allow passwords to be exported, so i guess I'd need to do it in the PHP MyAdmin? Which tables do i export/import?
Any help would be great!
Many thanks,
Karl.
Re: Export Front End Users (with their passwords) ?
Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 9:19 pm
by Jos
beherenow_uk wrote:i guess I'd need to do it in the PHP MyAdmin?
I guess so too
beherenow_uk wrote:Which tables do i export/import?
Is that realy so difficult? Would the table cms_module_feusers_users sound like a table that contains user data?
Are there allready other entries in FEU on website2? Then if you need the values for other user properties, I think you will have a real hard time importing them. They are in the other cms_module_feusers_* tables, but FEU will require that all properties are defined per usergroup.
Re: Export Front End Users (with their passwords) ?
Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 10:08 pm
by beherenow_uk
Hi Jos,
Thank you for your response.
I managed to export all the FEU tables in Website 1 and import them into Website 2. Now all my users appear to be in FEU. Success!
I apologise for my naivety with MySQL, but we all do things we haven't done before, and sometimes we do ask slightly obvious questions of the more experienced in order to reinforce our novice thought processes.
Many thanks,
Karl.
Re: Export Front End Users (with their passwords) ?
Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 7:02 pm
by beherenow_uk
Hi,
So I still can't get this to work. I have no idea why...
I have exported all of the FEU tables to a new installation of CMSMS and all of the users show up in the admin area, including the user fields but their passwords do not work when i go to log in.
Is their an easy way of doing this? Perhaps I need to change something else in the FEU settings? Or perhaps a way of showing the passwords so that I can input them again?
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Karl.
Re: Export Front End Users (with their passwords) ?
Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 9:04 pm
by Coldman
Hi
Did you try to export via PhpMyadmin?
beherenow_uk wrote:
Which tables do i export/import?
Jos wrote:
Is that realy so difficult? Would the table cms_module_feusers_users sound like a table that contains user data?
Re: Export Front End Users (with their passwords) ?
Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2011 12:49 am
by beherenow_uk
Hi coldman,
Yes I'm using phpMyAdmin to export and import the tables in the database.
I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. As Jos mentions above it shouldn't be difficult, but it's just isn't allowing user generated passwords to be ported.
I noticed in the feu module folder files called _c.dat and _d.dat, DP these need to be upated? They seem to contain strings of characters similar to those populating the password table in the database.
Thanks,
Karl
Ps - I'm using all the latest modules/core 1.9.4.2.
Re: Export Front End Users (with their passwords) ?
Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2011 1:45 am
by cleatus
you're supposed to be able to see and change their passwords in feu(click on username to edit) and if cmsmailer is setup will even send them an email notifying them of this change. if you're not seeing that then i suspect something went wrong with the export import process. make sure new data in website 2 is in exact same location/table/etc in database 2 as in database 1. also, it may not be relevant at all but clear your admin cache, clear your browser phpsessions/ cookies as a general rule to make sure what you're currently seeing is accurate.
Re: Export Front End Users (with their passwords) ?
Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2011 2:43 am
by calguy1000
FrontEndUsers uses salted md5 passwords. Exporting the password and username table from phpmyadmin into another table (even another FEU table on another install of CMSMS will not result in a working login system.
Re: Export Front End Users (with their passwords) ?
Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2011 8:05 am
by beherenow_uk
Hi calguy,
Thanks for the info. Just been doing some research on the md5 salted string stuff. I think I'm out of my depth though. Found this page:
http://www.pixel2life.com/publish/tutor ... ncryption/ but am not completely sure what it's saying.
Well I think my only option is to kindly ask whether one of you guys could kindly PM me and give me a quote for doing this for me? Please please please!
I really need to port these 110 users over by early next week otherwise I'll have to send an email to everyone that's signed up askig them to login with a generic password that I have changed for them, which I would like to avoid if possible.
Cheers, Karl.
Re: Export Front End Users (with their passwords) ?
Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2011 9:31 am
by Jos
md5 means that there is no way that you can retrieve the original password.
And now we hear that the md5 string can not be used on other FEU installs, your plan B is your only option

Re: Export Front End Users (with their passwords) ?
Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2011 11:56 am
by beherenow_uk
Thanks Jos,
So just to double check this:
The conclusion here is that if you use CMSMS to build a website that allows users to Self-Register, there is absolutely no possible way to move your website from that original database/server without having to send out a generic password to everybody for them to log in and reset it?
I think this great for security - proves that it's secure!

But I'm also deeply disappointed as an admin. I wouldn't want annoy my users every time my server failed/corrupted/had an upgrade/moved by sending out a generic password to them all/asking them to reset.
If anyone does come up with a possible solution, please do still PM me, or email me - karl[att]kargo2.com
many thanks,
Karl.
Re: Export Front End Users (with their passwords) ?
Posted: Sun Jul 24, 2011 4:02 pm
by calguy1000
The conclusion here is that if you use CMSMS to build a website that allows users to Self-Register, there is absolutely no possible way to move your website from that original database/server without having to send out a generic password to everybody for them to log in and reset it?
This is incorrect, you can move CMS Installs (including FEU and Selfreg) from one server to another, restore from backup, etc. You just can't copy the FEU tables from one install to another because there is data that is unique to each install that is used to ensure that the hashed passwords are different. The hash for the password '123456' on one FEU install will be different than the hash for the password '123456' on another.
This is another reason why I don't export the hashed passwords when exporting user information to csv. (it's invalid to import those hash passwords into another install).