2023-02-24, 03:07 AM
(This post was last modified: 2023-02-24, 03:33 AM by Laird. Edited 1 time in total.
Edit Reason: Improve wording: "particularity and detail" => "fine-grained control"
)
Hi mrdeltoid,
I see that you've edited your post, which originally also asked how MyConversations compares to Symposium, and what advantages MyConversations has over Symposium. I'd begun drafting a response to that before I noticed that you'd edited it out, and I don't want to waste that draft, which might be of use to others if not to you, so here's the answer to those edited-out questions, before getting to your remaining question.
In rough order of importance, these are the advantages that I'm aware of MyConversations having over Symposium:
"Yes" isn't quite the right answer because there is strictly speaking no "restoration" required: MyConversations makes no changes to the core PM table in the first place - unless you run the reverse-migration tool (MyConversations messages => core private messages).
That reverse-migration tool migrates (via insertions into the core private messages table) only any MyConversations messages that were not originally present in the core private messages table when the original migration was performed.
"Migration" isn't quite the right word either, because the original data, when going in either direction, isn't deleted. In the forward direction, it is not duplicated either. In the reverse direction, it is, but this is fine because this migration is expected to be performed when MyConversations is to be uninstalled and its data deleted anyway.
As HLFadmin rightly points out, the reverse migration drops attachments, because they are not supported in the core PM system. It also drops likes and conversation groups, for the same reason.
For more detail on migrations either way, and the associated database structures, please see the first section of the earlier post #16 in this thread, the fourth section in post #26, as well as posts #28 and #29.
I see that you've edited your post, which originally also asked how MyConversations compares to Symposium, and what advantages MyConversations has over Symposium. I'd begun drafting a response to that before I noticed that you'd edited it out, and I don't want to waste that draft, which might be of use to others if not to you, so here's the answer to those edited-out questions, before getting to your remaining question.
In rough order of importance, these are the advantages that I'm aware of MyConversations having over Symposium:
- MyConversations has vastly reduced storage requirements. It stores each message only once, no matter how many participants there are in the conversation. Symposium uses the core private messages table, which stores each message once per participant. MyConversations thus - both in comparison and absolutely - scales massively in this respect: its storage requirements for a conversation with hundreds of participants are only marginally more than for a conversation with only one participant; under Symposium, the former would require hundreds of times more storage space than the latter. Up to a point, even a MyConversations conversation with very many participants would require less storage than the equivalent Symposium conversation with only two participants, because MyConversations also stores the list of participants only once per conversation, whereas Symposium duplicates them in every copy of every message in the conversation.
- MyConversations has greatly superior search functionality. Symposium supports searching only on conversation subjects (i.e., it does not even support searching within conversation messages themselves). MyConversations supports searching:
- Globally, across all one's accessible conversations, with keywords that can be stipulated to match within conversation subjects and/or within message bodies, and with results returned as conversations and/or messages, plus these additional supported search criteria:
- Author.
- Participants.
- Group.
- Folder.
- Author.
- Within an individual conversation.
- Within an individual conversation group.
- Within all conversation groups.
- Globally, across all one's accessible conversations, with keywords that can be stipulated to match within conversation subjects and/or within message bodies, and with results returned as conversations and/or messages, plus these additional supported search criteria:
- MyConversations supports message attachments, "liking" messages, and quoting messages, with the familiar citation and link-back to the quoted message that is used in MyBB core threads. Symposium supports none of these.
- For a given set of participants, MyConversations supports any number of different conversations, and each can have a different subject. Symposium supports only a single conversation for any given set of participants. You can try to start a new one, but Symposium will only append messages to the singular conversation that already exists. In addition: only Symposium conversations with three or more participants can be given a subject; Symposium conversations between only two participants cannot be given a subject. You can "start" a "new" conversation between the same three (or more) participants, and give it a different subject than the first, but, while the new subject will be stored with the new messages in the private message table, that new subject will otherwise be invisible, and the "new" conversation will simply append messages to the preexisting singular conversation, presenting under its original subject.
- In addition to its normative listing of conversations, MyConversations retains (mimics) the familiar message folders from the core private messaging system. Symposium does not. With MyConversations, you can view individual messages in individual folders including the normal Inbox, Unread, and Sent Items, plus, you can create/edit/delete custom folders (which are shared with the core private messaging system), and move individual messages between folders.
- MyConversations integrates with MyAlerts. Symposium does not.
- MyConversations supports a set of five rights for each participant in a conversation (and in a conversation group). Symposium does not.
- MyConversations supports conversation groups. Symposium does not.
- MyConversations supports conversations with only one participant (yourself) - useful for note-taking or diary-keeping. Symposium does not (it requires a minimum of two participants).
- MyConversations has no external dependencies (although it requires the Zip PHP module to be enabled when exporting conversation messages). Symposium depends on PluginLibrary.
- MyConversations has (almost entirely?) eliminated warnings under PHP 8. Symposium still generates masses of them.
- MyConversations supports the convenient exporting of conversation messages. Messages can be exported under Symposium when it is active, via the normal MyBB core interface, but you have to know and manually enter the link (
private.php?action=export) to get access to that interface - it doesn't appear anywhere in the UI as modified by Symposium.
- MyConversations is less buggy in minor but annoying ways than Symposium. For example, when Symposium emails notification of a new private message, it uses the same subject for all participants, so, if, say, "Initiator" started a conversation with "Recipient", then the subject of the notification email received by both Initiator and Recipient would be something like: "New private message at YourForum - Conversation with Recipient", whereas the final word in that, "Recipient", should in the email sent to Recipient instead be "Initiator".
- MyConversations has better fine-grained control. For example, it allows email notifications to be turned on/off per-user per-conversation. Symposium only allows them to be turned off per-user for all conversations (via turning off emailed PM notifications in the UCP via the normal core setting).
(2023-02-23, 10:56 PM)mrdeltoid Wrote: Can this plug-in be disabled and PMs restored to their old format/structure if I choose to uninstall it and revert back to the native PM system?
"Yes" isn't quite the right answer because there is strictly speaking no "restoration" required: MyConversations makes no changes to the core PM table in the first place - unless you run the reverse-migration tool (MyConversations messages => core private messages).
That reverse-migration tool migrates (via insertions into the core private messages table) only any MyConversations messages that were not originally present in the core private messages table when the original migration was performed.
"Migration" isn't quite the right word either, because the original data, when going in either direction, isn't deleted. In the forward direction, it is not duplicated either. In the reverse direction, it is, but this is fine because this migration is expected to be performed when MyConversations is to be uninstalled and its data deleted anyway.
As HLFadmin rightly points out, the reverse migration drops attachments, because they are not supported in the core PM system. It also drops likes and conversation groups, for the same reason.
For more detail on migrations either way, and the associated database structures, please see the first section of the earlier post #16 in this thread, the fourth section in post #26, as well as posts #28 and #29.