JW reported that the number of custom fields has grown to the point where the db is unusably slow, and she needs to work with a subset of it. After getting details of what can be dropped, I figured out, tortuously, a procedure to build a cut-down version of the db.

• Create a backup from phpMyAdmin.
• Open the backup in a text editor and replace all instances of DEFINER=`hcmc`@`lettuce.tapor.uvic.ca` with DEFINER=CURRENT_USER. (If you don't do this, when you later try to dump the trimmed database, the dump will fail because the definer will not be a user on the local host.)
• Install mysql-server-5.1 locally, and go through all the recommended security settings (this helped).
• Log into mysql (mysql -u root -p).
• create database tempAdaptive;
• From a regular command line, put your backup data into the new db:

  mysql -u root -p[password] tempAdaptive < /path/to/dump.sql
  

  Remember there's no space after -p.
• Log back into mysql, and start trimming (see commands below).
• When the db is trimmed down, dump out the results:

  mysqldump -u root -p[password] --add-drop-database --databases tempAdaptive > /path/to/dump.sql
  

• Stop your local mysql server:

  sudo service mysql stop
  

• Put the dump file up on home1t/hcmc/temp.
• Log into mysqldev.tapor.uvic.ca as hcmc, and navigate to that folder.
• Log into mysql, and create tempAdaptive.
• Log out of mysql, and restore:

  mysql -u hcmc -p[password] tempAdaptive < tempAdaptive.sql
  

• Log into phpMyAdmin and give the regular Adaptive DB user the same privileges as on the original db.
• [Starting tomorrow] Build a stripped-down AdaptiveDB site for this dataset.

This is the trimming I had to do for this particular situation:

DELETE from documents where NOT(doc_to_docTypes_id="1" AND exists (SELECT * FROM docs_to_docPeriods WHERE docs_to_docPeriods.dtp_doc_id_fk = documents.doc_id AND docs_to_docPeriods.dtp_docPeriod_id_fk="2"));
alter table documents drop foreign key documents_ibfk_2;
alter table documents drop column doc_to_projects_id;
alter table documents drop foreign key documents_ibfk_4;
alter table documents drop column doc_to_docPeriods_id;
alter table documents drop foreign key documents_ibfk_3;
alter table documents drop column doc_to_docStatusVals_id;
alter table documents drop column doc_notBefore;
alter table documents drop column doc_notAfter;
drop table docs_to_chapters;
drop table docs_to_disStatus;
drop table docStatusVals;
drop table documentsBack;
drop table projects;
drop table customFieldDataBack;
drop view documents_view;
drop view VW_doc_authConcerns_concat;
drop view VW_doc_chapters_concat;
drop view VW_doc_disStatus_concat;
drop view VW_doc_disTopics_concat;
drop view VW_doc_disTypes_concat;
drop view VW_doc_docPeriods_concat;
drop view VW_doc_meetPlaces_concat;
drop view VW_doc_news_concat;
drop view VW_documents_all;
drop function cf_bool_to_otm;
delete from customFields where cf_id in (95,46,5,44,4);
DELETE FROM customFields where cf_group_1 LIKE "Sedition concepts%";
DELETE FROM customFields where cf_group_1="Temporary flags - for topic sorting";
DELETE FROM customFields where cf_group_1="Sandbox";