[@djoep Member 15 years ago]

woot! Got it working… now just need to start from scratch and do it cleanly.

One thing I found quite frustrating was that somewhere or other, a post count is kept after using bbconverter. I did not find it sufficient to clean and start over. I ended up having to muck about with the post_metadata table the posts table, and others. Even after going on multiple search and destroy missions into the database, I still could not get the post count to start where i though it should. Hence the strong recommendation to make db backups along the way.

So, I managed to get SMF users and posts over to WordPress and bbPress 2.0 plugin respectively. Here’s the basics of how I did it:

Words of caution!!! BACK UP YOUR WORDPRESS DATA BASE! Make a backup before you install bbpress. make another before you install bbconverter.

Keep the backups because you may need to revert back to them.

Assumption here is that both WordPress and SMF are on the same server, but not the same database.

WARNING! This is just from memory,and it only worked once, and there was a lot of DB manipulation done to get to the end. You should NOT attempt this unless you are very comfortable with SQL, phpmyadmin, and wordpress! If you are even a little concerned, contact the plugin author and tell him how much you are willing to pay for the SMF conversion capability!

1) Install wordpress

2) Install buddypress

3) Install BuddyPress SMF Import plugin

4) Follow the BuddyPress SMF Import directions. You should end up with a number of tables in your WB database that look like wpv_bb_blahblah. Make sure you go through the Upgrade Database step but Do not go beyond that. with this plugin. Please note that this plugin creates new groups for each original forum and all the topics for that forum are associated with the new group. If this is what you want, you can stop here. If like me, you wanted a site-wide forum with the old SMF content, keep going.

5) Deactivate the SMF Import plugin (but keep the SMF Compatibility plugin… you’ll use that for user login later)

6) Using phpmyadmin (or similar) go into the wpv_bb_forums table and make sure that the forum_parent field is set to 0 for all top level forums and set to the appropriate forum_id for any subordinate forums.

7) Through Buddypress, install “site wide forum” which will install bbPress 2.0 plugin.

Make another database backup NOW! Don’t overwrite the ones you made before because you may have to go back further than this if things don’t work!

9) Install bbPress Converter plugin.

10) Go to tools and recount everything.

11) follow the directions for the “Standalonebbress” conversion using the WP database user and password and wpv_bb_ as the db prefix (or whatever the SMF Importer left you with). Do NOT select the transfer user option… the other plugin already did that.

12) If you have a large forum, the conversion takes a while!

That’s about it. If you have set wordpress up to be able to display the plugin forum (not group forums), with any luck, you’ll see your forums populated.

I have not yet tackled the issue of getting rid of all the groups and group forums that the other plugin created.

The resulting forums and posts seem to have wrong dates & times and I have not looked into this.

If I had it to do over again, I probably would have spent the same amount of time figuring out how the converter works and building an SMF converter directly, avoiding the SMF Import plugin altogether.

I beg you to not use this thread to ask questions about this process or any of the plugins or applications other than bbConverter.

joe