Reply To: I give up. Will pay for BBpress migration help.
Fair enough. If I have to pay someone more than $20 to use the provided migration wizard I will. (FWIW, on oDesk people are free to bid whatever they are willing to bid to do the project.) I have been trying this conversion on and off myself for about 6 months, I’d pay $100 if someone who knew what they were doing would help me out. (Why it would take anything like 20-40 hours for someone to figure out what I need to fill in on a web form in order to get the wizard to work is beyond me.)
This should be simple right? I have a BBpress standalone and I want to convert the database to be used by the plug-in. This is the simplest case. I know how to set everything up all I need to know is what set of magical things to put in the form fields to get the converter to actually work.
I know how to back up my database, and I use mySQL all the time in my daily work. I write programs for a living that access and analyze massive data bases. If I knew what needed to be done to the data base to make it work with the plug-in (that is what the wizard is doing under the hood) I could do the migration myself with an R script or something similar. However, there is no place where it is documented what needs to be done to convert the database.
The statement that: “Once you have the right tools and become relatively proficient, it’s actually pretty easy.” is tautological. However, it is the sentiment one gets when trying to follow the BBpress’ documentation: “If you already knew how to do this, here is how you would do this”.
Here are a few of the issues:
Half of the replies in the forums say to follow this plan:
https://codex.bbpress.org/import-forums/
The other replies say to use the plugin:
https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bbconverter/
Which is it? Why are there two different ways? Is one applicable to one situation and the other to another?
Of course neither will work for me (and many others apparently). The support page at http://bbconverter.com is dead and so there is no information there. The other page contains very sparse information about what one should put in the form fields.
***Here is the biggest issue. The console on the wizard does not give any information that would help you diagnose what step in the process has failed.
For example I just get:
==========================================
Please don’t forget to update your counters HERE
WordPress database error: [Table ‘databasebbpress.forums’ doesn’t exist]
SELECT convert(forums.forum_id USING “utf8”) AS forum_id,convert(forums.forum_parent USING “utf8”) AS forum_parent,convert(forums.forum_name USING “utf8”) AS forum_name,convert(forums.forum_slug USING “utf8”) AS forum_slug,convert(forums.forum_desc USING “utf8”) AS forum_desc,convert(forums.forum_order USING “utf8”) AS forum_order FROM forums AS forums LIMIT 0, 100
No forums to convert-
Not clearing default passwords-
Not Converting users Selected-
No data to clean-
Starting Conversion…
==============================
I am left to wonder, is the problem logging in to the server?
If so:
Is the problem the server name?
Is the problem my password?
Is the problem my username?
Is the problem connecting to the database?
If so:
Is the problem the database name?
Is the problem a permission?
Is the problem my password?
Is the problem my username?
I am just told that the database does not exist. Well it does, I can log-in using myPhp and there it is.
I will continue to search for “the right tools” and to become more “proficient”. In the meantime I will continue to try to find someone who know enough about the guts of BBpress and WordPress to tell me why my database that does exist, does not exist in the eyes of the converter.
