[Stephen Edgar]

I have created a bbPress starter theme with a phpBB look and feel

[20millionmiles]

Is it possible to make bbPress look like a real forum? I want the typical board view with the categories like on phpBB or vBulletin. Any solutions for this? It seems that I am not the only person who wants that.

[Stephen Edgar]

This started dues to an issue when importing from phpBB. If a user had depeted their own account on a phpBB forum, phpBB didn’t reattribute the post author to a different author, rather just removed the account from being able to login etc. phpBB stores the author name alongside each topic and reply so once said author has been deleted you have the option to also not delete the users topics or replies and when viewing said topic the original author’s name will still be attributed to the topic or reply.

The goal was then to bbPress support this as when you import from a phpBB if the user doesn’t exist then we wouldn’t create a new user and as seen above if the user doesn’t exist then each topic and reply is attributed to the ‘Anonymous’ user.

Over in bbPress Trac Ticket #2347 we came up with a solution.

If you take a look at the patch I currently have sitting there (Keep in mind the current ‘Example.php’ customised importer you are using)

https://bbpress.trac.wordpress.org/attachment/ticket/2347/2347.diff

The first part in the phpBB.php section I added parts to import the topics user name, the replies username and then added a flag on the user that was being imported _bbp_phpbb_user_type. That gets enough of the data that we need into the WordPress database to enable us to manipulate that once the data has been imported.

So at the moment if your Lotus DB has these details already attached to the topics and replies then adding this to your custom import would be the first step.

Firstly in regards to Anonymous users in bbPress, an anonymous user CAN have a username and/or display and this is stored in wp_postmeta table as _bbp_anonymous_name and is what my comments in my previous reply were alluding to.

Next up I added a new Repair Tool to basically post process this imported data, I create a query that joins all the topics data from wp_posts and wp_postmeta along with the topics old phpBB stored username. Once all that is in a SQL result table each topic that is by an ‘anonymous’ author is then updated to change the _bbp_anonymous_name associated with that particular topics store phpBB topic author name. Then the same process is repeated for each reply.

So now we have deleted, closed, spammed users that were deleted or deactivated in some way form the legacy phpBB forum but the topics and replies were never deleted to keep the context of the original discussions.

These are now all anonymous users in WordPress/bbPress but actually have the original display name/ user name keeping that same original context.

So that is my theory I was getting to, make each of your imported Lotus users an anonymous user using their old original user/display name to keep that context of conversation.

Now this is why you don’t need to worry about email addresses nor passwords as the accounts are not actual accounts just placeholders of the names from the original discussion.

The next part of the puzzle is when your users now sign up to reactivate and participate in the new bbPress they are free to create there account, choose their username, customise their profile, pick a password, use any email address they choose etc etc.

And the final part is now ‘Joe Blogs’ has created a new account on your site we just need a tool that will reattribute the posts currently under the anonymous user account ‘Joe Blogs’ to the now active user ‘Joe Blogs’ and the job is done. You can currently do just that with the standard WordPress User administration to delete a user and then reattribute that users posts to another user during the delete process. We just go and tweak that process to also allow/mimic/recreate that process to be able to reattribute the anonymous ‘Joe Blogs’ topics and replies to now active user ‘Joe Blogs’.

So how’s all that sound? Clear as mud?

I wrote another ‘post import’ repair tool yesterday that I had planned on integrating with the above tool today but time got away from me so hopefully I’ll have time in the morning to do this and will keep the scenario I outlined above in mind so it can be used for more than just imported phpBB forums and can be extended for other imported forums and custom imports.

[iwishiknew]

Hello all,

This seems like it should be easy but I cant find ANYTHING ANYWHERE on how to just migrate bbpress forum posts from one bbPress forum Version 2.5.3 to another bbPress forum which is also Version 2.5.3. Both wordpress sites are running WordPress 3.8.1.

I just want to transfer the forums/forum posts/replies from a forum on website aaa.com to website bbb.com which are both on the same server.

It seems like this should be very easy, there are a million tutorials on how to import/export from OTHER forum services like phpbb, etc. but nothing about bbpress to bbpress hahahahaha

Anyways, any help is GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks!

[Stephen Edgar]

This time, it converted the users, all of the topics, and about 220,00 replies, then started just outputting dashes again. What does it mean when it starts outputting dashes? What is the program doing?

As I stated above it can be for many reasons and is a bug/error that we have not been able to isolate to fix, we have not found a way to trigger the bug allowing us to reproduce the bug and create the fix. It is a random thing as I outlined in my previous reply.

I opened a new window and re-started the conversion from that window, but instead of picking up where it left off, it started converting topics again. Am I going to have two copies of each topic in the BBPress forums now? Should I reset the forums again?

If you want the importer to resume from where it left off you need to make sure you don’t check the checkbox in the following screenshot, if you do check it then it will start again from the start and you will end up with two of everything.

Instead of using “reset forums,” can I just empty some of the MySQL tables?

This should be sufficient for most cases and because bbPress uses custom post types it shares the same wp_posts and wp_postmeta tables with WordPress and any other plugin or themes custom post types. It should be quite fast and behind the scenes it is actually doing direct MySQL queries to remove only the bbPress forums, topics, replies and topic tags from the posts, postmeta and taxonomy tables.

I know it can be frustrating getting this to work as I have been were you are now and is the reason I started using bbPress. I went through the same problems trying to import from phpBB to bbPress, I eventually got it working and started learning PHP and now as a novice PHP programmer I try my best to help others migrate their forums to bbPress and improve bbPress as best I can and it’s not easy and for an old dog learning new tricks I reckon I’m doing alright.

[Stephen Edgar]

Finally I’ve written a small script to migrate kunena attachments to GD bbPress attachments

@cybnet Awesome thanks for this, I added it to the (still sparse) Kunena docs here.

I’ll take a closer look when I get the chance and see what ideas I can come up with. I was at a WordPress Meetup a couple of months ago that demoed a few different ways to move media from one install to another that once time permits I’d love to take a shot at including it in our importer.

Now I’d like to write a script to convert kunena BBCode into bbPress HTML because there are some bbcodes not converted.

This I can most definitely help out with now.

The SMF and phpBB importers both have some good examples of converting BBCode to ‘native’ bbPress (WordPress) code. I am simply use regular expressions to convert them on the fly as each topic or reply is converted.

eg. This Replaces [size=$1:XXXXXXXX] with <span style="font-size:$1%;">$3</span>

$phpbb_uid = preg_replace( '/\[size=(.*?):(.*?)\]/', '<span style="font-size:$1%;">', $phpbb_uid );

You can see the SMF regex here and the phpBB here. There are probably quite a few that we can repurpose and if not make up a list for me and I’ll work towards getting them added to the Kunena importers in a future release.

[kvr28]

I’m not sure, I thought I had found that as a example on here somewhere, but I can’t seem to find it, it’s what I use on my forum and I’m not getting any errors, I just found this example and just tried it on my testing site and it works well, see if it gives you any errors

https://code.google.com/p/ogre3d-fr/source/browse/wp-content/themes/ogre3d/bbpress/loop-forums.php?r=25

also lynq made a pretty sweet template pack, maybe try that and see if you like the look

I have created a bbPress starter theme with a phpBB look and feel

[photoboothowners]

Please disregard, I had given the phpBB DB reader invalid access.

[photoboothowners]

I am trying to migrate from our current phpBB3 forums to a bbPress and BuddyPress instance. I have the plugins installed and configured. My issue is when I try to run the importer under Tools > Forums > Import

I am receiving the following:

Repair any missing information:
Conversion Complete
No reply_to parents to convert
No replies to convert
No tags to convert
No super stickies to stick
No stickies to stick
No topics to convert
No forum parents to convert
No forums to convert
No passwords to clear
No users to convert
Starting Conversion

The problem is that there is 18 forums, 14,000+ posts and 1,900+ users.

Has anyone experienced this? If so and your succeeded in getting phpBB3 to import could you share any tricks you had to perform?

Thanks really looking forward to leaving phpBB3 behind if possible!

[Doremdou]

Thanks @robin-w and @netweb ! 🙂
I don’t know if it was @uniqcon89 ‘s problem (well it was long ago it is true but that was the only topic similar in the forum) but if someone else has installed the starter pack and has the same problem, the fix will be here : https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/i-have-created-a-bbpress-starter-theme-with-a-phpbb-look-and-feel/page/4/
Thanks,
Cya! 🙂

[Doremdou]

Hello, when we click favorite or subscribe button on a topic, it doesn’t work and show a window with “undefined” . But right click and “open new window” works.

when replacing the bbpress theme with the basic one, it does work. But when I install the starter pack https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/i-have-created-a-bbpress-starter-theme-with-a-phpbb-look-and-feel/ buttons dont work anymore and are showing “undefined”

Any ideas which file can be causing this? :/
Thanks

[Doremdou]

Hello @robin-w thank you for your answer 🙂

Errr personnaly I think I have found the culprit… when replacing the bbpress theme with the basic one, it does work. But when I install the starter pack https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/i-have-created-a-bbpress-starter-theme-with-a-phpbb-look-and-feel/ buttons dont work anymore and are showing “undefined”

Any ideas which file can be causing this? :/
Thanks

[Doremdou]

Hi,
The Starter pack https://github.com/EpicWebs/bbPress-starter-theme-epicwebs (by Lynk = https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/i-have-created-a-bbpress-starter-theme-with-a-phpbb-look-and-feel/) does exactly all that you want. I see you posted on this topic, did you try it?

It turns basic bbpress to this for example: http://teamoverpowered.com/forums/

And I agree, this is not because YOU don’t like bbpress the way it is, that EVERYONE do, it is not true. Some people like it this way because it is simple.

[andresjg]

The prefix cam from my list.
On phpbb this is posible. Next to title a combo box with options.

[Stephen Edgar]

Someone else here has done the import/conversion when using wp-united, here it is, should be some good tips for you: https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/phpbb3-import-incomplete-and-switches-authors/

Also https://codex.bbpress.org/import-forums/ & https://codex.bbpress.org/import-forums/phpbb

[Stephen Edgar]

Ok… I think I follow now, take a look at the following thread, it is a good example of customizing the bbPress templates to have the forum layout like a phpBB or vBulletin format.

I have created a bbPress starter theme with a phpBB look and feel

[shanshan51]

Wordpress Version 3.8.1
bbPress version – Version 2.5.3

It seems that I got the bbpress import from phpbb to work with all the topics and replies. The problem is that the users are imported wrong so the topics are credited to the wrong user. I went through other forums which said it was a WP United issue but I do not have this installed.

Please help. I see some suggestions of writing a MySQL query which I see are back from 2012 so they are not working for me. Any assistance would be appreciated.

[Stephen Edgar]

Someone else here has done the import/conversion when using wp-united, here it is, should be some good tips for you: https://bbpress.org/forums/topic/phpbb3-import-incomplete-and-switches-authors/

Also https://codex.bbpress.org/import-forums/ & https://codex.bbpress.org/import-forums/phpbb

[bidiesman]

hello everybody,
I’m trying to import my phpbb linked to wordpress with wp-united to bbpress.

first thing, is that I got some troubles to access to the bbpress menu from the wp-admin panel. (not visible and access denied) to solve this first issue, I had to install “user role editor” wordpress plugin and click on reset, right after. bbpress menu was well present.

After first import I noticed that some topics where started by Anonymous and after that all my topics where written by another user;… I finally understood the fun part.

In phpbb you have from id 3 to 51 robot crawler user…due to that, it’s not syncing well with wp_user…
I will try a manual fix tonight but if anybody already did the manip I’m ready for any extra info. (about attachement, mp,…etc,…)

cheers,

[Stephen Edgar]

See this thread on how one user did it for SimplePress:

bbPress SimplePress 5 Importer

Also a search with a few of these keyowrds: mod_rewrite, phpbb or vbulletin at Stack Overflow will give you some good examples to go by: http://stackoverflow.com/

[mshane8]

Hello-

I am redesigning a site and want to migrate my current forums, topics and replies from my current site into my new site.

I have read through the instructions but I have 2 issues:

1) What is my platform? I am migrating from current bbpress plugin version to another. Both the production site and the dev site are on the same hosting provider with different databases obviously. I am assuming I use the default setting phpBB?

2) More importantly- what is the table prefix? It is default setting. I did not assign a custom prefix. But I cant find the table prefix anywhere in the MySQL database. There isn’t a table with the prefix wp_bb_ or anything related to that table structure?

* I am only using bbPress for forums, topics and replies. I am not using Buddy Press.

Thanks so much for the advice. The migrating instructions are not very specific.

[Halo Diehard]

I too am trying to import an existing bbPress into another WordPress site, and as a note I must say that the reason I have to do this is because the bbPress importer does not play well with my server (or I SHOULD say my server does not play well!) and I get a similar result you speak of, @specialtactic, where the majority of the posts are attributed to the admin. This has been verified as not being a bbPress importer issue, but a server issue, as I was able to use the importer successfully on my local test server.

Now that I know I can import onto my local, I need to be able to import that local bbPress (converted from the phpBB3) into my live WordPress site, but alas I haven’t had the time to try and wrap my brain around how to accomplish it and so have been waiting for an importer to be written.

Just wanted to clarify for you that it’s possible that the PippinsPlugins is not at fault, if you were attempting to use it in similar circumstances to my own.

[Halo Diehard]

Did you get this to work? I’ve been wanting to do this for a loooooong time, and don’t know how/haven’t had time to try and figure out the coding myself. I got a phpBB3 forum imported on a local, now I need to get the local bbPress forum onto my live site, but with no bbPress option in the importer options I’m at a loss.

[traemccombs]

Heh, stop being so awesome in your replies. 🙂

Anyway, me, the non-coder, still doesn’t understand why it(bbpress plugin) can’t simply have an option to use styles from other themes. If nothing else, the CSS etc would be a nice “base” for things like link colors, font sizes, whatever.

*sigh*

I tried bbPress Tweaks. Meh.

I’ll read the link you posted. Hopefully it doesn’t suck.

bbPress has such a non-WP feel about it though in everything I’ve come to expect from WordPress. Part of it is my frustration with PHPBB, and part of it is my frustration with not being able to get a non-sucky looking forum with bbPress.

And, I have yet to see a non-sucky bbPress based forum. Most are fairly crappy in how they present and deal with the content.

Easy of me to throw stones in a glass house when I don’t code I guess. I just wish there were more sane defaults in bbPress that looked better out of the box.

[Mycelus]

While I appreciate your work, this is not a viable solution.

The fact that bbPress comes out of the box with a box that says “forum” makes no sense.

Any forums I’ve seen (IPB, XenForo, phpBB, etc etc etc) have boxes for each category, and then the forum names, not a box that says forum, then the categories, then the forums underneath, bbPress’ layout makes no sense and I am not looking to download a child theme and then have to customize it because I don’t currently possess enough CSS and WordPress knowledge to do so.

I am learning, Im not sitting around or anything, but bbPress should look like the other forum layouts because it’s current layout makes 0 sense.

Are there any repositories with some example images of how to go about styling bbPress? I don’t know if it’s just me but bbPress has been around for years if I’m not mistaken and there’s a surprising lack of documentation on it for how popular it is.