I imported a huge forum from PHPBB (Over 1M posts and 100K users). It’s very slow to load and submit posts. Any suggestions on the indexes that should be created? It doesn’t look like the default BBPress indexes are sufficient for forums this size. I thought BBPress would be able to handle it with it’s default structure. Thanks in advance.
Hey There,
Is there a more up-to-date suggestion regarding BBPress and Indexes? I imported a huge forum from PHPBB (over 1M posts + 100K users) and it’s very slow! Any suggestions on how to optimize all of the tables?
Thanks!
I would say you’re spot on Bobby. 2 years down the line from this thread and I’m beggared if I can find clear, concise documentation on how to install and activate a simple bbpress theme. I just don’t get the point of spending all this time and effort to create forum software and then refuse to properly help people to use it. Like you said, more people will just give up than actually install and use at this rate.
I can honestly say it was easier to integrate phpbb3 with wordpress using a complex modification than it is to properly set up a bbpress forum, which is meant to be seamless.
Might be time to look for another solution if this is the future. Not wishing to be snappy and I know this is free software, of which I’m sure we’re all appreciative, but this has to be one of the most frustrating installs I’ve ever encountered.
Also, are there steps to manually import phpbb.
This problem was resolved. But I have been trying to import the phpbb v3.### since with no luck. I get to a point and it starts putting out ———- with no text explanation. It does this for hours. Any suggestions?
Thanks Stephen
I tried again as suggested. Manually deleted previous suer import, reset forums, did not check purge previous
Same problem, it’s just hanging.
A couple of things I noticed, on the reset its is all successful except:
“Deleting Conversion Table… Failed”
As well as the actual users there are a lot of bots etc. (e.g. AdsBot Google, Ask Jeeves Bot)
Before importing I had pruned phpbb users down to only actual users with minimum 1 post, so i don’t understand where those bots are coming from. They certainly don’t show up in a search on phpbb forum for users.
Thanks for the update, if I get time I might take a peek at the ‘Kiss Portal’ mod for phpBB, it would be nice to finally get your forums imported into bbPress after soooooo much time. It took me a good 6 months to get my original site from phpBB to bbPress and now I write all the forum converters 😉
Do not check the following setting:
Purge Previous Import Purge all information from a previously attempted import
Do check the following setting:
Start Over Start a fresh conversion from the beginning
There is something weird going on with the above that ‘Purge Previous Import’ setting that I am looking into, it works for some and not others and is really bugging me 🙁
In between imports if it doesn’t finish and you need to try again you will manually have to delete the imported users from the WordPress User admin panel and reset bbPress’ forums as per https://codex.bbpress.org/reset-forums/.
after you get this, you need to do a repair
Yes, I did the repairs, all of them – it made no difference.
sometimes there will appear to be a forum with 70 topics, but on the fornt page only a forum with 0 topics.
after you get this, you need to do a repair
tools>forums and as yours is a small database I’d just click all of them
Happy to hear(read) that, and I envy you, I tried converting my SMF to phpbb first and didn’t work 🙁
Anyway, congratulations, enjoy this beautiful piece of software.
Thanks everyone! Its all sorted.
I first converted to phpbb and from there i converted to bbpress 🙂
Now just playing with bbpress feeling exited and happy!!
Thanks very much
It’s a tiny database 455KB, the forum has only one forum, 70 topics. So it seems I can safely assume it’s just not working.
I have all the correct vales, exactly as on the config.php
This is what I see:
“Delete users WordPress default passwords (0 – 99)
Converting users (0 – 99)
Deleting previously converted data (0 – 99)
Starting Conversion”
After an hour or so of this (with the spinning wheel thing) I can go to Forums in the admin dashboard and sometimes there will appear to be a forum with 70 topics, but on the fornt page only a forum with 0 topics.
Other times I try the import and there is just no forum at all.
Is there a premium support for this? I would be happy to pay for some help.
I just found out yesterday that one of the issues I’m having might indeed have something to do with the phpBB3 mod, Kiss Portal. I did take your advice, @netweb, and attempted to install it on a Wamp (this is why it’s taken awhile to get back, my Wamp crashed and I’m troubleshooting), and in the process I’ve discovered that there is a file calling for a phpbb3_k_vars_config table on my Wamp server, even though there is no phpbb3_k_vars_config table in my running board’s database and it’s working fine. The Wamp board crashes saying it cannot find this table. I’m trying to get answers from the Kiss Portal crew, since during the search I discovered this is the same error I was getting when I first installed the portal. They actually went into my database and got it working at that time. But if I’m not mistaken, something in their files is looking for this table. Both boards have phpbb_k_vars_config table, without the “3”. So I might be getting closer to figuring this thing out.
Here is the error, in case anyone has seen this before and knows what it means:
General Error
SQL ERROR [ mysql4 ]
Table ‘*******.phpbb3_k_blocks_config_vars’ doesn’t exist [1146]
An sql error occurred while fetching this page. Please contact an administrator if this problem persists.
It depends on the size of your old bb, but should take less than 30 minutes for any install.
@robin-w Not quite true, typically yes, when importing boards with up to a few thousand topics/replies it should be done in under 30 minutes.
Get into the tens of thousands, hundreds and even millions this does take a bit of time. 😉
At what point do I give up and start again. Should it take over four hours?
You should see it start and offer you some sort of notice that it has within seconds.
Via FTP or your web host cPanel admin etc, open your phpBB config file /public_html/phpbbv3/config.php and make sure these are the values you are using on the bbPress importer screen.
<?php
// phpBB 3.0.x auto-generated configuration file
// Do not change anything in this file!
$dbms = 'mysqli';
$dbhost = 'localhost';
$dbport = '3306';
$dbname = 'my_phpbb_database';
$dbuser = 'my_user_name';
$dbpasswd = 'abcdefgh';
$table_prefix = 'phpbb_';
(The $dbhost & $dbport may be blank as thats the default so use the settings I list above which are the default on the bbPress importer anyway)
Everything is still going fine, I ran some phpBB imports yesterday whilst implementing a few minor updates.
Details are here https://bbpress.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/2467
Feel free to download the latest from here:
https://bbpress.trac.wordpress.org/browser/trunk/includes/admin/converters/phpBB.php
First up, make sure you have run the phpBB recount tools which ‘should’ make sure phpB database is in good shape before you get started.
I’m also having a problem importing from phpbb, can you please tell me where I find the phpbb recount tools?
Thanks
You should find it on the first page of your phpBB ACP, scroll down a little.
phpBB3 has had some updates in the last year, I wonder if those updates are making the bbPress importer not be able to do it’s job? Maybe different coding now?
It depends on the size of your old bb, but should take less than 30 minutes for any install.
I am having no luck importing from phpbb (latest version 3.0.12) The importer just seems to hang for hours and hours on “Starting Conversion”
At what point do I give up and start again. Should it take over four hours?
First up, make sure you have run the phpBB recount tools which ‘should’ make sure phpB database is in good shape before you get started.
I’m also having a problem importing from phpbb, can you please tell me where I find the phpbb recount tools?
Thanks
Stephen, no luck so far. It seems the problem is with the usermeta data.
Not sure why phpbb to bbpress has issues with passwords. I am able to login to phpbb board seamlessly but the migration is not importing useful passwords.
I can give you access to my cpanel for a closer look the tables you requested. How do I contact you.
I have been trying to import phpbb for several days now. I have 87000 members and the script is so slow. It would seem to be easier to just do it directly in the db. I am having no luck with the import script. First it takes a day to import users. Second the restart script seems to have problems “Deleting previously converted data (6694000 – 6694999)”. I have no clue what it is deleting but there are not 6 million records. No where near.
So is there a guide to doing a manual import directly through db scripts?
Thanks
I’d suggest looking up how phpBB deals with imported vBulletin user passwords, some importers convert the password after the fact, so until userxyz logs into phpBB the password isn’t converted to the phpBB forums format.
Stephen, I was able to convert from phpbb to bbpress and that was really smooth sailing, but now all my migrated usernames’ passwords don’t work. Ironically, for the earlier vbulletin conversion, the passwords were working fine but the threads and usernames were out of sync.
Now, the thread/posts/username relationship is fine, but all my passwords don’t work. I am not sure what the issue is. Hopefully you can direct me in the right direction to get this minor issue resolved.
