[ebiznet88]

Hi Anointed and AWJunkies, is there any update on the issues with the phpBB conversion that many users on this thread have highlighted?

Right now, I’m stuck in no-man’s land and would love to get a resolution of sorts.

If there is no further support or development into this plugin, then please let us know so that users like me can look at other solutions for our forum boards.

I appreciate all the work that has gone into this, but as it is, its not complete and not usable to anyone.

If anyone has successfully converted their phpBB board to bbPress using this converter, I’d like to hear from them.

Thank you in advance for any replies and help!

[OC2PS]

https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-bbpress-help-me

Tried this?

.bbp-forum-info .bbp-forums li {display:block;}

[OC2PS]

Actually, it doesn’t. I think bbPress is a pretty good piece of software.

But while I have your attention, allow me to share my perspectives as someone who has been using Opensource Bulletin Board software for many years, but is just starting off with bbPress.

It’s great that bbPress can leverage WordPress’s autoupdate function to update itself and its plugins. phpBB (http://www.phpbb.com/mods/automod/), SMF (http://docs.simplemachines.org/index.php?topic=93) etc. are still trying to figure it out…they have some rudimentary patches, but nothing as elegant as WordPress’s system.

Another brilliant thing is the ability to use seo/pretty URLs/permalinks. Amazingly, at phpBB (http://area51.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=105&t=35616) they are fighting over whether this is even desirable!

But what’s pure genius is the ability to use any WordPress theme! bbPress ships with a bbPress TwentyTen theme, and if your active WordPress theme does not have special support for bbPress, that is ok, because bbPress will use bbPress TwentyTen’s styling to present the forums in your active theme. Genius! Pure genius!

Add to this the fact that because bbPress is a WordPress plugin, there are additional benefits such as: SSO with WP, ability to use WP plugins (like Use Google Libraries), extendability, lightness, etc.

It is a massive shock to me that the number of people are using bbPress is incredibly smaller than what it should be.

I’ve thought about my experience, and think that the following factors could be critical in this regard:

1. Discovery: Discovery is an issue. I don’t know what the relationship is between Automattic/Wordpress/bbPress/BuddyPress, but I am sure you have considered putting bbpress.org link in wordpress.org’s “See also:” footer and decided against it. But what I do struggle to understand is wy wordpress.org would not even permit you to put a credit line (Powered by bbPress) in wordpress.org forums. That is a bit harsh. To add insult to injury, if I search for forum on wordpress.org forums (http://wordpress.org/search/forum?forums=1), Mingle is at the top and Vanilla forums show up on page 1, but bbPress doesn’t.

Google SERPs aren’t much better. bbPress is not on 1st page for any of “forums script”, “opensource forums script” and “php forums script”. I’m sure that would change if you could convince wordpress.org to show you a little more love.

2. Freshness: Even if someone chances upon bbPress plugin on wordpress.org (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bbpress/), there is little joy. The bubble is burst as soon as the explorer clicks on forum posts (http://wordpress.org/tags/bbpress?forum_id=10). There doesn’t seem to be any support and users appear to be completely lost without a paddle.

Of course the main reason for that is that you handle most support here at bbpress.org but the poor visitor doesn’t know that. He looks at wordpress.org forums for bbpress, concludes there is lack of support and goes away.

I think unifying support in one place (at wordpress.org forums), will be good for the community. You can have a clearcut, loudly stated division – bbpress WP plugin support at wordpress.org forums, legacy bbpress standalone support at bbpress.org

http://bbpress.org/forums/topic/why-separate-forums

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-bbpress-why-separate-forums

3. Migration: bbPress needs to face the fact that most people who want a forum, have already had a forum. The *new* market for forums is much smaller than the *installed base* of forums.

Consequently, most of the people who would want to use bbPress probably are already using another forum script and need help migrating. It is collossal mistake to leave this for community plugins.

If I have a forum software in a production environment, then one of the major factors influencing my decision regarding migration is whether or not there is a robust, stable, tried and tested and reliable migration path to the target software. This is extremely important for me. In fact, I would suffer a somewhat inferior software willingly rather than move to a better software if there is no clear migration path or there is a high degree of risk in migration.

It is a mistake on part of bbPress to leave migration to community plugin developers. Even if there were some plugins out there that did the job, it would be much less reassuring to prospective users compared to a migration/import path created by the bbPress team. As it happens there are only 2 import plugins (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/forumconverter/ and http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bbconverter/) out there and both of them are broken and not supported.

WordPress does it right in building an importer directly into the core.

I think it would be greatly beneficial to the project if the bbPress team build a bbPress importer that supports the top 4 forum software: phpBB, Invision, SMF and vBulletin.

Over the next 18-24 months, I expect to see a mass exodus from phpBB as they rewrite the software from ground up (http://area51.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=75&t=41583). If bbPress provide a good migration path, it stands the chance to capture some of fleeing population.

4. I18n: 80%+ translations of bbPress are available in 13 languages, which is nothing to be scoffed at. But delivery is shambolic.

It is a nightmare trying to figure how to get bbPress working in a language other than English, even if you do the translation yourself.

There are 2 places to find translations: http://svn.automattic.com/bbpress-i18n/ and http://translate.wordpress.org/projects/bbpress/plugin

You can also use the .pot file found in /wp-content/plugins/bbpress/bbp-languages folder to create a translation, or you can translate at http://translate.wordpress.org/projects/bbpress/plugin with proper access.

It still doesn’t work. Very frustrating.

As it turns out, what you need to do is go to http://translate.wordpress.org/projects/bbpress/plugin, download language file by exporting to .po file, use poedit to covert to .mo, and upload it to wp-content/languages/bbpress/ (not to /wp-content/plugins/bbpress/bbp-languages which has the .pot file or /wp-content/plugins/bbpress/languages as most other plugins would). And the name of the file should be somewhat like bbpress-de_DE.mo not the standard de_DE.mo

Who would be able to figure that out? There’s not a single word about this in the documentation.

What a mess!

While some of the sharpest web developers comes from non-English-speaking countries, a high proportion of non-English-speakers are quite venturesome and decide to handle the technical aspects themselves as site owners, instead of farming them out to expensive developers, who are busy charging high rates for remote work.

These are the people that greatly appreciate the simplicity of WordPress. And these are the people who are a captive audience for bbPress, only if bbPress could make life a little bit easier for them.

bbPress should either be delivered in multiple language-specific packages like WordPress, or should be delivered with all translations included like most other plugins.

The .pot as well as language .po .mo files should be located in /wp-content/plugins/bbpress/languages

5. Documentation: This is another disaster area that is dragging a good software down. Documentation is just plain bad.

First of all, bbPress should clearly mention on the home page (http://bbpress.org/) and the download page (http://bbpress.org/download/) that while standalone version continues to be supported, it is not being actively developed.

Secondly, all the current documentation (http://bbpress.org/documentation/) is about the standalone version, and doesn’t say anything helpful for plugin users. This should be reversed.

6. Lack of basic features: Forum users, whether or not they own/manage forums, have come to expect certain basic features like:

– quote, multiquote

– topic view stats

– unread posts link

– Signature

– Profile photo/avatar

– bbcode

– WYSISYG editor

– forum search, context search

– uploading images

– members online

– private messaging

– smilies/emoticons

– forum moderation

– user registration approval

etc.

I understand that bbPress is built to be modular, and I think bbPress is right in leaving this functionality to plugins.

However, there are 2 problems:

– On wordpress.org plugin directory (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/) there is no good way of listing all bbPress plugins. Perhaps you should create a special nomenclature or special tag that bbPress plugins should use?

– If you look at bbPress plugin browser (http://bbpress.org/plugins/), most plugins are quite old…updated in 2010, 2009, even 2008! This is not very reassuring or confidence inspiring. Now, many of the old plugins may still be working fine, but when I see the “last updated” date is June 2010 for a plugin, I assume it is outdated, not developed and not supported anymore. I perceive that this will be a trouble plugin if I install it, and consequently end up with less functionality than I want. And I blame bbPress for it, saying bbPress doesn’t have all the features I want.

My suggestion is this: Every time there is a new version of WordPress or bbPress, the bbPress plugins should release a new version too, even if the only difference is to add a comment line that says “compatible with version so and so”. This will go a long way in reassuring prospective users that can install the plugin with confidence.

7. Forum sidebar: There is a plugin called bbPress WP Tweaks (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bbpress-wp-tweaks/). What it proposes but in my experience fails to do should be part of the core software. bbPress WP Tweaks was created so that the admin could relace the WordPress standard sidebar with a forum-specific sidebar on forum pages. This, in my estimation, would be useful for 90%+ of all bbPress users.

8. Custom fields: One of the most powerful features of WordPress is custom fields. bbPress should not disable this for forum pages.

9. Custom headers code field: bbPress should have provision for a custom header code field, wherein the admin can put in some code, which bbPress then inserts in the header on forum pages. In one flick, this would make bbPress customization so much more powerful.

To sum up, it takes a lot of persistence and determination to love bbPress. This is not great to attract new users. The software has a lot of potential, and I believe the number of installations can be increased multifold if the above issues are tackled in earnest.

Thanks for listening to my ramblings. And if you went tl;dr I have only myself to blame.

[OC2PS]

Oh, I see that in changelog it says phpbb is now supported

https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bbconverter/changelog/

This is important info and should really also be included in description

https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/bbconverter/

where it still says “We are working on phpBB”

What does this in the description mean:

“This plugin runs in the background and converts passwords for your users when they log in, so the process is seamless even if your old forum uses different encryption methods.”

Does this mean that I should not uninstall the plugin after the conversion is complete?

[morgan-wick]

For me, it wouldn’t be enough to simply display subforums of a category on the main page. I’d like them to actually display the same way they would if they were parent forums.

[White Phoenix]

PowerNick, they are trying Orson’s Forum Converter. It sounds to me that it doesn’t work very well. I need to convert my phpBB3 forums too. But now I am thinking that WordPress and bbPress are not the answer. Even if the converter worked the idea that I would need a converter doesn’t really set well.

Yeah, I think I will ask my host to find something else.

[Kaenim]

No, I never did. I ended up switching to phpBB, in fact. For what it’s worth, it looks like I’ll have better luck; I’ve already seen a few mods that do this for phpBB, I just need to try them out for myself.

Best of luck to you!

[powernick]

i think you should try out orson’s forum converter…!

[mohammadg]

Having the same issue for some reason. Cant get the importer to work.

[OC2PS]

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-gregs-high-performance-seo-gregs-high-performance-seo-kills-bbpress

It took me a lot of trial and error, deactivating and activating of plugins to figure out what the problem was with my bbpress.

I don’t know what, why or how, but there is some problem between bbPress and Greg’s High Performance SEO. If Greg’s is installed, bbPress does not work – your forum root will seem ok enough…but if you click on any forum, the forum’s topic listing page will not list any topics, and the topic page will not show the discussion or any response options.

This is sad because I have come to like Greg’s High Performance SEO…but because I have decided, for many reasons, to move from phpbb to bbPress, I hope a fix is found soon.

[OC2PS]

Thanks, Anointed.

Can you confirm whether bbconverter can import from phpbb 3.0.10

[OC2PS]

https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-bbconverter-whither-phpbb

I’m quite surprised that you started off with platforms (vbulletin and invision) that are jointly less popular than phpbb. But I suppose one of the plugin developers had forums that used those platforms and I’m glad to be able to benefit from your hard work.

You have mentioned in the plugin description that conversion for phpbb is coming *soon*, and I was wondering if you might be able to provide some updates on that.

Finally, am I correct in assuming that bbconverter

i) imports topics and forum hierarchies into bbpress

ii) including the relations between topics and forums

iii) and slugs for topics and forums

iv) generates an .htaccess to place in the old forum directory so that old URLs are 301 redirected to new ones.

v) imports users including profiles, passwords, signatures and roles

[OC2PS]

@shoo

Forum converter does SEEM to get stuck in one place, but in my experience, that place is the end of the conversion – it just forgets to tell you that the conversion is done. Have you checked the forums post-conversion and found that the conversion wasn’t finished?

@DiannaM668

When I installed Forum converter, a couple of other things automatically got installed:

ForumConverter-Auth

ForumConverter-Password

ForumConverter-Signatures

See if they can help you.

[shooo]

Hi ,

@DiannaM668,

I try both plugin, but none is working properly.

phpBB converter from AWJunkies generates strange content for the link and images.

forumconvert does not complete the conversion and gets stuck in one place for no reason.

This plugin is no longer followed for a while now.

Do you see how it works? it created additional tables in the database to link up with tables currents bbPress.

If you have a problem later, you can not recover anything, the plugin no longer followed.

[OC2PS]

DiannaM668, sorry to hear that.

Not sure how to fix apart from manually bulk editing/moving…

[Nirzol1]

OK i will try this.

And with a custom page I can have a specific sidebar for forum too isn’t it ?

Because with the standar installation I can’t make a sidebar just for forum

An other questions : no way too have icons before each topics or categorie forum? (like phpbb ?) to notice read / unread posts ? or new posts?

Maybe with a class in html and with css ?

thx anointed

[DiannaM668]

Hi OC2PS again, I tried the converter with changing the version to 2.0.2 which matches my BBpress latest version and it did seem to work this time! However, it is weird how you can’t see it doing anything and then after awhile I hit refresh and check and it converted.

However, I’ve had this problem before and I’m not sure what could be this problem. Everything seems to convert great with users and forum structure, even the forum counts. However, my topics don’t show up within the forums. Within my topics, it shows that they are not connected to any forum. So I have about 500 some pages of topics not attached to anything.

Do you know or have any idea what I could be doing wrong that is not pulling the topics over to their respective forum??

I’m so close to getting this!

I’ve even thought to go through 500 pages of topics and put them in their forums. I am that desperate! But I know better than to work that hard but also I don’t know where these topics really belong or I would consider it.

Help?

[jangles]

I tried to convert phpbb. It ran through successfully. I had to comment out the code that was causing it to choke.

[DiannaM668]

HEy shooo! I think I saw you posting on the other thread about the other phpBB converter from AWJunkies. I feel your pain, looks like we are in the same boat of no luck in getting our phpBB forums converted.

It appears this converter is the one to troubleshoot as it seems that others here have had success.

shooo, I haven’t seen what you just posted because I never got that far. Mine would just say that database failed and then would say conversion was not supported.

Thanks OC2PS! I’m going to go look at that link that you provided. I’ll report back if any luck or for more begging….

[shooo]

Still nothing about the many problems of conversions phpbb?

[shooo]

hello,

I tried desperately for months to transfer my phpbb on bbPress, but without success.

This plugin crashes during the creation of the first forum.

have you ever had this problem?

“relinking forum hierarchy

fixing subcounts

done processing forums

Converting posts …

converting posts

Disconnecting

reconnecting …

reconnect success “but after it happens nothing.

This plugin is no longer followed by the author …

it’s just a mess ^ ^

[adv_user]

Hi John (do7d).

Thank you for your attention.

I’m interested in seeing what changes you made​​.

Not exactly the model of Invision or other powerful forums, but their forum was better organized with subcategories.

But still, I keep my critical: bbPress need to improve the hierarchy of sub-subforums to become a powerful forum and allow the creation of many subforums and well organized.

Even the simple press allows this organization/separation of blocks with subforums:

http://simple-press.com/support-forum/

Thanks!

[do7d]

@adv_user

please forgive me if this isn’t what you’re looking for, but im pretty sure i just created the forum @ http://www.USADriftTrikes.org the exact way you wanted to. it wasn’t too difficult, but took about a day of playing with to get where it is currently. let me know if i can help-

john

[OC2PS]

Yup, it worked.

The problem is the plugin is not very tolerant (version numbers had to be added to make it work) and not very communicative (doesn’t show a message when import is completed). But it worked.

https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-forumconverter-conversion-failed

2 files need to edited.

[DiannaM668]

dingles and OC2PS I’m having this very same exact problem.

BBPress has a converter but I cannot get anything to work right there and no one seems to be around to help me directly with my issue. I’ve been trying to get my forum converted for a month and a half now. I’m at my wits end.

So I’m coming back to Orson’s plugin in last desperate attempt to try once again even though I’ve always gotten the same conversion failed messages.

Dingles, could you share in more detail what you did to get it to work?

Or OC2PS if you figured it out?

I would be forever indebted!!!

Dianna