[Anointed]

Which converter are you using, the new bbConverter plugin?

If so, I’m pretty sure that the phpBB option says it is not yet supported.

I do know that Adam is working on a new vs. as we speak, but am not sure if phpBB has been added yet.

[Argonisius]

Hi,

I was trying to convert my phpBB database to bbPress with Forumconverter. When I start the conversion script, several lines flash on the screen (showing progress) and then the conversion stops at “merging user …”

Can you, please, help me what’s wrong?

Thank you very much.

[thetbasket]

Hi Travis,

Thanks for the response. My theme was different, as you had suggested, and I am working on it. Although I’m now in a little bit more of a complicated predicament because I am trying to use bbpress through buddypress, and on the buddypress install the forums options is not pointing the indicated page to the bbpress forums.

Anyway, I did misread or misunderstand your first suggestion – sorry about that. As far as creating a full-width template, I am nearly positive I did so (I created a template specifically for that page to be full width), but nevertheless I will double check next time.

I don’t want to get too deeply into this, but the fact that we use the word “blog” and “forum” already indicates that they are different even though they are both CMS’s. The issue is not that one is a CMS and the other is not, it is a matter of how the content is managed and it’s purpose.

A blog is a blog because, generally, one user is contributing the content that a multiplicity of users is commenting on. So a standard blog Write-and-Respond system works nicely, and works nicely even in a narrow space because it usually contains one article with comments on the article.

A forum, on the other hand, is a multiplicity of users creating multiple threads all scaffolded by an overarching structure of the forum and subforums. The way forums have been built thus far has been usually in a wide content format so users can see 1) The Thread title 2) The amount of replies 3) The last user that replied etc. etc. In other words, it is build upon a more horizontal management format, whereas the blog can get away with a more vertical format.

Of course now and into the future there will be all sorts of variations on this. But for the end user, I want a forum that is a forum, not a forum that is a blog. In other words, wide-formatted with the expected information that forums have traditionally contained up to this point.

The strong point of bbpress is its integration and especially it’s style integration. Anyone who has attempted to create themes for phpBB knows what a nightmare it can be. However, if you try to smush a phpBB forum in-between two or even besides one sidebar, see what happens. Not only that, but those sidebars from the blog are almost inherently irrelevant to the function of the forum. In other words — useless screen real estate being taken from what otherwise would be a smoothly functioning, articulated forum.

And I can understand that WordPress vanilla functions fine, and being opensource one could reprogram it into Duke-Nukem 3D, almost. As a user of wordpress, the most frustrating thing consistently is that I feel like I am hacking CSS and PHP files more than I am creating content, and perhaps this is because I am a bit persnickety and want a particular look, but a full width forum from a forum plugin? To me things like this (and there are enough) are just plain flaws in development. I shouldn’t need to hack anything to get a forum to operate in full width because that is how forums best operate according to contemporary standards. Perhaps you should need to hack to get something to operate somehow unique and fascinating, but hacking code to get something to perform as you would expect it to – from your hours and hours and hours of forum experience? To me this is on the development teams shoulders.

Again, thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I may be back after I have a chance to try what you had suggested.

By the way, after installing buddypress all of the groups, member pages, activity pages, etc. were ALL operating on full width. The only part of the entire install that persists in operating between my sidebars is bbpress, and it is the only one I am dissatisfied with. So now I have to go through hours of who knows what to get something working the way it always has worked.

Again, bravo for bbpress, it’s a great project with a great future, and there is a lot to be said for it. But that doesn’t excuse it from what needs work, and for those of us who want to deliver content, we would much rather spend our time on managing the delivery of content than on managing the content management system.

I’d rather be spending this time developing the forum, not on developing the forum development software.

[AWJunkies]

We are definitely here. I stated my direct contact info earlier in thread. You have a lot of questions and posts so be easier to address them all at once through a messanger. You are correct about the bbpress 1x and not needing the plugin after convert to convert passwords. That is for all other platforms.

Please contact me directly at:

skype: AWJunkies

AIM: AWJunkies

YAHOO: AWJunkies

Email: aellis@awjunkies.com

The phpbb is not currently complete as the file says I should have it done next week if nobody has tried to do the converter file yet. I also will be adding and editing a few things for speed.

[Stephen Edgar]

Not exactly what I planned on doing today whilst sitting in the back of a car! Though whilst browsing these forums I bumbed into this thread and have kicked it off on my iPad with a bbPress test site importing from 30,000 post PHPBB site, been running now for around 30 minutes.

I’ll add some follow ups on how the data Looks in bbPress when I have the right tools

EDIT: ~90 minutes after above

After ~60 minutes I have stopped it and had a look at the WordPress tables with myphpadmin and I cannot see any new posts in ‘wp_posts’ or ‘wp_users’

Is the ‘PhpBB_Not_Complete’ import tool active? i.e. Should I see more than nothing, nil, null as a result of trying this?

Cheers,

Stephen

[Ed]

AW, as i’ve jumped from punbb>phpbb2>phpbb3>bbpress1>bbpress2, I don’t think it’s worth sharing my setup – just too many variables to account for.

However, look forward to testing a punbb or phpbb version for you.

[Ed]

any eta for phpbb or punbb? thanks!

[Ed]

Hi Anointed, thanks for that. I really need to get my punBB moved to something else ASAP, and was hoping the bbpress might be the one.

Indeed, I just went from punbb > phpbb etc, as there is no direct conversion. It does seems that along the way, little things break – which in the end screw up the final conversion step.

Looking forward to a new release of your tool

[Anointed]

ED: Just talked to AWJunkies and he said this can happen when running multiple converters strung together.

From your post it looks like you need a way to go from punbb?

(guessing you are only going from punbb -> phpbb in order to get a roundabout way to bbpress)

We are going to add punbb and phpbb3 to the list of importers.

[Ed]

OK, I solved my mismatch problem by simply removing the top level forum category.

However, the blank posts still occur.

I’ve tracked it down to:

– at the BBpress1 stage, while the POSTs show the correct author, the actual TOPIC shows “Anonymous” for every entry.

– there is a duplicate entry in the DB, one which is the topic title, and then the actual contents.

things look fine with phpbb3, so I guess the error was with the “phpbb3-to-bbpress1-converter_v2″….

not your converter.

Anyhow, thanks for your great work!!! I just need to get my data in a state where it can be pulled in. Thanks.

[Ed]

Hi,

to help test this, I’ve moved my punBB forum over, and for the most part things work. However there is one major issue.

I’ve done the conversion by going from:

punbb > phpbb2 > phpbb3 > bbpress1 (standalone) > this converter > bbpress2

at the bbpress1 stage, I checked the data, forums, users etc and all looked good.

after conversion, when going through the ADMIN page/REPLIES, you see that each reply is linked to:

‘top level forum container’ (Mismatch)

and each thead that I look at, has an empty post at the start (i guess because of this issue?).

Topics are allocated correctly as they should be though.

My forum is setup as so:

– Top Level Forum Container

– forum 1

– forum 2

– forum 3

Any ideas how to fix this issue?

Thanks!!

[Ed]

any ETA on the PHPbb 3x option, and would you add punBB to the consideration list?

Thanks

[harryv]

I just started a brand new wp site. Initially, I was going to install a phpbb under

http://<url>/forums

After uploading the phpbb, I found bbpress plugin and activated it. Now all links to the forums are in the format

http://<url>/forums/forum/<topic&gt;

What is worse is that when I click to that link, it returns invalid. I tried removing the ‘forums’ and ‘forum’ and it still doesn’t go anywhere. I have since removed that /forums folder and the phpbb but the plugin still has the permalink saved despite removing and reinstalling the plugin.

How can I resolve this?

[Anointed]

Thanks to AWJunkie we are proud to announce the official release of bbConverter, the only tool you will ever need to convert your current forums for use with bbPress 2x.

Currently supported platforms:

1. bbPress 1x

2. Vbulletin 3x – 4x

3. Invision Power Board

Future platform support already in progress:

1. PHPbb 3x

2. Xenforo

Platforms being considered

1. myBB

Download:

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

Installation:

1. Upload the bbConverter folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory

2. Activate bbConverter through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress

3. Go into your WordPress admin under ‘Settings’ and choose ‘Converter’

4. BACKUP YOUR WORDPRESS DATABASE!

5. Choose the platform you want to convert from and fill in the database information. Click start

6. Once the conversion has completed, visit the WordPress Admin ‘Tools’ section and click ‘Recount’

7. Do NOT deactivate the plugin once it is finished as it is needed for user password management.

Did I forget to mention — BACKUP YOUR WORDPRESS DATABASE BEFORE STARTING!

Important Note:

It is important to understand that this script is going to be modifying your wordpress database in order to bring over your forums/topics/replies/tags/ and users from your old forum setup. This means we are directly modifying your database which means backup is paramount.

Ok, now that is out of the way, let’s get to the plugin itself.

Each Forum sofware, whether bbPress 1x, vbulletin, or Invision Powerboard, has its own configuration file. For example vbulletin calls the file config.php

This is the file which contains your database connection information and you need to save this information in order to fill out the plugin start screen.

Required options:

1. Platform you are converting from – dropdown

2. Database server — usually localhost

3. Database port — (example: vbulletin uses 3306)

4. Database Username

5. Database Password

6. Database Name

7. Database Table Prefix — If you installed your forum software using a prefix enter it here. ( example: vbulletin default uses vb_ ) If there is no prefix, then leave it blank.

8. Rows Limit — This represents the number of database rows the plugin will convert during a single cycle. I would start this number at 50 or below at first. Keep in mind that forum conversion takes a huge load on the server mysql so if you are on a shared host, you may want to notify your host before running the script.

If you are on a dedicated server with shell access, then I would suggest opening up a terminal window and monitoring the resources. You can change the ‘Rows Limit’ at any time while the script is running. I have gone as high as 2500 instead of 50 on my servers. ( don’t click stop/start as it is not needed to change the limits )

9. Delay time — Suggested to use 1. This is the number of seconds that the server waits between the conversion cycles. It gives your server a second to catch its breath.

Other Options:

1. Clean — If something actually goes wrong, then you can choose to clean the database. This will effectively remove all the imported data and allow you to start the conversion over.

2. Restart — Restart allows you to pick up where the script left off should you have the need to stop and start the process. Example is when your browser or computer window closes during the conversion process. If you close the browser during conversion for any reason, then the conversion stops.

3. Users — You have the option of choosing not to import your users. If you are using bbPress 1x and have the forums linked to your WordPress install already, then you do not need to import users. Do not check the box. Otherwise you do want to import your users.

Once Import is complete:

1. Recount — Once everything is finished, then go to the wp-admin/tools and choose recount. This is going to present you with a screen full of checkboxes. Check every box and click submit. This is going to line up all the topic/replies/user posts counts etc.

2. Keep bbConverter plugin active after conversion.

bbConverter has a special script which will allow your users to maintain their old forum username and password. In a nutshell, when a user signs in for the first time after the forums convert, the script will check their old password, validate it, and then use the WordPress system to generate the identical password for the user in the appropriate place. This means that you need to keep bbConverter active until every single user has logged into the forums in order to maintain password management. This is not at all resource intensive, and you won’t even notice the plugin running in the background.

That’s it your finished.

O, did I mention… BACKUP YOUR WORDPRESS DATABASE FIRST!

Enjoy!

[wisemonkey]

Hello

I am in the process of making the switch from phpBB to bbPress (once the importer is out of beta). My two questions: how will the current catalog of bbPress plugins work within the new bbPress 2.0 (WordPress plugin)? How are they installed?

I searched for this info here and could not really find a definite answer.

Thanks in Advance.

[vatoloco2]

Are you accepting phpbb3 testers? I would like to test your plugin, too. Actually I am sticking with Orson’s phpBB3 converter and it works like a dream if you follow all instructions carefully. So I may also help here with some testing if you want

[Anointed]

We are wrapping up final beta testing on a brand new plugin which will allow you to migrate your old forums to BBPress 2x. And yes, it does PHPBB3.

We hope to launch the plugin early next week and will notify the forums here when it is ready.

[Anointed]

We are doing final testing of a brand new importer, which we hope to have released early next week. It takes care of all the conversion including users that is needed.

So far we can import from

vbulletin

Phpbb

Invisionboard

BBPress 1x

Xenforo

Once final testing is complete we will make an announcement post with instructions for download and use.

[Andre]

@agriz – Now that bbPress 2.0 has been released I’d guess people will spend a little more time on enhancements like importers and plugins.

@ed – An importer is in the works, but it didn’t make much sense to make an importer for an unfinished piece of software.

[Andre]

There are some importers in progress, phpbb and vanilla for sure, but the only finished one I’m aware of is from bbPress 1.x.

I’d guess people were waiting for bbPress 2.0 to be done before putting too much work into an importer.

[Ed]

I’m also interested in this.

Surely an importer is in the works, right? Cannot be that everyone starts from scratch???

[Ed]

I’m currently using punbb (also have that data exported into phpbb3), but would like to move over to bbpress 2.0

However, I can’t find any working converter.

So – is there any proven path for getting data into bbpress v2.0 from outside?

Thanks!

[John James Jacoby]

I can’t even begin to guess what is going on there.

[Oystein]

I have today installed bbPress, activated it in the plugins menu and created a new forum. When I press “view forum” i get to a page where my phpBB forume is included into the wordpress theme!? Why is it like this? My phpBB installation should not have anything to do with bbPress. I have installed the DB for phpBB togheter with WP, due to that I have the “WordPress to phpBB 3.0.x Bridge” plugin installed.

Someone with the same problem?

[OCS Foundation CTO]

I have an install of WP 3.2.1 and BP 1.2.10. I am trying to install bbPress 2.0 rc5. The install goes well and I can successfully link it to BP but then when I go and view the site it is just a blank page.

This is a clean install with only one user as we are testing proof of concept for migrating our sites to WP/BP and the bbpress or WP/phpBB using the WP/phpBB Bridge.

I have over 10 years of web development experience but I am new to WP products.