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!

[@tflight Member 13 years ago]

Looking for some conversion advice. Here is my current setup.

Server1: http://www.example.com – WordPress 3.3 only… no forums, no bbPress, no BuddyPress, etc..

Server2: forums.example.com – phpBB 2.0.23. No integration with WordPress.

Server3: db.example.com – The database server for both WordPress and phpBB.

I’m looking to migrate from phpBB2 to bbPress. However I do *not* want my WordPress user table and my forums user table to commingle. After reading up on the conversion scripts available, the fact that bbPress 2 is a plugin and not standalone, etc I’m thinking that the following would be my best course of action.

1) Do a straight conversion from phpBB2 to phpBB3.

2) Install a new copy of WordPress on server2, get it up and running basic.

3) Install the bbPress plugin for WordPress on server2.

4) Run bbConverter to convert the (now) phpbb3 database to bbPress.

Does this sound like the best course of action? Anything anyone would suggest different?

[@aechus-tea Participant 13 years ago]

Thanks for the info on the example conversion script.

Not sure if I’ll be able to do what I need because PHP isn’t my forte but I’ll take an honest look!

It would be seriously cool if you’d put together a conversion from XML script. That way all anyone would need to do is export their forum data to xml in whatever way the conversion script needed.

Being able to use my data (learnjazzpiano.com has had it’s forums going for 16 years) is the only thing holding me back from BBPress.

[@jermainemaree Participant 13 years ago]

Are there plans to support standalone bbPress installs that have WordPress integration with the bbPress Integration plugin. I can convert everything but my users due to them residing in the WordPress database. Any insight on how I can accomplish this? Thanks!

[@tlq123 Member 13 years ago]

Thanks for the information,I was searching for this since past 3 months and i am glad to see it here. Thanking you much

[@johnjamesjacoby Keymaster 13 years ago]

@jermaine – Yours is the easiest conversion of all. Just opt to skip the user migration all together.

[@steveatty Participant 13 years ago]

The first post in each thread when its converted seems to be displayed as raw html for some reason.

[@steveatty Participant 13 years ago]

And its lost all the posting timestamps…. arrgg!!

This is importing from BBpress standalone.

http://wordbooker.tty.org.uk/supportforums/forum/wordbooker-general-chat-and-news/news-2/

shows the mess.

Oh and it would be great if you could chose which sort of users to bring over – like only bring over Active users rather than all of them.

[@lph2005 Member 13 years ago]

Well, this was a mess. I went to bed during a conversion and the computer went to sleep too.

Apparently, clicking restart checkbox actually restarts converting the same forums again and so there were duplicates created. I deleted everything via the admin panel and started without clicking the restart started the conversion at the same place I left off of the second attempt but the forum slugs used -2 after all of the forums. I tried again checking “clean out” but this did not fix this -2 problem because the script picks up where things left off….

Should I go into the db and clear things out and start again?

Update: I just looked in the database and wp_bb_ tables are all empty. So, where are these forums being kept?

This is a multisite. WP 3.3. Conversion was (is??) vBulletin to bbPress. vBulletin was kept in its own database, separate from WP.

[@anointed Participant 13 years ago]

@Steve

Did you run the /tools/recount after import?

That is what sets the dates, user counts etc.

[@shooo Member 13 years ago]

Thx for our work. it’s really cool

i try to import 169 000 post of my phpbb, it’s very very very long

thx again

[@citizenkeith Participant 13 years ago]

Will a future update correct the “freshness” date? As is, it’s the time of the conversion, not the actual freshness of the topic/post.

[@shooo Member 13 years ago]

hi citizenkeith, do you run the /tools/recount after import, like anointed préconise juste 2 replies before yours?

[@jwpegram Member 13 years ago]

@shoo, 169k is nothing… I’ve got on with 3.5M posts and estimated it’ll take almost a week to import… lol Got another one running right now that’s got 300k and it’s been running 22 hours and is maybe 2/3 the way done.

The problem is with the meta updates and the way WP stores that kind of stuff there’s a boat load of inserting going on for every post. I’m hoping to take a look at the script in a few days to see if I can help it along.

@citizenkeith, if you are using the lastest version of the converter it should be pulling the correct dates. At least it is for VB now, where it wasn’t on the last version.

[@steveatty Participant 13 years ago]

I missed the recount – hiding it under the general WordPress Tools menu caught me out;-).

I’ve run it and it seems to be OK now when it comes to dates.

[@bjj_pl Participant 13 years ago]

I am trying to convert phpbb3 database and it goes quite smoothly BUT suddenly stops at some point when converting posts

Screen: http://forumpokerowe.com/obrazki/bbconverter_error_screen.gif

I’ve tried various ‘Rows Limit’ (50, 100, 200)

What am I doing wrong?

I use:

WordPress 3.2.1

PhpBB 3.08

BBPress plugin 2.0.2

BBConverter 1.3

[@shooo Member 13 years ago]

watch the last topic on phpmyadmin, you can try to delete this topic?

For me it’s a disaster. 160 000 to upload messages, I left my pc tune 24 hours and my PC reboot, can not return, I must repeat: ‘(

but the links in the posts are broken, the smiley worse, it generates a link rambling … even if this plugin is very generous and left a good feeling, that’s 3 months I waited, finally, I’m at the point of give up and keep my phpbb, but if I have a holy horror!

[@anointed Participant 13 years ago]

@shooo

With a site that large and complex, I would probably suggest contacting AWJunkies on his bbconverter site and simply pay to have him convert it personally for you. He has converted sites much lareger than yours without problems. Frankly he’s a wizard with databases, so might as well have an expert take care of it for you. We’re not talking a lot of money here anyhow, and it will save any frustration you are having.

[@shooo Member 13 years ago]

Thank you,

I was completely unmotivated last night, things are better this morning, the motivation is back.

I will re test the plugin next week, or make a manual injection.

and if it does not work, I will contact the experts:).

Thank you very much to you for your support and the information / idea.

good day

Shooo

[@bjj_pl Participant 12 years, 12 months ago]

I’ve finally managed to import all the posts BUT…

it took so so so long to convert all the data from phpbb3 to wordpress and I had to be very cautious during the process. I had to be careful with my browser window, wordpress session, etc. It reminded me of the times when I had Atari Computer with cassettes. Moreover the restart option didn’t work as described in documents.

I have problem with the “Freshness” of the posts. I cannot correctly synchroniz them. Sometimes it even shows “no topics”. bbPress Recount gives funny effects.

[@anointed Participant 12 years, 12 months ago]

@bjj_pl

I’d send a message to Alex over at his site to have him take a peek.

Restart is meant when you want to clean everything out and try again. Normally if bbConverter stops for any reason, you simply type in the details, don’t check the boxes, and click start

It is pretty good at picking up where it left off at. At least for me, I had to stop a few times in order to take my laptop with me. I picked up where I left off, and in the end it worked fine.

Not sure what you mean by recount giving funny effects.

[@bjj_pl Participant 12 years, 12 months ago]

@Anointed

by funny effect I mean when it shows for example “246 days” since the last post when in fact there are many more recent posts to show. It takes a random post and shows it as the freshest

[@anointed Participant 12 years, 12 months ago]

Did you click the recount button, check all the boxes, and run the script?

If so, then I’m not sure what went wrong, Alex would be the person for that answer.

[@bjj_pl Participant 12 years, 12 months ago]

That’s exactly what I did step by step. The same error on local and live installation.

[@bjj_pl Participant 12 years, 12 months ago]

“Home › Forums” displays children post or category as a title.

What’s more it shows different title for different browsers.

Examples (in my case):

“Home › Forums” – in Firefox: title “stare”

“Home › Forums” – in IE8 and Chrome: title: “KONKURS FTP ACADEMY”

http://forumpokerowe.com/forum/

I cleaned the cache for the browsers.

How to change it? Can i at least hardcode it somehow? What do You think?

[@ebiznet88 Member 12 years, 12 months ago]

I am now in the midst of converting my phpBB3 forum to bbpress using this converter. I am having to keep refreshing the page every few hundred posts as it keeps stalling. I’m now at around post 15000 being converted. I have 47,000 posts, so there’s still some ways to go.

I have checked the converted posts results in the meantime and noticed that for posts with images, using phpBB’s BBCodes [img]tags, these posts contain strange characters. An example:
[img:33mwiaq9]http://www.swafineart.com/images/30.4.07/images/NightOfHeros_lr.jpg[/img:33mwiaq9]
Night of Heroes – The Dambusters by Philip West.

The original phpBB post would have read:

Night of Heroes – The Dambusters by Philip West.

I would like to ask if the Converter doesn’t retain the bbcodes as is, but introduces these strange characters? Or is this part of the conversion process and after it is completed, I should see it return to normal?