[Stephen Edgar]

Introduce Forum Importer template for use with importing from PunBB v1.4.x (Tested on v1.4.2)

http://codex.bbpress.org/import-forums/ & ​​http://codex.bbpress.org/import-forums/punbb

Working: Forums, Topics & Users
Not Working Yet: Categories, Replies, User Passwords & Custom BBCode for Topic & Reply Content

Attached to bbPress Trac Ticket #2379 is the 1st pass patch for PunBB importing into bbPress.

To test the importer download the latest patch from the link above and copy/ftp the file into the /includes/admin/converters/ folder of your bbPress plugin.

I hope to get the remaining outstanding items done ASAP.
(User passwords will be a little trickier and will take a bit more time)

Any feedback and/or testing that you can provide will help me out tremendously.

Cheers,

Stephen 🙂

[Stephen Edgar]

Latest Attachment PunBB.php

Fixed:

• Topics
• Replies
• User Nice Name ‘user_nicename’ & Display Name ‘user_displayname’ import fields
• User PunBB MSN

Outstanding:

• Forum/Category? hierarchy (currently parent forums/categories are imported ‘flat’)
• User Passwords
• – Custom BBCode for Topic & Reply Content

NOTE: If you are importing ‘users’ during the import you will see multiple instances of the following error message:-
– Notice: Undefined variable: user_pass in /home/webhost/public_html/wp-includes/user.php on line 1305
This can be ignored and only relates to the current non-working state of converting user passwords. If you need to login (or users login) they will just need to reset their WordPress password to be able to login.

[Nick Ottens]

Thanks Stephen! I’ve been waiting for this.

Unfortunately, the converter seems to get stuck at the point where it’s supposed to start importing Replies. It brings over Forums, Topics and Users just fine, though.

It also repeatedly gives me the following Warning, nor sure if it’s connected..

Warning: set_time_limit(): Cannot set time limit due to system policy in /customers/e/e/2/[MY URL]/wp-content/plugins/bbpress/includes/admin/converter.php on line 306

[Stephen Edgar]

The error is due to a few settings we try to make with your web host to help the importer along with some time limits and memory limits. If you are getting forums and topics imported fine we can probably (for now) ignore the error.

What version of PunBB are you trying to import from?

Can you open up phpMyAdmin and confirm you have a _posts table, it may have a prefix eg punbb_posts and does it have the following fields in the table structure:

id, poster, poster_id, poster_ip, poster_email, message, hide_smilies, posted, edited, edited_by & topic_id

[Nick Ottens]

Hey Stephan, thanks for your reply.

I’m running punBB 1.4.2. I actually upgraded to the latest version before I started the conversion process.

There is a _posts table but not a “message text” field. It’s called just “message”. All the others look just the way you describe them.

[Stephen Edgar]

My bad, it should be message, copy and paste error on my part.

I suggest you reset the forums codex.bbpress.org/reset-forums/ and give it another go, I would also suggest due to your web host limiting some of the changes we try to make is to drop some of the values eg. to 50 rows at a time rather than the default 100, set the time to 2 seconds delay.

If it appears that the importer stalls again, simply click ‘Stop’ wait a few seconds for your host to finish up any tasks its performing and click ‘Start’ and the import should resume from where it left off.

[Nick Ottens]

I have tried that — resetting and starting the conversion process again. But not with a lower row count and higher time interval, so I’ll give that a go.

Resetting the forums does not remove all the imported users, by the way. Is that a problem? Should I select “Start a fresh conversion from the beginning” or “Purge all information from a previously attempted import” or both?

Thanks for your help so far.

[Nick Ottens]

It seems to work now when I set the number of rows very low (10) and give it plenty of delay (5 seconds).

The conversion process is about halfway through the Replies now, but all the posts – so far anyway – are assigned to me, instead of the users who originally created Topics and posted those Replies.

[Nick Ottens]

Now the conversion process seems to have stopped when there’s about eight thousand Replies left to convert… I don’t see the spinning thing anymore indicating progress, but get the same time limit warning.

Also, as mentioned, posts/Replies are all assigned to me, instead of the users who made them.

[Stephen Edgar]

Did you try the Stop wait a few seconds and Start thing again?

It seems to work now when I set the number of rows very low (10) and give it plenty of delay (5 seconds).

Now the conversion process seems to have stopped when there’s about eight thousand Replies left to convert… I don’t see the spinning thing anymore indicating progress, but get the same time limit warning.

I suspect both these are related to your web host is limiting us trying to bump the memory and timeouts it might be a good idea to contact your web host to see if they can at least ‘temporarily’ bump these for you until you have got your forum imported.

Another option is to setup a local WAMP/MAMP/XAMMP install and try it locally on your PC.

Resetting the forums does not remove all the imported users, by the way. Is that a problem?

I’ll take a look at why this isn’t working as it should.

Should I select “Start a fresh conversion from the beginning” or “Purge all information from a previously attempted import” or both?

The ‘Start a fresh converesion’ will force the bbPress import to start from the beginning rather than resume from where it left off if it didn’t finish the import last time.

Also, as mentioned, posts/Replies are all assigned to me, instead of the users who made them.

Until the import is finished and the repair tools are run to ‘recount’ everything this can be the case until all the ‘metadata’ is sync’d up.

[Nick Ottens]

I tried stopping and starting again. Most of the time that did the trick. Not this time, it seemed.

Can you tell me exactly what I should ask my webhost to raise? I wouldn’t know how to do a conversion locally, so I’m really hoping this’ll work.

For now, I removed the imported users manually.

Thanks again for you help, Stephen!

[Stephen Edgar]

This what we have in the converter.php file:

		if ( ! ini_get( 'safe_mode' ) ) {
			set_time_limit( 0 );
			ini_set( 'memory_limit',   '256M' );
			ini_set( 'implicit_flush', '1'    );
			ignore_user_abort( true );
		}

Send that to them and ask in particular the first two, timeout & memory limit.

You can download something like this http://www.apachefriends.org/en/xampp.html
(There are heaps of these depending on Mac, PC or Linux https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solution_stack)

They pretty much work out of the box and you just install WordPress locally, export your punBB database to import locally etc.

[Nick Ottens]

Host says they can’t rise timeout or memory limit. I’d rather not have to do this locally, I’ve never done anything like that and I frankly don’t want to spend the time learning and trying… I’ll give the importer another go later today, see if I get a better result.

[Nick Ottens]

I’m afraid the converter got stuck again. It did work – up to a point. I had to go about it very slowly though, converting 10 rows at a time and giving ample delay, so it took me several days to process. I’m quite sure that’s because of my host and not the converter. The converter seems to work. I’m extremely grateful for that. It was the oldest content I wanted to preserve anyway, so I’m glad that’s done.

Thanks again for your great help, Stephen!

[Stephen Edgar]

Excellent, glad it got there eventually 🙂

[Nick Ottens]

Stephen, one more question. I’m not sure if this is bbPress-related or WordPress’ fault or just my computer, but I’m getting a lot of “blank” pages whenever I try to access a blog post or forum topic and I have to reload before it shows up. Is this a known issue?

[Stephen Edgar]

That shouldn’t be an issue and as you are also seeing this for WordPress Blog posts I would expect it is either your browser, try another (Firefox, Chrome etc) and also clear the browsers cache though due to issues previously mentioned in this topic most likely an issue with your web host sadly.

Just to be safe before contacting your web host change your WordPress theme, try switching to Twenty Eleven/Twelve/Thirteen and see if the issues still persists.

Also I presume you ran the bbPress ‘Repair Tools’ after the import:
https://codex.bbpress.org/repair-forums/

[Nick Ottens]

Yes, I did. I’m using the Twenty Thirteen theme, I doubt that’s the problem. May be my host, some issues from the conversion, I don’t know. I’ll give it a few days, see if it goes away.

[roblunte]

Hello,

I am pleased to be here. I am the owner of about 16 WP web sites, that support three different businesses. One of the businesses is a network for singers, that I am preparing to refurbish into a proper membership / paid access service. Here is the link:

http://www.TheModernVocalistWorld.com

In this large network for singers, there currently is a very successful message board / forum that is hosted with PunBB. Here is the link:

http://www.TheModernVocalistForum.com

This is my hottest asset and the first to become monetized. I have learned that PunBB migrates successfully to bbpress. Can you please confirm this is still the case?

If, can you help me with the following questions:

– What are the best links or information I can pass onto my WP consultant to make this migration from PunBB to bbpress successful? Any additional tips or things to look out for?

– What plug-ins would you then recommend to make the the forum and other pieces of content on my network paid access? I was considering S2Membership… is that recommended or do you have other solutions?

– My other option is to possibly migrate everything over to the new cool, http://www.newrainmaker.com platform. The affiliate program, one point of registration, alleged claim to be less IT hassles, and other features seem very appealing! Do you bbpress experts agree that a migration to http://www.newrainmaker.com is a good idea? Any concerns or things to know before doing so?

– Is there a difference between migrating my PunBB forum to bbpress if I use it in an existing WP site or if I were to continue my migration to http://www.newrainmaker.com? (FYI… the rain maker guys advised that I move PunBB to bbpress).

– Does anyone here at bbpress specialize or have experience in this migration from PunBB to bbpress and if so, what would your fee be?

[spespam]

Hello Stephen,

I’m trying to convert my punbb forum into WordPress 4.1, and I have a problem.

I used the integrated punbb converter inside WordPress 4.1, and it imports everything but the members’ posts are all assigned to me !

When I try to import the users, the users are not imported at all.

Can you help ?