have there been any updates on this for categories carrying over?
I'm looking to do an export from vBulletin to phpbb and then import from phpbb into vanilla...
please advise
Categories are meant to carry over...not sure why they didnt for creede. Give it a go is all I can say i'm afraid. It's 7.16am here and i have a 12 hour shift to look forward to.
Not to drag this back to the top but I have some questions. I read the thread but I want to make absolutely sure I'm clear on some things
If I migrate to Vanilla from phpBB, it will transfer ALL user/login/password information and all the threads and categories, correct?
Also, my client is using a phpBB board, but it's on myfreeforum.org. Is it still possible to transfer everything from a place like that? Do I need to get some sort of information from them to allow me to do the transfer?
The forum in question is http://burlesquewomensinstitute.myfreeforum.org/
Ok cool. So it transfers everything I asked about over to v1.1.2? Tremendous!
This is my first time converting.
If anyone wants to throw in some tips, I'd really appreciate it.
I built a Vanilla board before and I'm hooked. I'll never use another system. I'm transferring this one over for someone who has an existing phpBB setup. That has to stop! haha
Hi I'm very much keen to try out a forum on vanilla, but I have to shift it from my 5 year old spam-plagued phpbb2 installation. I think I have done it all right, though took a fair bit of trial and error - for the benefit of other no-nothings I will sum up what I did. Sorry this is therefore a long post.
1. In phpbb2 land: Set up a couple of fake users so you can test their accounts after the conversion. Backup phpBB database, either from phpbb admin, or phpmyadmin (most webhosts have this - it is a database interface).
2. Install vanilla 1.1.2, which is not current, to same database as phpbb. I found it here: http://lussumo.com/downloads/
3. Get the migrator zip file (see post two above) and extract locally. Replace the values in mysqldetails.php with your database details. - ie:
$db = @mysql_connect ("replace with name of mysql server - not always localhost", "replace with username", "replace with password") or die ('I cannot connect to the database because: ' . mysql_error() .', Are you sure you have set your details correctly in the mysqldetails.php file'); mysql_select_db ("replace with database name");
Don't miss that last one with the database name... like I did. Your webhost should be able to help you with these, or have a look around your webhost admin panel. Upload migrator folder to somewhere away from vanilla (do not overwrite vanilla files with identically named migrator files like I did..)
4. Browse to the migrator folder and run each script - save any error outputs for later pondering.
5. See if it the data has transferred to your vanilla forum by accessingthe forum, and also by browsing the tables in phpmyadmin.
6. you'll probably see a bit of this error: Fatal error: Call to undefined function: bcsub() It just relates to processing time and isn't important (I think).
I encountered a problem which others have too:
Discussion body disappearance Everything transferred happily for me EXCEPT that the body of the discussions wasn't appearing, only the titles. I had a look at the LUM_comments table in the database (using phpmyadmin) and noticed that discussions were there but that all the discussionIDs in each row were set to zero. The errors from my migrator script comments.php were like this:
Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /[path]/migrator/comments.php on line 56
I emptied the LUM_Comments table in phpmyadmin and tried the script again. The errors had gone, but still no DiscussionID values were coming through.
That line 56 in the error above, and the line before it are to do with assigning the discussionID values. I altered the code a little to try to get more info on the error.
FOUND: $dID = mysql_fetch_array(mysql_query("SELECT DiscussionID FROM $LUM_Discussion WHERE `phpBBtopicid` = '$tID'"));
CHANGED TO: // PJ test dec 07
$pjresult = mysql_query("SELECT DiscussionID FROM $LUM_Discussion WHERE `phpBBtopicid` = '$tID'") or die(mysql_error());
$dID = mysql_fetch_array($pjresult);
I emptied the table again in phpmyadmin, and tried again. This time it worked and I have all my posts back! Phew. Not quite sure why though..
Next issue - formatting.
Eeek, all the phpbb img tags and quote tags are not working. I tried using Better BBCode extension from the Vanilla addons page ( http://lussumo.com/addons/index.php?PostBackAction=AddOn&AddOnID=31 ) but this didn't seem to have an effect. Had more luck with BBCodeParser, so now the forum is starting to look like it used to - even the avatar icons are showing up. Odd thing for a first time user of these extensions is that they can take a while to show up in the extensions tab (for my setup at least). Like up to 20 minutes. OK once you know.
Next problem - users. I knew that all the user passwords would be kaput in vanilla and that users would need to use the forgotten password facility to replace their passwords. I have been testing this with some test users I set up in phpbb2 before the conversion. It all seems to work until the final part where the user puts in their new password to access the forum. This is bringing up the error: "Some problems were encountered. You do not have permission to sign in to the site." Still puzzling over this one.. any tips most welcome.
Nice post. Hopefully that will come in useful for a few people. I can't see why your query change makes any difference either but php can be a funny thing sometimes.
As for the last issue, I'd suggest you check what role all your users have been assigned when compared to the roles in the role table. Chances are they somehow got assigned to a role which doesnt have sign in permission. It may be that the roles have changed since I wrote the migrator so default is now banned or something..
That said, I thought I'd managed to get it working so users didnt have to reset their passwords? Maybe I'm wrong...
You are bang on! Thank you. All the role IDs other than admin's are set to 10, which doesn't exist in the RoleID table. I will try to work out how to change the 500 or so to roleID=3 (member) and report back. What should anonymous be set to though? Peter
Far far into the future... I have just recently upgraded all the way from 1.1.2 to 1.1.8. Everything works hunky dory except that...
When you log into the forum after the upgrade, if your account is a migrated one, your login might not work. I reset my password using the email gizmo and all seemed fine until I realised that my avatar was my one from phpbb and... my role had changed down. Also gave a session error on logout:
"Some problems were encountered Can you please confirm you would like to sign out?"
Finding the login is a bit hit and miss too, like it doesn't know which of the two accounts to compare against.
Currently staring at phpmyadmin and the migrator files as this has happened to a few people. Is there something somewhere that tells vanilla to use the post-migration account, that I may have overwritten in the upgrade?
Comments
I'm very much keen to try out a forum on vanilla, but I have to shift it from my 5 year old spam-plagued phpbb2 installation.
I think I have done it all right, though took a fair bit of trial and error - for the benefit of other no-nothings I will sum up what I did. Sorry this is therefore a long post.
1. In phpbb2 land: Set up a couple of fake users so you can test their accounts after the conversion. Backup phpBB database, either from phpbb admin, or phpmyadmin (most webhosts have this - it is a database interface).
2. Install vanilla 1.1.2, which is not current, to same database as phpbb. I found it here: http://lussumo.com/downloads/
3. Get the migrator zip file (see post two above) and extract locally. Replace the values in mysqldetails.php with your database details. - ie:
$db = @mysql_connect ("replace with name of mysql server - not always localhost", "replace with username", "replace with password") or die ('I cannot connect to the database because: ' . mysql_error() .', Are you sure you have set your details correctly in the mysqldetails.php file'); mysql_select_db ("replace with database name");
Don't miss that last one with the database name... like I did. Your webhost should be able to help you with these, or have a look around your webhost admin panel.
Upload migrator folder to somewhere away from vanilla (do not overwrite vanilla files with identically named migrator files like I did..)
4. Browse to the migrator folder and run each script - save any error outputs for later pondering.
5. See if it the data has transferred to your vanilla forum by accessingthe forum, and also by browsing the tables in phpmyadmin.
6. you'll probably see a bit of this error: Fatal error: Call to undefined function: bcsub() It just relates to processing time and isn't important (I think).
I encountered a problem which others have too:
Discussion body disappearance
Everything transferred happily for me EXCEPT that the body of the discussions wasn't appearing, only the titles.
I had a look at the LUM_comments table in the database (using phpmyadmin) and noticed that discussions were there but that all the discussionIDs in each row were set to zero. The errors from my migrator script comments.php were like this:
Warning: mysql_fetch_array(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /[path]/migrator/comments.php on line 56
I emptied the LUM_Comments table in phpmyadmin and tried the script again. The errors had gone, but still no DiscussionID values were coming through.
That line 56 in the error above, and the line before it are to do with assigning the discussionID values. I altered the code a little to try to get more info on the error.
FOUND:
$dID = mysql_fetch_array(mysql_query("SELECT DiscussionID FROM $LUM_Discussion WHERE `phpBBtopicid` = '$tID'"));CHANGED TO:
// PJ test dec 07 $pjresult = mysql_query("SELECT DiscussionID FROM $LUM_Discussion WHERE `phpBBtopicid` = '$tID'") or die(mysql_error()); $dID = mysql_fetch_array($pjresult);I emptied the table again in phpmyadmin, and tried again. This time it worked and I have all my posts back! Phew. Not quite sure why though..
Next issue - formatting.
Eeek, all the phpbb img tags and quote tags are not working. I tried using Better BBCode extension from the Vanilla addons page ( http://lussumo.com/addons/index.php?PostBackAction=AddOn&AddOnID=31 ) but this didn't seem to have an effect. Had more luck with BBCodeParser, so now the forum is starting to look like it used to - even the avatar icons are showing up. Odd thing for a first time user of these extensions is that they can take a while to show up in the extensions tab (for my setup at least). Like up to 20 minutes. OK once you know.
Next problem - users.
I knew that all the user passwords would be kaput in vanilla and that users would need to use the forgotten password facility to replace their passwords. I have been testing this with some test users I set up in phpbb2 before the conversion. It all seems to work until the final part where the user puts in their new password to access the forum. This is bringing up the error: "Some problems were encountered. You do not have permission to sign in to the site." Still puzzling over this one.. any tips most welcome.
Peter
UPDATE `LUM_User` SET `RoleID` = '3' WHERE `UserID` > '2';UserID 1 is admin so don't change that
UserID 2 is 'anonymous' so I'm not sure what to do with that, as anonymous is not a member..?
this fixes:
- handles character entities in post titles, discussion titles, etc.
- added a grip of backticks to mysql queries
- set user name as defaut first name (instead of phpbb)
- added path prefix for user avatar migration, if they were using a locally hosted avatar on the old phpBB forum
and i've added some more extension support:I have just recently upgraded all the way from 1.1.2 to 1.1.8.
Everything works hunky dory except that...
When you log into the forum after the upgrade, if your account is a migrated one, your login might not work. I reset my password using the email gizmo and all seemed fine until I realised that my avatar was my one from phpbb and... my role had changed down. Also gave a session error on logout:
"Some problems were encountered
Can you please confirm you would like to sign out?"
Finding the login is a bit hit and miss too, like it doesn't know which of the two accounts to compare against.
Currently staring at phpmyadmin and the migrator files as this has happened to a few people. Is there something somewhere that tells vanilla to use the post-migration account, that I may have overwritten in the upgrade?