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Migrating from SMF2 to Vanilla - Converting the precious posts

unixherounixhero ✭
edited August 2012 in Vanilla 2.0 - 2.8

Hi

I have decided to leave SMF(2) behind and go with Vanilla Forums for my 8 year old forum.

Could anyone tell me how I could migrate the posts into the Vanilla Forums?
I have seen the suggestion to convert it to Phpbb3 and then to Vanilla, but I have been unsuccessful in this endavour.
I imagine this question (SMF2Vanilla) would pop up from time to time, so maybe someone has succeeded before me.

I only need to transfer the threads and sections,
Then non-critical things could be usernames and stats would be nice.

(my last option will to be to go to an online hire-a-programmer type site, and have someone do it for me for some dollars)

Comments

  • UnderDogUnderDog MVP

    Unfortunately, at this moment there's only a direct option into Vanilla from SMF 1.* so you have 2 possibilities:

    • Convert to vBulletin / BBPress / SimplePress / punBB and then to Vanilla
    • Do a manual conversion from SMF2 to Vanilla

    I still think you need the users in that case. The posts (threads, whatever they're called) are created by users, if you don't convert them, you can see in your Vanilla that they were created by 'ghosts'.

    You're right about the SMF2Vanilla quesion popping up once in a while, but there isn't a real answer yet (the SMF 2.* porter), only workarounds (PHPBB3).

    Did you have mucho problems converting from SMF2 to phpBB3?

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  • unixherounixhero ✭
    edited August 2012

    A winner is me!

    I sat down, took a deep breath, and tried to do the smf2 to phpbb3 conversion once again.
    It went fine this time around! From there I succeeded in converting the phpbb3 installation to VanillaForums. I am now a happy VanillaForums user :D

    On a sidenote, it could be a good idea to add SMF2.0 support in the Vanilla Forums Converter ... I bet there is going to be a lot of SMF "defections" in the coming years because, effectively, the development of SMF has almost stalled. (At least from a user's point of view). And as a result of this extremely slow pace of development, SMF has lost whatever edge it had over the other open source forums out there.

    Buuut anyways. Thanks for helping =)

  • UnderDogUnderDog MVP

    Thanks for the heads up regarding SMF and welcome to the club :-)

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  • unixherounixhero ✭

    I see you have also caught notice of the legendary SMF plugin coder Vbgamer45. He cooks together some awesome things =)

  • ToddTodd Vanilla Staff

    @unixhero, even though you did it the hard way if you want to share your smf 2.0 mysqldump I'd love to see about getting smf 2.0 support. Real data is often the last barrier to a decent porter.

  • unixherounixhero ✭

    Sure! I have PM'ed you a download link with a populated database.

    SMF is actually quite well documented, so those docs might come in handy too:

  • cywongcywong New

    Hi, i wish to do the same from my SMF 2.0.2. Since there is no official convertors from SMF 2.0.2 to Vanilla yet, I am trying to migrate to phpbb first and then Vanilla. May I know if the SMF to phpbb convertor located here is the latest one - https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?p=13219422#p13219422

    Thanks

  • cywongcywong New

    hi folks...no cant do. tried converting from SMF 2.0.2 to phpbb...followed all instructions and got stuck when the convertors wont load to the next step (step 5) as described here - https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=1213555

    The page /phpbb/install/index.php?mode=convert&language=en&sub=settings&tag=smf20 wont load & it is blank.

    I guess i have to wait for the official SMF 2.0.2 to vanilla convertor.

  • vrijvlindervrijvlinder MVP

    You could also try this service

    http://gconverter.com/simple-machines-forum-to-vanilla/

    ❌ ✊ ♥. ¸. ••. ¸♥¸. ••. ¸♥ ✊ ❌

  • cywongcywong New

    @vrijvlinder said:
    You could also try this service

    http://gconverter.com/simple-machines-forum-to-vanilla/

    Thank you! Will try duly.

  • cywongcywong New
    edited August 2013

    Too bad that they are paid service. I think i rather wait for the convertors to be released soon.

    @vrijvlinder said:
    You could also try this service

    http://gconverter.com/simple-machines-forum-to-vanilla/

  • vrijvlindervrijvlinder MVP

    Well the fee is based on the amount of Precious Posts and User info and Users that you want to transfer. Also based on how important these really are to you. I am sure there are other alternatives :)

    But waiting is ok too ....

    ❌ ✊ ♥. ¸. ••. ¸♥¸. ••. ¸♥ ✊ ❌

  • UnderDogUnderDog MVP

    @cywong said:
    The page /phpbb/install/index.php?mode=convert&language=en&sub=settings&tag=smf20 wont load & it is blank.

    Google some more, it's most likely a timeout issue. Did you set the timeout limit to... high? Or didn't you touch it?

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