Migration from phpBB to Vanilla2

candyman

... how much is realistic doing this? I mean: I have a 100000posts phpBB forum with attachments, quoted posts, BBcode formatting (bold, italic and so on...), smilies... Should I try to work on migration or are they two worlds too much different? Thanks in advance.

Todd

We will be supporting migration from phpBB, but we're not there yet. We still need to get the plugins to support those features you mention and then get the import script from phpBB. If you want to help with any of that we'll help you out in any way we can.

candyman

I can offer my help as beta tester of the various script, If can help. The smilies isn't a big problem: the quoted posts and the various BBcode elements are instead.

candyman

Any news? There are many phpBB users that would upgrade to Vanilla2 I think...

yann

I did a migration from PunBB to Vanilla 1 but you know that... The code there is simple and you should have no problem hacking it to match Vanilla 2 database.

candyman

I've read that there's a problem with users' password migration. Would it be simpler to migrate from phpBB to Vanilla1 and then from Vanilla1 to Vanilla2? In that case all the stuff (posts, attachments, users and passwords) will be correctly translated? Thanks in advance.

lane

I just want to second this question. Unfortunately I don'thave the skills to offer with script writing, but I would very much like to successfully move my PhpBB installation to Vanilla 2, and I'd love to hear from anyone who's done it.

candyman

The problem are the password: they are set in a different way and need a reset (this may be annoying for some users).

Actually the right way is to migrate from phpBB to Vanilla1 and then wait for Vanilla2...

Stash

I wouldn't worry about the password reset too much. It's just a one off and it's not like you're going to be changing your forum software every week You'll be annoying far more people by changing the look/feel of the forum anyway...

Linc

If you know how phpbb password hashes are generated, I'd love to know.

I plan to make password migration seamless as I did for the sample vBulletin importer. Mass resets are lame.

AnotherDan

@Lincoln I've already created a password authenticator inspired by yours for vBulletin..

I took the phpbb3 internal functions for hashing the passwords and used them almost as is in the authenticator....

It work's like a charm... I will put it up on github when I find the time

candyman

Hope you find the time soon!
I'd like to try that...

bobtheman

@AnotherDan
Have you had time, i would love to move my phpbb install over to v2.

candyman

Me too

candyman

I see that now there is VanillaPorter... can I start migration from phpBB2?
Shall I lose users' passwords? The login session will be done with user's email address instead than username? All the BBcode will run?

Thanks for the help...

buzz_lightyear

oh yes... see here: http://vanillaforums.org/discussion/10799/phpbb-to-vanilla-conversion-tool/#Item_24

passwords not lost
bbcode seems to be OK
users are logging in with email instead of username - i think that's Vanilla default.

candyman

Thanks Buzz!
Now that you've done the switch what do you think? What you like and what you miss of phpBB? I'd like to know the impact of the change to the community... I'd like the freshness of Vanilla2 but I don't want my community get too confused... :P

candyman

One question: waht about quotation?
I need the plugin or the BBcode is enough?

Todd

I'm not sure what the differences are between phpbb2 and phpbb3, but it might be best to upgrade to phpbb3 and then do the import.

Todd

@candyman BBCode [quote] tags should display in blockquotes.