Converting BBpress. Is it possible to simply feed a BBpress XML backup to SMF?

[Sonio2]

I was asked to help to redesign a Wordpress forum, but I find the admin panel quite odd in wordpress, things have to be managed quite differently than in SMF or PHPBB, so in softwares that I got used to. I saw Wordpress lets you export the forum content in XML. Is it possible to feed this exported file to a newly created SMF forum, to tranfer the content? I wouldn't mind if I could do the redesign in SMF. Or this thing is much more complicated than that.

[Antes]

BBPress and Wordpress are different.

XML to SMF is not possible AFAIK but both BBPress and Wordpress are free software so you can import data back and convert.

BBPress: http://download.simplemachines.org/?converters;software=bbpress
WP : http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=387438.0 (this is not a real convert but more like an export).

[Sonio2]

The problem is that you cannot use either of these plugins. I would like to convert bbPress 2.3.2, but, it is no more a standalone forum, but is a plugin for Wordpress. The first link points to the  bbpress standalone version converter, but 2.3.2 is not available in standalone version. The second link points to the Wordpress converter, but that cannot see the bbpress forum data, at least it didn't see it when I installed it. It doesn't consider the forum, only the blog data.

So I wonder if a transfer is possible?

[Antes]

May i ask did you tried? Well, even you get errors about new system that help us to build new converter for that software.

Thanks

[Sonio2]

Yes. I tried. I describe how:

1. First I installed a Wordpress forum on the same server, added BBpress plugin, and I imported the XML export of the Wordpress forum concerned to this new install, that worked. I checked it, the forum was there, posts were there.

2. Then I installed the converter. The BBpress to SMF converter. First it reported: "Unable to find the settings for bbPress 0.8.3. Please double check the path and try again." I searched for this error message, I saw it was already covered here in the forum, guys there suggested to copy the converter files to the source forum directory, too. I tried it, didn't work. I added the files to the BBpress plugin directory, that also didn't work. In that topic somebody suggested to use another converter SQL file, for an 1.x.x version of BBpress, that didn't work either, the only difference was that the convertor now reported this: "Unable to find the settings for bbPress 1.x.x Please double check the path and try again."

3. Then I decided to install the 1.2.x version if BBPress, that was a standalone forum, not a plugin. That project got stuck, because the forum didn't install. IT reported some error in command lines, I cannot recalled now what it was about, but some complicated error message, so I gave up that effort. I thought I would feed the XML to this earlier version, and run the converter then. However I am not even sure that the standalone version would accept the plugin version's XML.

4. I tried the Wordpress converter, in the similar circumstance like in the first case: Wordpress newest version, BBpress added as plugin, and XML feeded. This time the converter installed fine, but it didn't list any forum posts as segments to be syncronised. There was a page, and it contained a list of segments for this purpose, but there were not any forum post listed. So I guessed this converter is only good for converting the Wordpress blog posts, and cannot see the forum posts.

This is the situation. Since then it came to my mind that with this recent circumstance, when I visit my wordpress site, I mean this newely installed test site, I cannot find any link to the BBpress forum on the frontpage, no matter it is installed. I have to go to the dashboard, and click view the froum there, and then it takes me there. I can see the cathegories, and there is a tree list visible of the Wrodpress-Forum-Cathegories relation, but when I click Forum there, it doesn't take me to the forum front page, but reports an error. Maybe I should define a page in wordpress and add the forum as a whole there, I am not sure. I am not familiar with the structure of Wordpress at all. But all in all, the dashboard keeps track of the forum, it sees it an it is there, just not accessible from a link from the frontend. I thought maybe this is why the Wordpress converter didn't see the posts, but it sees the member list. So I am ambiguous about this whole thing.

This is the situation so far.