my vbulletin was on an external hosted site that its' subscription lapsed. I made a backup of the vbulletin database but it seems the conversion script is only meant for a live installed instance of vbulletin. Is there any way to convert the database backup that I'm just not seeing?
I know vBulletin is a commercial project and I have no experience with it, but I can see on their site that you can download a trial version. If the trial version allows it, link the trial to the database, see if it works and then try to convert the database with the conversion script ;).
Quote from: SoulDragon on March 11, 2018, 07:31:44 PM
my vbulletin was on an external hosted site that its' subscription lapsed. I made a backup of the vbulletin database but it seems the conversion script is only meant for a live installed instance of vbulletin. Is there any way to convert the database backup that I'm just not seeing?
In a word - yes!
I converted (https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=554897.0) an imported copy of a vBulletin 4.2.0 database to SMF 2.0.14 last year using this process (https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=535265.msg3804390#msg3804390).
Also, you'll need to make sure all the attachments are stored in the vBulletin database (https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=543407.0) if you want them copied to your new SMF forum.
Quote from: SoulDragon on March 11, 2018, 07:31:44 PM
my vbulletin was on an external hosted site that its' subscription lapsed. I made a backup of the vbulletin database but it seems the conversion script is only meant for a live installed instance of vbulletin. Is there any way to convert the database backup that I'm just not seeing?
You would need the vb forum files/folders too I think.
Quote from: doug_ips on March 12, 2018, 01:32:19 AM
You would need the vb forum files/folders too I think.
Not required if the attachments are stored in the vBulletin database.
BTW, can SMF store attachments in it's database?
Quote from: GigaWatt on March 12, 2018, 05:56:57 AM
BTW, can SMF store attachments in it's database?
No - and I think that's a good thing because you don't end up with a database where 90% or more of the space is taken up by attachments (eg, the forum I converted had a 1.2Gb database and more than 1Gb of that was used by attachments).
So, during the conversion, the conversion script splits the attachments, places them in a directory, links them in the database and leaves everything else converted (compatible with SMF), but intact?
Quote from: GL700Wing on March 12, 2018, 04:48:56 AM
Quote from: doug_ips on March 12, 2018, 01:32:19 AM
You would need the vb forum files/folders too I think.
Not required if the attachments are stored in the vBulletin database.
Yes, they are required. Especially the config fie that holds the db info. Otherwise the system can not read it.
I have found this https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=535265.20 (Post #12) and it appears to have found my backup, but it just sits on "Converting Members..."
I'll keep plugging at it to see if I can get it to work, anyone have any ideas?
I'm not a rocket scientist at this, but... if it doesn't budge, I'd try a different host just for the conversion. Wouldn't pay for it of course :D. I found this out the hard way when I converted my database from SMF 1.1.x to 2.0.x. I had to do it on another host. Don't know why, but the conversion script just got stuck at some point during the conversion of the database (can't remember which). After trying different methods (changing this and that, database names, username, emptying or dropping some tables with temporary data, like error logs, chats, etc.), I thought... heck, why not change hosts and try to convert on another host. Luckily, my database wasn't that big (around 100MB), so just about any host that allowed 500MB of database space would be sufficient enough. I think I signed up for a trial account on onebit.cz. Anyhow, the conversion went without a glitch, closed my account afterwards ;).