Converthing someboard -> phpBB -> SMF

[Abedie]

Converthing is for some boards a problem, so I thought it might be an idea, as the converthing from phpBB to SMF is no problem, to use the convert to phpBB list to see if there's a way to convert forums, that have yet no convertor to SMF, to phpBB first and then to SMF.

Greetings,
Abedie

[mf]

It would be even easier if someone wrote a fake phpBB to use for such conversions. I don't like the idea of having to install an entire phpBB just to uninstall it again.

[Abedie]

Hi,

Hmm, some idea, but rather time consuming I think.
I think it might be a better idea to find a way to have a basic converting program that works as follows:
(fore the sake of this idea I think of an example with phpBB -> SMF).
Download the dbase and put it in a dbase subdir under the programs dir.
Setup a fresh SMF board and download the dbase in the dbase subdir.
The program should load the phpBB dbase tables and fieldnames and show them in two rows on the screen, like:
Tablename....
(icon to click to see the inner of that field)  fieldname.

Then the smf dbase should be loaded and showed, in two rows so then the screen shows:
Tablename.... ...............................................................Tablename...
[click to see the inner of that field]  [fieldname from]  [->] [fieldname to] [empty] [Short use description]

Now click the fieldname from and then click a fieldname too. If no fieldname is used use empty so the program fills it with a ' ', null or whatever.
Then it must be easy to hit a copy button, to start the converting.
A buildin check should see if the new dbase has the right form and is integer.

Well its an idea. In a program written with C++, Delphi of VB (or else?) with a db tool added it must be possible to do this job and it seems not to complicated as I see it.
It's to long ago for me (I gradueted in 1971 as programmer for IBM360 and my last program was from 1987 when I started to translate computer books for Sybex) to program it myself.

It's worth to make it for free as SMF will pass Invision, VB and phpBB in future, in quallity and number off installed boards, so the programmer would become world famous .

Greetings,
Abedie

[[Unknown]]

Well, the only problem with that is... I'm afraid it's not always a 1 -> 1 match up.

-[Unknown]

[Abedie]

Thats the reason the NULL option is added. Also I guess that there will be mods for SMF that use the dbase and has maybe functions common to that kind of mod in the to be coverted dbase.
Maybe the program can be extended with knowledge of other forums.

I might have seen such a program in the eighties using dBase I or II (the grandmother of dbase programs)  now I think about it (working on large flexible flopiies of 360 Kb ), but I dumped 3 years ago all boxes together with my last large drive.

Greetings,
Abedie

[packman]

It's not always just a 1->1 or 1->0 though. Take a few examples from the phpBB2 to SMF converter...

1) A many->many example...for avatar conversion, you need conditional conversions (gallery avatars and uploaded avatars) and need to copy files from one set of directories to another completely different structure depending on the type of avatar.

2) A 1->many example...when translating group permissions, a single phpBB permission record often leads to many SMF permission records being created.

3) A many->1 example...groups with access to a board are listed as individual records in phpBB, but are concatenated into a single field in the board table in SMF.

It's difficult to see how a generic converter could cope with such complexities without making the converter very complex to use. It's probably easier to write individual converters than to try to abstract the conversion process enough to write code to convert any/every forum to SMF.

If anyone fancies the challenge I'd love to see what the final code looked like though 

[Abedie]

Hmm, there you have a point  .
But I thought reading a question about converting while the person had just a dbase left.
Then there won't be avatarfiles to get puzzled throught a converter to put them where they belong and give them a nice logic name like 'Xhdkfleuiuutrmf98374896.gif'.

Hmm, I must put my number of coffeecups higher before I suggest something next time .

Greetings,
Abedie.

[[Unknown]]

Hmm, there you have a point  .
But I thought reading a question about converting while the person had just a dbase left.
Then there won't be avatarfiles to get puzzled throught a converter to put them where they belong and give them a nice logic name like 'Xhdkfleuiuutrmf98374896.gif'.

Actually, it's:

id_name_without_dotsmd5

Hmm, I must put my number of coffeecups higher before I suggest something next time .

Not that it was a bad suggestion at all.

-[Unknown]

[packman]

If someone just has part of a phpBB installation left, it shouldn't be a huge job to tweak the converter to convert just the data that was available. The few bits of info required from the old phpBB config file could be hard coded in (or a dummy phpBB config file created) and then any steps converting data that isn't required could just be bypassed by making minor mods to the code. It would need some PHP experience, but not a lot and it should be possible to document how to do this for people with no PHP experience.

As this question has come up a couple of times, I'll have a think about this when I get a bit of spare time (could be next week now).

[Abedie]

Good idea.

In my experience as an admin from two big support forums from a provider (closed 2 months ago) for two years, I have learned that most customers think of making a backup of the dbases, but not so often think of making a backup from their site. We got some cases of defacing and worse.
As it unfortunatly sometimes happens things go realy wrong with a site, its also good to have such an option as you discribed at hand, if one decided at such a crisis (happens to me ) to switch over to a real safe forum. Better late then never.
I have started to work with Ikonboard, YaBB and some other boards, and I know where I'm talking about when I say that I think SMF is the best free available board, so its logic when people drops in with just a dbase and some db details to find their resque.

Greetings,
Abedie.