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Fill in the blanks Converter

Started by Onsite, December 23, 2004, 02:00:08 PM

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Onsite

Is there a possibility for one of you guys to write a fill in the blanks converter?
One where it asks to name the tables that it's importing info from?
I have an account running a very obscure forum called Zorum, and they want it changed to SMF.

What other options may there be?

Thanks

Grudge

To be honest, a "Fill in the blanks" converter would be just as difficult do use as just writing one. All the converters are *essentially* the same. When I write a new converter I just take an existing one, and change the columns etc to match up correctly.

Having looked at their web site it seems like they still have a long way to go - especially things like this:
Quote
Note: You can not update your zorum 2.x to zorum 3.x the way it is described above. Zorum 3.x is a complete rewrite of the old Zorum, and it is not designed with the ability to upgrade. If you want to update your Zorum 2.x to 3.x, e-mail us, and we will send you a migration script.

That said, what do your clients want pulled across? Assuming it's a SQL backend and you could get me a dump of the database structure (Some data would be nice too, but structure would be best), I may be able to find an hour or two in the next few days (Although it is xmas so may take a little longer!), to at least get a script to convert members, boards, topics and messages.

EDIT: If you do get a dump could you upload it somewhere and pm me a link as email is somewhat hard to come by right now.
I'm only a half geek really...

Trekkie101

* Trekkie101 likes the idea of the Fill in the blanks convertor

Grudge

Problem is a fill in the blanks converter simply won't work! For one, there are so many many blanks to fill.Secondly, all forums are so different it simply doesn't work. On some you need to make more joins, on some ID's that SMF requires don't exist so you make them, on some like XMB you have to completely rework the poll system.

All converters are similar - but all are unique - and it's not something you can make that simply as you'll always need to put some extra code in somewhere to actually make it work.The current format is about as "simple" as you can get (And it is very simple, I made the UBB.threads converter in just over an hour I think (albeit only the very basics)
I'm only a half geek really...

Trekkie101

I looked at the Zorum convertor it looks good in ideology, is this like a bsic format because i might try tamperring with it and seeing how it works and try one for another system or is there a better on i should learn from?

Grudge

The Zorum converter is actually more complicated than most as it uses some strange ass schema IMHO. Good old phpBB and Invision converters are the simpliest to grasp as they are very similar to SMF in their schema. If you want a challenge make a phorum one, I tried that a year ago and still it was as buggy as hell (Hence it never being released here!)
I'm only a half geek really...

Trekkie101

I wouldnt touch phorum with a barge poll, i set it up before for a laugh just to see what it was like, it provdies next to no help and no functionality and all problems are blamed on your webhost and ive never seen a good looking version.

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