Wanting to covert a Yabb 2.1 board - advice - opinions please

[EL34]

Hi all, I am not too happy with my Yabb board.
It runs ok most the time, but every time I go to upgrade, there are always issues.
Going back to yabb 1 up till the present, it seems it always something.

Some of the yabb forum mods just writes it off as the crummy IIS windows server and the problems never seem to get fixes until enough windows server people complain of the same thing.

My forum has approx 40,000 threads and 10 boards within the forum

Anywho, I am willing to dump Yabb 2.1 and give something else a try.
I see there is a converter available here which is great, it gives me the tools to transfer my forum.

I am here to ask other Yabb converts what they think overall of the SMF forum software compared to the Yabb software.
I don't need much of a push at this point to convert.
Thanks in advance for any advice

[SleePy]

The yabb converter may have issues. I was working on it with another yabb user but ran into an area where Jay would need to look at it and see what he thinks (He originally wrote it I believe).

I could try your yabb dump or I could give you the yabb file I currently have on my home computer that should fix some issues the converter had. Mostly with mysql strict mode though.
If you want to email it to me, my email is on the team page

[EL34]

Thanks,
Not sure what a yabb dump file is yet, I haven't gotten any further than just looking at features on the web site and downloading the conversion and main files.

Yabb is not in a MYsql database format and I have never really messed with a mysql data base.
My web host (IX web hosting) does have the mysql and phb set up stuff on the control panel, so I could get all that set up.
Probably need some help though on that since I am totally unfamiliar with mysql and phb.

Been doing perl programming for 7 or so years.

Should I just set up a dummy forum folder on the server and do the conversion to see what happens?

[SleePy]

By dump I did mean like a compressed single file that can be used to download the database.. I wouldn't want each one of those files sent one by one

[EL34]

Ah, ok, thanks

When I get some time, I am going to set up a test forum.
I'll see how the Yabb 2.1 conversion goes and then go from there.

Thanks for the info.

[EL34]

I am setting up a test forum to see how the process goes.

I set up the database in my server control panel.
Uploaded smf 1.1.5 full install
uploaded YaBB 2.1 Converter

Got the smf board installed, no problems.
Running the yabb 2.1 converter - several problems

First, the server keeps timing out and I have to start all over again. 3 times so far.

next, after starting the converter again, I get this message on different parts of the conversion.

Converting personal messages... Unsuccessful!
This query:
INSERT INTO `el34xyz_forum1`.smf_pm_recipients
(ID_PM, ID_MEMBER, labels, is_read)
SELECT pm.ID_PM, mem.ID_MEMBER, -1 AS labels, 1 AS is_read
FROM (`el34xyz_forum1`.smf_personal_messages AS pm, `el34xyz_forum1`.smf_members AS mem)
WHERE mem.memberName = pm.temp_toName
AND pm.temp_toName != '';
Caused the error:

Duplicate entry '1-54' for key 1

If the converter finishes setting up all the members, can't I just edit the yabb 2.1 converter to start after that point?
Advice needed.
thank for the help

[EL34]

The yabb 2.1 converter is getting as far as topics part 1 and then usually I get the message in the .gif file attachment.

Then I have to start the conversion from scratch again.
This is not going well so far.

Looks like all 1900 members are in the data base and much of the other stuff like PM's, etc all converted just fine.

Don't see the need for the converter to start from scratch?

Need help

[SleePy]

Do you have access to try this via command line? It seems like you have a fairly large forum...

Also try the attached file below. I believe I fixed the above issues as well as others.

[EL34]

Thanks jeremy,
I'll give your file a go when I get back to my shop tomorrow.

My yabb 2.1 forum has
36,000 post
4200 topics
1900 members

This is after I did a good house cleaning recently to delete post over a year and members that have not returned in quite a while.

Not sure about the command line thing. i believe I do through my PhpMyAdmin panel
mysql and php is all new to me.
would this be where I could run command line stuff. see attached .gif

[SleePy]

No command line would be accessing the server without a gui.
You can ask your host about this and if you got such access.

The command line option might help as it would by pass apache and you wouldn't have to worry about it timing out

You should take a little bit and try to learn a little bit about servers and such. Your board is getting close to becoming a big board (500k + posts) and its going to require more than a gui to be able to accomplish some tasks and manage your server(s).

[EL34]

Ah, ok

Shouldn't be too much of a problem.
I have been programming in perl many years and also recently Visual Basic, .net.

looking at the php scripts, they look very similar to perl.

never had the need for database stuff until now.

[SleePy]

Well once you learn one programing language it isn't hard to pick up the other.

It does have its similarities, but it also has its differences.

[EL34]

The yabb convert file in your link above, gives me the error below right off the bat.
The original yabb convert file seems to work, it just times out when converting the post.

Converting...
Converting members... Unsuccessful!
This query:
INSERT INTO `el34xyz_forum1`.smf_members
()
VALUES ('gilsmith', 'xxxxx7fbd3a19a51d333109b34572a', 'Alan', '[email protected]', '', '', '', '0', '0', '', '', '', '', '0', 'I love tube amps', 'blank.gif', '1215573258', '0', '0001-01-01', '0', '0', '0', '0', '0', '', '', '', '', '', '', '', '', '', '', '', '', '', '');
Caused the error:

Column count doesn't match value count at row 1

note that I xxx'ed out some of the data above



Went back and tried the original yabb 2.1 converter file again
This time it got through Topics Part 1 and then got an error on topics part 2
getting further along this time and the server did not time out

Converting...
Converting topics (part 2)... Unsuccessful!
This query:
ALTER TABLE `el34xyz_forum1`.smf_log_topics
ADD PRIMARY KEY (ID_TOPIC, ID_MEMBER),
DROP COLUMN tempID;
Caused the error:

Duplicate entry '0-0' for key 1

[SleePy]

Well that first error is quiet odd. It lost all the key data from the insert it seems..

The second one is saying that step two hasn't really completed yet.. Step 2 is fixing the message ids.
Just try to run it again. Maybe it didn't complete or a change I made working on the conversion issues one user was having there created the problem.

Converting from flat file is kinda hard since things are done differently..

[EL34]

Tried it again.
this time I went into Yabb 2.1 and rebuilt every index for post and members in case there was some sort of garbage data.

Ran the main yabb 2.1 converter from the web site.
It got quite a ways into Topics part 2

Then got this message.
Hitting Try again did not work.

Converting...
Converting topics (part 2)... Unsuccessful!
This query:
ALTER TABLE `el34xyz_forum1`.smf_log_topics
ADD PRIMARY KEY (ID_TOPIC, ID_MEMBER),
DROP COLUMN tempID;
Caused the error:

Duplicate entry '0-0' for key 1

[SleePy]

Which original yabb converter file are you using? The one from the downloads page or the one attached in the sticky on this board?

[SleePy]

EL34,

Give this one a try. I found the members issue.

My fault there, I added a return and saved it, causing it to make the members section fail

[EL34]

Which original yabb converter file are you using? The one from the downloads page or the one attached in the sticky on this board?

Hey Jeremy,
I tried both of them earlier today. Neither would get any further than topics part2

I'll give the newest file a go tomorrow when I get back to my shop.

[EL34]

Jeremy, the latest yabb2.1 file above gets about to the same place in topics 2 and then splits out this error

Converting...
Converting topics (part 2)... Unsuccessful!
This query:
ALTER TABLE `el34xyz_forum1`.smf_log_topics
ADD PRIMARY KEY (ID_TOPIC, ID_MEMBER),
DROP COLUMN tempID;
Caused the error:

Duplicate entry '0-0' for key 1

Try again does not correct the situation.

[EL34]

Ok, I may have found something that may be helpful.
Check out the screen shot.
On the left are all the items that smf set up.
I browsed every one of them and there didn't seem to be any problems, except for messages.
Look at the 3 error messages in this screen shot.

[SleePy]

Ok, well for now. Just drop all of the indexes.

The converter will add some back during the process, but this would remove any indexes and it should be able to continue on.

[EL34]

yes, I deleted everything below the primary.
I had to delete a few items in one of the logs also, an error message came up on one of the logs.

The converter finished the topics and did some cleanup.
It went on to polls and then had another error.

Converting polls and poll choices... Unsuccessful!
This query:
SELECT ID_MEMBER_STARTED AS ID_MEMBER, tempID, ID_TOPIC
FROM `el34xyz_forum1`.smf_topics
WHERE tempID IN (1144520596,1191704560,1193774424,1198775185);
Caused the error:

Unknown column 'tempID' in 'field list'

Looks like it just about finshed.

[SleePy]

Ok, I think we blotched up the SMF install to much. The column it says is missing, doesn't get dropped for a little while longer, so it isn't either getting added or it got dropped early.

Does the MySQL user you are using have full permissions (depending on using cpanel or not this meaning could change)?

[EL34]

Yes, I checked every box on the database and I have admin privledges

I think between the 3 different yabb2.1 files, things got set up wrong here and there.

The last file you posted seems to do just fine but I think it is running into previous setup index problems???

[SleePy]

Do you want to just try dumping the current SMF install and getting a new one?
I am thinking that as well due to the previous steps that crashed out, that something went sour.

[EL34]

yes, that's fine,
This is only a test database to see how the convert went.

How do I start from scratch?

[SleePy]

You would remove all the tables in the database and re install SMF. It should only take a couple of seconds to do both 

[EL34]

okey doke.

The forum is actually up and running.
I think I am going to have my members come over, have a look around and see how they like it.

I will do the actual reinstall after I get the nod from my forum members.
thanks so much for all the help.
I'll be back.

[EL34]

I'm back.

The members really liked the smf board and so I am doing the actual real conversion right now.

My board converts all the way through past Topics and then goes on to the attachments section and the polls section.

I was getting a temp id error when it was converting the polls. Sorry, don't have the error, it was late last night.

Anywho, I just stopped the converter at the polls error, checked all the tables in the database and then went into smf to rebuild everything.

The forum comes up just fine, all the post are there, but the Yabb2.1 post that had attachments, do not display the attachment links or the attachment images?

I am able to upload attachments in the new smf forum, and so that function is working fine.

I am using the last converter file you provided a couple post up sleepy.

What do I need to do to get the attachment links converted.
thanks again for all your help.

[EL34]

I ran the conversion one more time this morning and this time it did convert the attachments???

Oh well, I'll take it.

The conversion timed out on the server several times on cleanup part2 step 15

I finally just entered step 16 into the browser and it finshed that step.

Is there some sort of reference anywhere that shows exactly what each table in the database should look like?
A columns and indexes reference.

Is there something I can check or do manully to the tables to make sure the cleanup finished everything properly???

Just trying to make sure everything is good to go and properly set up.

[ThorstenE]

go to Admin - Forum Maintenace - Find and repair any errors.

i would install a second blank SMF and compare all indexes, especially smf_topcis

end of step 15 is possibly the tomeout problem:

Code Select Expand

ADD UNIQUE INDEX lastMessage (ID_LAST_MSG, ID_BOARD)

[SleePy]

Just go to Admin -> Forum Maintenance
Then run "Find and Repair Errors" and "Recount Totals and Stats".

This should do basically what part of step 15 was doing and fix up some of the topics.

[EL34]

ok, thanks guys, but There is a problem with the install.php program.

That is the program that is setting up all those smf_members index errors I posted above in reply #19.
I checked this 3 times with fresh installs. install.php sets up those index and creates the errors every time.
I had to delete those indexes to get the conversion to work.
I left the main primary index intact hoping the conversion would correct any missing indexes that I had deleted.

The conversion did not create any new indexes

The find and repair would not run until I added a few more indexes to the members table.
i set up what you see in the screen shot manually and I was hoping it was correct.

I tested this 3 times with fresh installs.
The find and repair just times out and never finishes untill I added a few more indexes to the members table.
After i creted the indexes in the screen shot, the find and repair ran and completed perfectly.

Tht is why I am asking what exactly the indexes should be for the members table.

everything seems to be fine and the board is all working correctly.
see these screen shots.
the first shot is the errors from the indexes that install.php is setting up.
the 2nd shot is what I set up after the converter finished.

[SleePy]

The ones in the first one are correct.

This is what I have on one of my many SMF installs

mysql> show indexes from smf_members;
+--------------+------------+----------------+--------------+----------------+-----------+-------------+----------+--------+------+------------+---------+
| Table        | Non_unique | Key_name       | Seq_in_index | Column_name    | Collation | Cardinality | Sub_part | Packed | Null | Index_type | Comment |
+--------------+------------+----------------+--------------+----------------+-----------+-------------+----------+--------+------+------------+---------+
| nuke_members |          0 | PRIMARY        |            1 | ID_MEMBER      | A         |           1 |     NULL | NULL   |      | BTREE      |         |
| nuke_members |          1 | memberName     |            1 | memberName     | A         |           1 |       30 | NULL   |      | BTREE      |         |
| nuke_members |          1 | dateRegistered |            1 | dateRegistered | A         |           1 |     NULL | NULL   |      | BTREE      |         |
| nuke_members |          1 | ID_GROUP       |            1 | ID_GROUP       | A         |           1 |     NULL | NULL   |      | BTREE      |         |
| nuke_members |          1 | birthdate      |            1 | birthdate      | A         |           1 |     NULL | NULL   |      | BTREE      |         |
| nuke_members |          1 | posts          |            1 | posts          | A         |           1 |     NULL | NULL   |      | BTREE      |         |
| nuke_members |          1 | lastLogin      |            1 | lastLogin      | A         |           1 |     NULL | NULL   |      | BTREE      |         |
| nuke_members |          1 | lngfile        |            1 | lngfile        | A         |           1 |       30 | NULL   |      | BTREE      |         |
| nuke_members |          1 | ID_POST_GROUP  |            1 | ID_POST_GROUP  | A         |           1 |     NULL | NULL   |      | BTREE      |         |
+--------------+------------+----------------+--------------+----------------+-----------+-------------+----------+--------+------+------------+---------+
9 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Thanks for that info. I will try to remember it while I am working on the converters to have it add those indexes back or see why they might of failed.

[EL34]

Thanks for that info sleepy.

I am not at home now, when Im get back there, I will check out and compare what you have against what I have.

[SleePy]

EL34,

Any luck?
I think I discovered some bugs in the Yabb converter. I was testing it on a large 2.2 yabb board and found some issues.
I haven't had time yet between work and school to test out the changes I have made to the 2.2 converter, I hope to back port the needed changes to 2.1 and see if that helps out here

[EL34]

Oh, hey Sleepy,

Yes, I converted my Yabb 2.1 board a couple weeks ago and went live.
All is well and the forum members love it.
It is way faster than Yabb and more dependable.

Some mental notes form the install and conversion :
The messages index errors were set up again by the install.php program
(See screen shot in reply 32 above)
But I was ready for it before the conversion took place since I had practiced several times and knew what to expect. I set up a couple indexes manually after the conversion.

The only thing that did not convert properly were PM's.
The real PM's converted just fine but there were also a couple thousand PM's that all had a date of 1969 or something weird like that and they had nothing in the subject line.

I went into the data base and sorted the PM's by topic and then deleted the no topic PM's.

Can't think of anything else at the moment, just want to say thanks.