Topic: YaBB 2.5AE to SMF2.0.1 instructions

[IamTheBoy]

I keep getting asked this question after successfully migrating my 1.2m post forum from YaBB to SMF2, so I thought I'd detail the steps, which hopefully we can refine as others go through the same process.

Firstly, the gotchas:
1) My site never supported attachments, so that is not covered here (yet)
2) Internal (or external) links are not converted - I got around this by keeping my YaBB site at www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl and my SMF at www.omegaowners.com/forum/index.php - although they share some directories, they don't share any files, so can coexist. Robots.txt and sitemaps slowing being tweaked to put more emphasis on the SMF pages
3) Membergroups, Boards and Permissions all need to be rebuilt. I'd recommend understanding the permissions on SMF by setting up a test site, and playing around with that long before migrating



Put your YaBB 2.5AE site into Maintenence Mode.
Run all the YaBB Maintenence Controls (vital).
Make a backup of your entire YaBB forum.
Install SMF1.1.14 Full version, when creating the admin user, use a name that does not exist on your YaBB (important). eg, admintemp.
Upload the YaBB2.4 to SMF1 converter, along with convert.php
Run the YaBB2.4 to SMF1 converter.
When this is complete (took about 4hrs on my 1.2m post forum), you need to rebuild the Categories and Boards (which probably didn't import properly).
Recreate Membergroups if they didn't import.
Recreate Permissions, and check they are correct.
Run the SMF Maintenence tasks.
Upload the SMF2.0 Large Upgrade.
Run the upgrade (this took about 20m on my 1.2m post site).
Upload and run the SMF2.0 to SMF2.0.1 Update.
Check the migration looks valid and correct and complete.
Delete the temporary SMF Admin User (admintemp?).


Its possible that you could go straight from SMF1.1.14 straight to SMF2.0.1, but I have only tested going via SMF2.0


Hope this helps others who feel stuck in YaBB, and queries, lets keep it to this thread so we have all the info in one place.

[_steve]

Upload the YaBB2.4 to SMF1 converter, along with convert.php

Where are you getting this converter? I can't find it in the Downloads section?

Found it here... http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=344465.0

I seemed to have had a successful conversion. It duplicated all my posts, but it was easy to remove the duplicates. Haven't checked everything yet.

YaBB 1.3.1 > YaBB 2.5AE > SMF 1.1.14 > SMF 2.0.1 (haven't actually done the last upgrade yet, but I suspect that one will not be difficult).

[IamTheBoy]

Great progress

As you suspect, once on SMF, upgrades are fairly painless.  I'd recommend you either go to 1.1.15 or 2.0.1 ASAP, and 1.1.14 and 2.0 have known security flaws.

[West Coast]

Thank you so much IamTheBoy for the great instructions.

The conversion from YaBB 2.5AE (flat file) to SMF2.0.2 went well.
Following the steps -
YaBB 2.5AE > SMF 1.1.14 > SMF 2.0.2
was successful!!

Just a few of the findings as I went along that may help others.  I tried some experiments and here are some of my failed attempts and results before I got it right by following IamTheBoy's instructions.

Failed Attempt 1
First of all, fresh installed SMF 2.02 and used the YaBB 2.2 to SMF 2.0 converter in the 'Download' section of this site.
RESULT:
It did convert the board contents and members list and everything appears to be OK.  The 'Categories', 'Board Permissions;, 'Member Groups' 'Attachments', 'Reasons for registering information' did not convert.  However, the 'Date registered' for each members were all shown as 1970 xxxxx.  This was no good since 'Date registered' is fairly important on my forum.

Failed Attempt 2
I then used the YaBB 2.4 to SMF 1 converter on freshly installed SMF 2.0.2.  (Those who are browsing this will need to register in order to download YaBB 2.4 to SMF 1 converter from the topic mentioned previously. i.e. if you are a guest on this forum you will not see the download link in that topic unless you register)
RESULT:
It locked me out of the forum.  The forum itself is visible and everything works except you will remain as 'guest' no matter how many times you log in.
So using YaBB 2.4 to SMF 1 converter on SMF 2.0.2 directly is a bad idea!!

Conclusion
It is best to follow IamTheBoy's instructions and go from YaBB 2.5AE > SMF 1.1.14 > SMF 2.0.2.
By doing this, the board contents and members list will convert fine.  Those  The 'Categories', 'Board Permissions;, 'Member Groups' 'Attachments', 'Reasons for registering information' do not convert so you will need to make adjustments accordingly.

Thank you IamTheBoy once again.

[Westwegoman]

Glad I came across this. I'm going to convert from YaBB 2.5AE in the next few weeks. I'll let you know how it goes.

One question, should I remove any installed mods from YaBB before converting?

[West Coast]

The modifications on the YaBB, I didn't have any so I am unable to advise but less mods the less likely things go wrong...

But in any case, please do take a full backup of all files and folders before you proceed, in case of the unexpected.

Good luck with the migration.   Things are so much better here at SMF.

[Westwegoman]

Thanks for the info. As far as backups, I think I have OCD when it comes to them.

As for the mods. I'll most likely just go ahead and remove them just to ease the mind of them possibly causing a problem.

I keep hearing how much better it is and how much easier it is to mod a forum. Spent the morning going through SMF mod downloads, so I can try to have everything how I want when I'm ready to go live after the switch.

My plan:
Place both forums in maintenance mode.
Backup both.
Convert to SMF.
Play with template to suit my eyes.
Add mods.
Go live with SMF.
Redirect old forum to SMF via htaccess.

Hopefully it goes as smooth as my list sounds.

Fingers crossed

[IamTheBoy]

I left my old YaBB up, but removed ability to post. Template adjusted to say it was old site.

This allows links in to still be valid

[Westwegoman]

Worked perfect. Thanks for the info.

[SIGNO.38]

Firstly, the gotchas:
1) My site never supported attachments, so that is not covered here (yet)

Has anyone had any success converting attachments? 

What about polls?  The last test conversion I did of Yabb to SMF didn't convert the poll information.

Would really love to get away from YaBB.

[IamTheBoy]

Firstly, the gotchas:
1) My site never supported attachments, so that is not covered here (yet)

Has anyone had any success converting attachments? 

What about polls?  The last test conversion I did of Yabb to SMF didn't convert the poll information.

Would really love to get away from YaBB.

My polls didn't come across particularly well. It wasn't really a problem for our site.

[SIGNO.38]

My polls didn't come across particularly well. It wasn't really a problem for our site.
[/quote]

My site features a "Photo of the Month" so it would be nice to keep all the poll data from past months.

No word on the attachment issue??

[Oldiesmann]

The thing to keep in mind here is that converting from a flat file system is a lot more work than converting from one that uses a database. We can't simply tell a program to go find specific data that we want - instead we have to look for it ourselves based on the format and/or position within the file where that data is stored.

What specifically isn't working with the polls? Did YaBB change the way they were stored between 2.4 and 2.5?

If you can send me a copy of a data file containing poll info, I'll take a look and compare it with what the converter is looking for to see what changes may be needed.

[SIGNO.38]

I tried converting from YaBB 2.3.1 to SMF2.0.1 when I ran into the poll issue.  I've since upgraded to YaBB2.5AE and haven't tried converting so not sure if I will still have the same issue.  I could try it and see what happens, then I'll have better information to give. 

(Don't know when I'll get around to it, have to do it in my "free" time) 

[tim007]

I know this is an old thread, but I am looking to migrate from YaBB 2.5AE to SMF in the near future.  Has anyone had any luck getting attachments to migrate?

[mtagoon]

Take a look at this post

https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=240334.msg4000939#msg4000939

mtagoon