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Migrate a forum from phpBB to SMF

Started by sasadangelo, February 01, 2014, 09:25:46 AM

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sasadangelo

Hi All,
My name is Salvatore and I am the administrator of Disegno&Pittura a community of italian artists.
My community has a forum in phpBB with over 1000 subscribers and almost 500 visit a day.

I decided to migrate it to SMF because phpBB is really unusable.
Here what I need:

1. A test forum of SMF. DONE.

2. Translate it in english. DONE.

3. Migrate all data from phpBB to SMF. Is there a safe way?

4. A module to manage all SEO (something like Yoast SEO for Wordpress would be great). A way to redirect all my old url to new url. Here I am not talking about redirect 301 from hxxp:forum.disegnoepittura.it [nonactive] to hxxp:forumdp.disegnoepittura.it [nonactive], because in production the forum will have same url. I am talking about ugly phpBB url to more seo friendly url I can have with SEO module.

5. A way to easily manage an home page. I want a good home page with menu (sidebar) e a way to index best content.

6. A good theme. Something like Wetcanvas forum (type "Wetcanvas" on google). Something compatible with my site network (type "Disegno e Pittura" on google).

7. Backup module. It would be better a dropbox backup.

8. Suggestions on must have mods.

9. Threaded discussions.

10. Adsense Ads.

11. Menu system.

12. Forum hierarchy

If someone on this forum can help me to address one or more of these requirements it will be appreciate.

sasadangelo

I was just trying step 3 of my migration.
I uploaded the converter on my host.

Now on this host, in two different directory, I have my old phpBB (in production and I want to be sure it is not corrupted by convert procedure) path and my new SMF path.
But they have two different db with two different admin.
How I can do the convert?
Do I have to export data from phpBB database and put into SMF database?
I would like to avoid this.

kat

QuoteDo I have to export data from phpBB database and put into SMF database?
I would like to avoid this.

Excuse me for being simplistic, with this. But, as I assume you're going to backup everything, especially the database, first, why would that be a problem?

I don't understand why you're using two different paths, coz the converter will, for obvious reasons, expect the thing that's being converted from, to be in the same place as the finished conversion's going to be.

Why not convert, first, then migrate? Or, migrate, so you have the original as-is, to fall back on, then convert?

To me, it seems that you're rather over-complicating things. Unless I'm missing something?

sasadangelo

It's not clear your answer.
I am trying the convert procedure. But I really do not understand it.
It ask for phpBB path but not for phpBB db. My understanding is that phpBB has everything into the database. Files are only for logic, theme and other stuff I do not need to convert.
Is my understanding wrong?

kat

I'm not 100% sure. But, I believe that it gets the database information from one of the phpBB files.

In SMF, that information is stored in Settings.php. One would assume that phpBB has something similar?

sasadangelo

I am not talking about info to access to database. I know phpBB has them in a .php file.
I am talking about all data stored into the database.
The main page of converter dores not ask credentials to access the phpBB one.

margarett

Because it's one of the requisites, that the MySQL user for the SMF database can so access phpBB one ;)
Se forem conduzir, não bebam. Se forem beber... CHAMEM-ME!!!! :D

QuoteOver 90% of all computer problems can be traced back to the interface between the keyboard and the chair

margarett

Se forem conduzir, não bebam. Se forem beber... CHAMEM-ME!!!! :D

QuoteOver 90% of all computer problems can be traced back to the interface between the keyboard and the chair

sasadangelo

I understand the requisites but my host allow 1 user by database.
So the user that access to SMF database cannot access to the phpBB database.
Is there a way to bypass this?

Can I dump phpBB3 database and then import tables in SMF database? What else do I have to change?
Thanks

margarett

You can do that. If you have phpmyadmin you can do it directly from there.
Just copy the tables from phpBB to SMF's database. They have different prefixes so you are good ;)
Se forem conduzir, não bebam. Se forem beber... CHAMEM-ME!!!! :D

QuoteOver 90% of all computer problems can be traced back to the interface between the keyboard and the chair

sasadangelo

What about phpBB database connection?
I think the SMF converter read the database name, database server, database port somewhere.
I think it uses these data to access to phpBB database.
I am sure about this because in the main page it does not ask this info, so it read them somewhere.
In order to have the process works fine I need to change these info in order to tell to SMF converter to take phpBB tables in SMF database.
Where SMF converter read information regarding phpBB database access?

margarett

Yes, you are right ;) The converter reads the database config of phpBB from config.php, in phpBB's root.

Doing this will affect your running phpBB forum (as you might have users accessing a different DB) so I'd advise you to:
- set phpBB in "maintenance mode" (or its equivalent, I don't know it)
- copy the tables
- change config.php to address the new database/user
- perform the conversion
you want to play with the converted forum before setting it to public, then:
- change config.php back
- release "maintenance mode"

Or, to be really safe:
- copy the tables to SMF's database
- create a copy of phpBB's files (to a subfolder) and change config.php in this copy (actually you just need to copy config.php if you don't want to convert attachments and avatars ;) ). Now you have 2 separate phpBB forums that you can run independently. With this, you can try the conversion while your "live" forum is still running. Once you are happy with the result (conversion isn't always a straightforward process...) you can repeat it, this time for good ;)
Se forem conduzir, não bebam. Se forem beber... CHAMEM-ME!!!! :D

QuoteOver 90% of all computer problems can be traced back to the interface between the keyboard and the chair

sasadangelo

Ok, perfect now everithing is clear.
Thanks.

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