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Converting from IPB 2.3.1 to SMF - need to test first

Started by PaddyD, May 13, 2018, 12:23:44 PM

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PaddyD

Howdy. We're looking at converting an IPB 2.3.1 forum to SMF. We were planning on testing a couple of forum options, and yesterday tried an install of phpBB. It was a complete disaster - whatever it did during a completely unsuccessful conversion, it modified our existing database so that the existing IPB board became unusable. We had to completely reinstall from backups. YES, I do have backups, but I'd rather not go through that hell again and wondered if in fact the SMF convertor does anything to the existing database - because if it makes changes, it may break our current forum and we don't want that - not yet and probably not ever, as we may archive the old forum once we get all the existing members into SMF etc.

So - DOES the SMF convertor change the existing IPB database in any way? The phpBB convertor said it didn't - but it sure as heck did.

vbgamer45

The SMF convertor does not change the existing IPB database. It always leaves the existing database intact
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PaddyD

Thanks! That is what the phpBB convertor said too, but since that's not what happened with it, I just wanted to be absolutely sure. At any rate, while I was waiting for a response, I made an exact copy of our existing forum, including its database, and I'll use that for the test. Just to be on the safe side. ;)

vbgamer45

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PaddyD

How long should I expect things to take? We've got 2600 members and it's been "converting members" for almost an hour now.

I've already had to edit the convert script as per: https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=528263.0 - got the error message referenced there the first time I tried to run the conversion. I was careful about removing the problematic bit in the two places it appears.

PaddyD

I refreshed the page and it now says "Converting...Successful. Recalculating forum statistics..."

So does this just mean that it was successful at converting the members? So far nothing has changed on the SMF forum itself. And there is no sign of the 2600 members in the SMF database either.

vbgamer45

I would restart did you remove that that command?
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PaddyD

I restarted the conversion - it got through the first bit and on to recalculating the forum statistics quickly this time - but again, there are no additions to the database for the SMF forum that I can see. And it seems to be sitting at recalculating the forum statistics (given that it hasn't imported any members, I'm not sure what it's actually doing...).

Any idea what could be going wrong here?

PaddyD

Further update: I checked with our web host to find out if the "The cause of this problem is that your host has session.save_path to a non writeable directory" applied here and was told that the directory is writable by the user. I looked and it has permissions of 7-0-0.

So does anyone have any suggestions? This conversion has completely failed - there is NOTHING in the SMF database from the IPB forums.

PaddyD

And a further update - had our host change permissions to 777 and now the conversion may be stuck on converting members. Been doing that for at least 90 minutes now, and I have no idea how long that should take for 2600 members...

vbgamer45

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PaddyD

Not a thing. All it's done is take me OUT of the members group. I realize it's replacing (supposedly) all the members, but every time I end up with a board that has no members, that nobody can administer or log into until I've gone and edited the member table in PMA. Good thing I know how to do that...

I'm totally stumped now. I don't know what is wrong or how to fix it.

vbgamer45

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PaddyD

5.6. Can't run 7.x because IPB 2.3.1 won't work with that.

Oh my...could this be the issue? And how to solve that one - IPB 3 doesn't even work with 7.

vbgamer45

It should work. I would try using SMF 2.0.13 as the base just in case instead of new version latest smf supports PHP 7-7.1
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PaddyD

Ok...will give that a shot.

Was also considering trying to convert it locally using WAMP. Not exactly my first choice on things I'd like to do today, but we really do need at least our members added to SMF. Don't care about the rest so much - we can make the old forums read-only and carry on, but would hate to lose the membership database.

vbgamer45

There is always a way. I just don't' think the connection is going though corrector.
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PaddyD

Ok - tried 2.0.13 and the conversion. I don't know if this counts as progress or not - and don't know what I'm supposed to do about it.

"Converting members...Wrong value type sent to the database. Integer expected. (instant_messages)"

Think there may be a fix here: https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=523480.0

(BTW - the board search isn't very good - I usually have to find these posts via Google...)

GigaWatt

"This is really a generic concept about human thinking - when faced with large tasks we're naturally inclined to try to break them down into a bunch of smaller tasks that together make up the whole."

"A 500 error loosely translates to the webserver saying, "WTF?"..."

PaddyD

That and a whole boatload of others - I'm wondering if anyone wants my modified script when I'm done? LOL...

Then got another error message. "Converting members...Field 'openid_uri' doesn't have a default value"

I've looked in the script and there is no openid_uri or anything resembling it, so the fix for a phpbb converter in the thread linked below doesn't work. I don't know enough about this to know how to make it skip this or whatever we need it to do.

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=518678.0

...wait a minute - figured it out - found AS member_ip2,  and then added: '' AS openid_uri, '' AS ignore_boards - as I got that next error as well.

And then got the "Converting topics...Wrong value type sent to the database. Integer expected. (id_poll)" error. Fixed that, and same for the missing integer for id_board...

Corrections found here: https://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=401661.0

And then got a whole lot of the "Duplicate entry 'xxxxx' for key 'PRIMARY' first for topics, and then for posts. Edited the tables to remove them (though I couldn't actually see any duplicates) and then decided to just skip them via editing the URL for the conversion to start again just after (or in some cases when it was going in the opposite direction, just before) the particular problematic entry. They're so old they really don't matter...and we do still have the old boards which will be archived as well, maybe...

At the moment it's jumping down by about 500 posts or so to the next "duplicate" - so only 150 or more to go. :p




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