Moving from PHPBB2

Reginleif · 05-21-2007, 10:18 AM

I understand there is an import script/module so that you can import a PHPBB2 db into vBulletin. I've been having trouble verifying that there even is one for sure... I guess all this info is behind closed doors at Jelsoft and you can't get into the forums unless you buy the software. I'm trying to make an educated decision here.

I run a somewhat small forum, I suppose, with about 100-125 registered users. I have a number of forums... let's say 15... under different categories. It's also integrated with Gallery2.

Has anyone had experience with the phpbb2 importer?

How well does it work?

Is it going to move EVERYTHING over? By that I mean "categories" and forums and threads and the user list and everything?

Is the fact that my forum is integrated with Gallery2 going to munge things up for the importer?

Is there a similar situation with vBulletin where I can integrate a photo album, and when users are created on the forum, they get a photo album account?

Sorry for all the questions rapid fire... $160 is a lot to chuck out for a site that I make zero money on, and I want to be sure I can have things the way I want. Thanks in advance for your help!

Code Monkey · 05-21-2007, 08:44 PM

It is supplied by Jelsoft and is called Impex I believe. It's available in the customers download section and works very well.

Reginleif · 05-21-2007, 08:56 PM

Ah, excellent! Thank you for the verification! I figured there would be because Jelsoft seems like a real class act, but you know that whole "you know what you do when you assume" thing.

I think I'll go ahead and purchase the software then. Migration was most important to me.

Code Monkey · 05-22-2007, 05:34 AM

Feel free to use our link on the right column to purchase it.

And then come back for any questions you have.

Reginleif · 05-22-2007, 02:12 PM

Well, I'm afraid there's no answer to this question, but I'm going to ask, because if I don't, I'll never know for sure...

Is there any way to import just certain posts? It's taken me a number of hours (and I'm still not done) getting people into the right usergroups and setting the permissions for forums properly, which means they're still posting on the old forum. Am I just going to lose those posts since they weren't part of the import? Shutting down the old forum until the new one is fully up and running is not an option.

Reginleif · 05-25-2007, 04:08 PM

Well, I just did another import after getting everything set up, but all I imported was threads and posts, nothing else. This meant that all the posts on my vBulletin that were made with my original imported account were now posted by literally no one because my account as admin was merge. LOL.

Luckily, I'm surrounded by people who know SQL at work, and a simple query fixed those posts.

So, I discovered you CAN technically import "extra posts", but it will be ALL the posts including the new ones since last time you imported. Since I was drawing from the live database, it wasn't too much of an issue, and there was no activity on the new board yet since I had it PW protected, so it worked out fine. My users are pretty stoked with the new setup!

StokeChat · 07-08-2007, 04:52 AM

ReginLeif, when I imported from Phpbb to Vbulletin, I also imported the userlist, but import for some reason put a letter before or after the name. I decided to just tell the users that we were going to go onto a better fast system that wouldn't crash so much and that they would have to start from scratch.

It's the best thing I've done and not one user really kicked up a fuss, all they want is a forum that is going to work regularly.