UltraBoard 2.2.x importer released!

[GameCrash]

Please do not contact me via ICQ, Email, PM or anything other way than this thread any more!

Okay... this is my UB2k 2.2.x to vBulletin 2.0.x importer. It can import styles (= skins), users, forums, moderators, posts and private messages.

This Importer has been created for vBulletin 2.0.3! The most things work correctly with 2.2.x (it will import the styles, users, forums, moderators, posts and private messages) but some features like setting new passwords for admins doesn't work. I don't want to create a new version as I don't think there are many UB2k users left who could import...

This script does not work with the vB import system as I wanted to have it independent of the vB directory (some servers are not able to read files in directories like ../../ub2k/). You can upload the script to any directory where you can access the UB2k directory and the vBulletin database.

A manual is in the zip file. Please do not email or pm me if you have questions or found bugs. Please simply answer the thread.

Known bugs:
- On some servers you need to chmod the directory "ubimporter" to 777...

[ThomasP]

Hi GameCrash,

great job!
Am downloading and on my way to check it out,
thanks,
-Tom

[smacwill]

Worked like a charm on my board.

~8000 Members
~26000 Threads
~180,000 Posts

Only lost a few members on the Import and that was because of duplicate Nicks.

Everything has been working like a charm and my Users Love vBulletin.

Thank's so much for your hard work!!!!! :D

Skip......
www.overclockers.com
http://forums.overclockers.ws

[Dolby]

Works great!

Took some playing around with becuase all I had was the backup files.

Thank you for your hardwork Gamecrash!

[GameCrash]

It's great to see the betatesting was not useless :)

[AJR]

I have tried this importer...and succeeded effortlessly (other than having to move all the backup files from the old server to the one with MySQL!). Very nice job indeed on this hack! Only had 550 users and 2600 posts, but didn't want to lose them!!!

The only problem is the password issue...everyone has to request their password, which is sent to them in the crypt() form because that's how it is imported from UB2K. If there was a defined 'salt char' for crypt() in UB2K, someone could create a good hack to be able to use the encrypted passwords after importing. The one that just came out involves asking the user if they want ther pw encrypted. Why go through all that trouble...just force them all to be encrypted...it's more secure anyway! So a random password would have to be generated if they lost thiers...big deal, they just come back and change it after loggin in!

Oops...sorry about that...anyway, again - excellent hack...you should see sales rise from those not wanting to convert because they couldn't import UB2K messages!!

AJ

[GameCrash]

Well... it's not possible to decrypt the password and it's not my thing to say what the users / admins shall do...

[ThomasP]

Hi GameCrash,

have a problem with the importer, I did a backup of my old ub2k, it gave me a couple of files and directories, which I copied together with the whole ub2k directory to my vBulletin server.
Created a directory called ubimporter within the ub2k directory on the new server, placed the ubimporter.php

After entering all directory info to the ubimporter.php, the proceeded and got this:


Verifying data... All data correct :)

Preparing the system...

Deleting old temporary tables... done.
Creating temporary tables... done.
Inserting temporary data... done.

done.


Then got this:


Select backup
Backup from 2001-08-08 16:59
Importer Backup Set


After pressing submit I get the same screen over and over again, i.e loops indefinetely... :(

Any hints what is going wrong here?
Thanks,
-Tom

[GameCrash]

Are you sure you have NOT compressed the backup (.tar.gz)?

[autoth]

Originally posted by ThomasP
Hi GameCrash,

have a problem with the importer, I did a backup of my old ub2k, it gave me a couple of files and directories, which I copied together with the whole ub2k directory to my vBulletin server.
Created a directory called ubimporter within the ub2k directory on the new server, placed the ubimporter.php

After entering all directory info to the ubimporter.php, the proceeded and got this:


Verifying data... All data correct :)

Preparing the system...

Deleting old temporary tables... done.
Creating temporary tables... done.
Inserting temporary data... done.

done.


Then got this:


Select backup
Backup from 2001-08-08 16:59
Importer Backup Set


After pressing submit I get the same screen over and over again, i.e loops indefinetely... :(

Any hints what is going wrong here?
Thanks,
-Tom

First, you must backup database on control panel.
Then restore database.

To GameCrash
It's very useful hack, thank you.

[ThomasP]

Hi GameCrash,

okay, seems as I wasn't careful enough in rebuilding the directory structure on the new server (had to move my ub2k from another server to my vbulletin server). :o
But after all it was an easy task to use your importer.

Now it worked and it really rocks! :)

Thanks for your professional work on that!
As some people tried this before -obviously without success- I really appreciate your ub2k importer, today is a great day :D

@Staff: This should be integrated into the next release as an optional importer if GameCrash agrees. This would be an extra value for vBulletin having the ability to import the remaining ub2k's now where the original site is gone...

Kuddos to GC!
-Tom

[Pulsorock]

it looks like this import script works fine.. and I'm almost sure I'll buy vBulletin and use this script to import my 1,000 user and 95,000 posts os UB2K 2.23.

I just want to make sure how many people have tried successfully this script and if they have encountered any troubles or errors during the import and what they did to fix it. I want to make sure of all the possible errors (if any, but I hope none) and I know what to do when I get them.

Thanks

[GameCrash]

Well... there have been 37 downloads, so I think about 30 people tested it. If there had been any problems they would have posted it into this forum... I can't give you any warranty this importer works for you but if you have problems => post here and I will try to fix it...

[Pulsorock]

does the importer convert all posts, members, categories, boards, members # of posts, members levels and so on?
:)

If I set up vBulletin on my site, does all my user have to register to post a message? Or can they post anonymously (unregistered)?

[GameCrash]

It can import

- styles
- users
- forums and categories
- moderators
- posts
- private messages

It can't import the membergroups as the UB2k uses a completely different system. But the Administrators (100) will get Administrators and the Super users (70) will get Super moderators.

You can set the permissions of every member group. The importer does not change any of the settings...

[Pulsorock]

Thanks,
So the users will still maintain the same number of posts in their profile?

And what exactly do you mean with "You can set the permissions of every member group. The importer does not change any of the settings..." ?

Is this import script considered finished or is there any plans for new improvements or ad-ons?

Thanks for all the help

[GameCrash]

If I set up vBulletin on my site, does all my user have to register to post a message? Or can they post anonymously (unregistered)?

You can set this permissions in the CP...

The number of posts will be imported, but after the import you should use the update functions - they will update this counter, too.

[Thomas P]

Is this import script considered finished or is there any plans for new improvements or ad-ons?


I would consider it finished as it worked perfectly.
I had no problems with the script, except with my own stupidity ;)
Have a look: http://mcseboard.de
120 users and 1000 posts were imported - even the pageviews were imported. GameCrash's work is very clean and professional,
hth,
-Tom

[Pulsorock]

[off topic mode]
Thomas P
I noticed that your board is in German. Is there a German version of vBulletin or you translate it yourself? If so, Is easy to translate vBulletin to another language (like Spanish)?
[/off topic mode]

[GameCrash]

I don't know spanish but... this should help you: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=25307

[lewisleung]

:(

no backups available to select when the Select Backup step!

help!!

[Thomas P]

Hi there,

had a similar error because I did a mistake:

*Be sure to have a valid Backup (not compressed!) in the Backup directory. It's a directory called something like "UB2K-997311557" or so.
*Be sure that the appropriate *.log and *.txt file (same name as directory) is in the Backups directory.

Then try again...
hth,
-Tom

[lewisleung]

ok,

but in the import user step.
it said could not copy the Account.export

[Thomas P]

Hmmm, in this case I'd wait for GameCrash, he's the programmer and has more insight in the process...
-Tom

[lewisleung]

ok, thank you for your help!!:p

[lewisleung]

i have solved the problem!!!
becouse i forgot to change the permission of [ubimporter] to 777
:D

[GameCrash]

Yeah, it seems there are permission problems on some servers...

[Pulsorock]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by lewisleung
i have solved the problem!!!
becouse i forgot to change the permission of [ubimporter] to 777
:D

[lewisleung]

Originally posted by pulsorock
Did you imported all your UB successfully to vBulletin? I just bought vBulletin and will move from UB to vBulletin next weekend. :)

Yes~~!!
sucessful!!!
GameCrash, welldone!!!!

[Pulsorock]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by GameCrash
It can import

- styles
- users
- forums and categories
- moderators
- posts
- private messages

[GameCrash]

It uses the nicknames - but I don't think there are problems with some characters... but I'm not sure...

[smacwill]

My users used special Chars in their Nicks. All imported just fine.


---------------
www.overclockers.com (http://www.overclockers.com)
forums.overclockers.ws (http://forums.overclockers.ws)

[Pulsorock]

Thanks
So that mean that when I import from UB2K, what's imported is the Nickname and not the username. After that my users will need to type their nickname instead of what they use to do was type their username for login in?

What about the password? Will it remain the same during the import? Or will they have to change or request their password via email in order to successfully log in?

[off topic question]
Doing my local test of the software on my Win2k running apache, php and mysql I noticed that Unregistered members don't have the smiles at the left side of the message box, but registered members do have it. Is that normal or can I change it so all users (registered or not) have the smiles at the left side of the box?
[/off topic question]

[GameCrash]

Originally posted by pulsorock
Thanks
So that mean that when I import from UB2K, what's imported is the Nickname and not the username. After that my users will need to type their nickname instead of what they use to do was type their username for login in?

yes

What about the password? Will it remain the same during the import? Or will they have to change or request their password via email in order to successfully log in?

It is NOT possible to import the passwords as the UltraBoard encrypts the password, the vBulletin not. The users will have to use the "send password" functions. The other option is to use the "email all users" feature in the cp - so you can simply send every user the new password...

[off topic question]
Doing my local test of the software on my Win2k running apache, php and mysql I noticed that Unregistered members don't have the smiles at the left side of the message box, but registered members do have it. Is that normal or can I change it so all users (registered or not) have the smiles at the left side of the box?
[/off topic question]

Sorry, don't really know what you mean...

[Pulsorock]

[off topic mode]
[QUOTE]Originally posted by GameCrash

Sorry, don't really know what you mean...

[GameCrash]

Same thing on my forums... I did not notice this yet, no guests are allowed to post on my forums.

I could not find a toggle for this, maybe you should ask this in the "How do I" forum...

[allusion]

I get this error:
Inserting temporary data... done.
Preparing user files... Error: Can't copy the Accounts.export
ubimporter.php and it's directory is CHMODed 777.

What could be going wrong?

[GameCrash]

You must chmod the directory "ubimporter", not the directory of the ubimporter.php. Example: If you UltraBoard is in /cgi-bin/UltraBoard/ you would place the ubimporter.php in / and then create a new directory /ubimporter

[linesiders]

I'm still getting the "Can't copy Accounts.export" and it fails importing posts with "Error: Could not find backup file!" I've looked at the paths but I must be braindead or something...

Last eeror I get is "Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid Directory resource in /home/lineside/public_html/ubimporter.php on line 1592
done." probably a result of the other problems with my board...

Thanks - and nice work on the script. I think the problem is more with me that your script GC :eek:

[GameCrash]

When you did the backup, did you use the option to compress the backup to .tar.gz?

[linesiders]

No - the only thing different is that I run the backup - without tar - on the one server that is on then I need to tar it to transfer to the new server with VB, untar it, and put the UB2K-99XXX folder into the new server... Any thoughts? I do appreciate the help.

Thanks,

John

[GameCrash]

Is the script allowed to access the backup directory?

[linesiders]

It should be able to - I really think the path is correct and it and where it resides is 777 to get it to copy/import...

[GameCrash]

Could you please try doing the following AFTER you get the error message:

Copy the Accounts.export to ubimporter/accounts.dat
Copy the Profiles.export to ubimporter/profiles.dat
Open ubimporter.php?step=douser&do=accounts

I hope this can fix the Problems with the accounts... then we must see what happens...

[linesiders]

GameCrash - I took the easy route and did up a quick conversion on the old server and sent the dump to the new box - I'm pretty sure I might have screwed up along the way - Anyway - it works great and I saved 400 users and 10K posts - many thanks!!!

I'll need to sacrafice a Stuttgarter Hofbrau next time I'm over there in your honor.... :D

[GameCrash]

hehe :D

[Pulsorock]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by GameCrash
It uses the nicknames - but I don't think there are problems with some characters... but I'm not sure...

[GameCrash]

It uses the nickname...

[Pulsorock]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by GameCrash
It uses the nickname...

[jrx]

The script works great except that the "Browse board with cookies" setting for imported users is "no" instead of the default "yes" setting. It took me a while to figure out why some users couldn't log in...

I was able to manually fix this, though, by doing:
> update user set cookieuser=1;
after the import.

[GameCrash]

Well... I thought that this is the better default as some users don't accept cookies... Everyone should be able to browse the board this way...

[jrx]

But everyone can't browse the board with it set that way. I discovered that certain users who go through a proxy server can't log in at all with it set to "no". That's why I brought this up...

[GameCrash]

Yes, proxys could be a problem... But, I will not change this as the Everyone-with-cookies-Solution is not better for the no-cookie-users ;)

[allusion]

Gamecrash,

I used the fix you posted above and it worked great, but somehow I'm getting stuck now on the posts. Here's the error:
Importing forum ...

Error: Could not find backup file!

It's imported everything (styles, etc.) correctly up to this point. Any ideas?

Oh, and thank you so much for creating such a great resource. I know it's the reason I bought vBulletin. Any job offers yet? :)

[Afterburner]

is your backup a zip file ?

[allusion]

Nope, it's a directory. The log and txt file with the same name are in the Private/Backups/ directory too.

Afterburner! I recognize you from the (now defunct) UB2k boards. You had some great hacks.

[GameCrash]

Are you sure it says Importing forum ... and not Importing forum [Boardid] ...?

[allusion]

I just copied and pasted.

[GameCrash]

Then it's a database problem... could I get a dump of your ubi_post table?

Did you import the forums? You could try this workaround: Start the import script again, don't import the styles, import the users with "keep the vBulletin users", don't import the forums. Then you should be able to select which forums will be imported to which forums...

[allusion]

Okay, I followed your directions and it gave me options of what forums to import in to. I picked them and clicked to next step, but got the same error. :(

[GameCrash]

Strange... Your dump is empty, so the script does not know what forum it has to import...

could you please tell me what files are in your ubimporter directory?

[allusion]

There is *nothing* in my ubimporter directory. I'm guessing this isn't good...

[GameCrash]

Well... could you tell me where the vB, the UB2k and the ubimporter.php are located (URLs) to make me able to check that out? (PM)

[Pulsorock]

Ok... tonight is the night that I'll import my board to vB. I wanted to post my check list here before I do it, so if you have any recommendations about it.[list=1] Close UB2k board Run "update database" on UB2k Run "backup database" Install vB

Questions.... since I'll be installing vB on my server for the first time. Is there a need to create a main board or category on the new installation of vB? Or should I leave it without any board/categories and run the importer? Should I create a admin account on vB? Because I want to maintain my user profile (# of posts) of my current UB2k admin profile (nickname WebMaster). I guess I'll need to use that nickname too. Would this cause any problems?
Modify ubimporter.php to match my system Copy ubimporter.php to the folder where it can access the backup files (ie. /cgi-bin/UltraBoard/Private/Backups) Create a "ubimporter" folder in that same place (chmod 777) If running, close vB Run ubimporter.php and follow the steps After import delete ubimporter.php and ubimporter folder Run all functions under "Update Counters" in vB control panel[/list=1]

Did I missed something? Any suggestions?
Thanks for the help

[GameCrash]

Should work ;)

It doesn't really matter if you create any categories / forums. You have the option to delete them while importing, but you can also keep them... There will be one standard category and one standard forum created while installing the vB.

You must create the admin account when installing (it's part of the vB install script). But, if you choose the option to delete the old members that account will be killed. After the import, the old administrators will be administrators in the new forum, too. Of course you have the option to keep the new admin account, too.

Another thing, you should first install the vB and then close the UB2k. This is to reduce the downtime of your forum as the installation takes some time and it is not 100% that everything works fine the first try ;)

[Pulsorock]

Thanks GameCrash,
I'll let you how everything worked.
:)

[GameCrash]

@allusion I did the import for you. There was just one mistake ;) => PM

[Pulsorock]

Right now I'm step 7 of 9 and I cliked the "Please click here to import the next posts..." link and it's been there for a log time. I think like for more than 15 minutes. I looged in to telnet and did a "top" command to see whats running in the server, but it seems that everything is normal, no big process is running.
What should I do?

[GameCrash]

How many posts did you choose to do per cycle? It should work to press refresh...

[allusion]

Thanks a bunch GameCrash. Just so no one duplicates my silliness it looks like I put the script in /ubimporter/ instead of creating a ubimporter/ directory where the script was :rolleyes:

[Pulsorock]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by GameCrash
How many posts did you choose to do per cycle? It should work to press refresh...

[tester2]

GameCrash... great job with this script! Its just what I've been looking for. Thank you!!

I am having trouble getting past step #4. After I get the following output:

Inserting temporary data... done.
Preparing user files... done.

I click the link to import my first 100 users. At this point, the next page loads and says:

Importing accounts...

Proceeding Account "sco"... Error: Can't insert userdata!

I only pasted my first entry, but all accounts get the same results.

I was also unable to import my old UB2k styles. I get the error: Deleting old styles...Error: Can't delete the old styles.

Any ideas what might be wrong?

Thanks in advance for your help!
Tester2

[GameCrash]

Do you have write access to the database?

[grb123]

GameCrash, just wanted to say a big thank you for this import script! I was using UltraBoard and needed to move to a new server and UB just wasn't co-operating so I dumped it and imported the UB boards into vB.

I only had one problem (plus a few duplicate nicks) - the script couldn't import accounts.export, but I checked this thread and found the solution (chmod 777 ubimporter dir). I spent a few hours customising it and it's now live and so far everyone is very pleased with it.

So thank you!! And congrats on a well laid out and easy to use script!

Cheers,
Gary

[GameCrash]

Originally posted by grb123
chmod 777 ubimporter dir

Do you mean the directory "ubimporter" or the directory the ubimporter.php is in?

[Pulsorock]

GameCrash you are the best ;)

It worked fine... Only lose a few users due to duplicate nicks. But everything until now is working great. And vB is much master than UB.

My board can be seen here: http://www.pulsorock.com/foro/

btw... is in spanish

[GameCrash]

WHO moved this thread to REQUESTS??? That is a release (or what do you think why there is a "released" in the title???) but, as it is not really a hack I did not post into the release forum...

So PLEASE, move it back to the old forum - otherwise nobody else will find it...

[grb123]

Originally posted by GameCrash


Do you mean the directory "ubimporter" or the directory the ubimporter.php is in?

Yes, the directory ubimporter needed to be chmod 777. It's probably worth just doing it as a standard anyway whether it's needed or not.

Excellent work, GameCrash!

Gary

[GameCrash]

Originally posted by grb123


Yes, the directory ubimporter needed to be chmod 777. It's probably worth just doing it as a standard anyway whether it's needed or not.

That hast been said often before, including the first post ;)

[linesiders]

Again - I want to thank Game Crash for creating this script. I was losing people due to how SLOW UB2K was and within a couple days of GC's script coming out - all my members are having a blast on vB - Again mucho thanks to Gamecrash...

[jam583]

http://www.gapower.net/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/UltraBoard.cgi

That is where my old Ub2k Board is

http://www.gmpower.net/forums

This is where my new VB board is with nearly 20,000 posts and 800 members

I need the old ub2k data to convert to gmpower.net/forums

I d/l the VB board and uploaded to gapower.net (Grand AM Power) and tried to do the import. This is what I got

Warning: open_basedir restriction in effect. File is in wrong directory. in /usr/local/plesk/apache/vhosts/gapower.net/httpdocs/ubimport/ubimporter.php on line 424

Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid Directory resource in /usr/local/plesk/apache/vhosts/gapower.net/httpdocs/ubimport/ubimporter.php on line 426

Warning: Supplied argument is not a valid Directory resource in /usr/local/plesk/apache/vhosts/gapower.net/httpdocs/ubimport/ubimporter.php on line 436

Anyone wanna do this for me or can help me out???? Thanks..

[GameCrash]

Well, it seems you do not have access to the UB2k files - I am not sure what the open_basedir restrictions are... but, maybe, you cannot access the full path. Could you try to use a path like ./cgi-bin/UltraBoard etc.?

[jam583]

I tried many different things with similar results. If you could help me that would be great.. I can give you ad space on the sites or something. I am eager to get this working :)

[GameCrash]

It would help to get FTP access to your server and the exact urls and absolute paths...

[jam583]

Is is possible to install a new board on the Ub2k domain and back up VB's board on gmpower.net and use the backup to install it on gapower.net? I'll e-mail you some stuff.

[alfisti.net]

ciao,

is there a way to import the threads (I do not need the members or other stuff) from the personal edition 2.11?
I don´´t want to buy the 2.2x to import the data.

I started a test but the skript don´t accept my /Public directory :-(

There have been some errors...
I need some information where to find the information data. Please use the full path WITHOUT an trailing slash (like /path/to/cgi-bin).
Where is the Private folder (including the /Private)?

I have had read all information and I chmod it all correctly. some ideas to run the import? the file-struktur must be the same, or not?

thank you for your help :-)
andré

[GameCrash]

As I posted before, I DON'T think it is possible to import any 2.1.x versions as the database format has changed...

[Thomas32]

Hi,

i have a problem using the import script... It works fine to the step "Select backup". And then there is no backup shown, I could select :(
There are backups in the /Private/Backups Folder und they are not in tar/gz.
I'm using the 2.23-Version of the Ultraboard, could this be a problem?
ubimporter folder is chmod 777.

Thanks
Thomas

[GameCrash]

Do you have a UB2K-[number].txt and a directory called UB2K-[number] in you backup directory? If yes, are you sure the ubimporter.php can read this directory?

[Thomas32]

Hi,

thanks for your answer. I have a UB2K-999898597.log, not a UB2K-(Number).txt and a folder with this number in the Backups Directory.
How can I make this directory readable for the importer. The backups and the importer are both in the same webspace, maybe chmod 777 or something similar ?

Thanks
Thomas

[GameCrash]

The problem is that you DON'T have a backup... in the log you can see what happened while the backup (what is shown while backing up) but you need the .txt as this is what the importer searches for and you need the directory as this is the backup itself.

Try to make a new backup. If you then only have a log again please post the content of the log file...

[Thomas32]

Hi,

thats the problem, I only renamed the *.log into a *.txt and it worked, nice work and thanks a lot :)

Thomas

[jam583]

Everytime I try it it says, "cannot connect to database". I am using the correcy mysql username/password and database name. Right before I did it I even did a mysql dump using this info. I've checked and doulble checked this info. I'm physically sitting at this box.. It's a win2k box.

Mysql is installed at c:/mysql -- Maybe because it's not in wwwroot?

[GameCrash]

No, that isn't the problem...

If it says "I could not connect to the database." host, username and/or password are incorrect. If it says "I could not use this database." the database name is incorrect or you do not have the rights to access it...

If it's the first problem, what did you use as host?

[jam583]

Well, I used localhost. I checked all my config files of the board currently running and used the exact settings. I also loaded my sql and checked it again (I sit at machine). Strange.. I'm eager to get this working :)

[GameCrash]

Does the vBulletin work on your machine?

[jam583]

Yes, www.gmpower.net/forums (will redirect) is working great on it.

[jam583]

Also, right before I was going to restore, I logged into ms-dos and did the mysql dump using the same info (username/password and database name).

[GameCrash]

I really don't know why the vBulletin can connect and the importer not - there is no difference in the code...

Could you try to copy and paste the settings of the config.php of the vBulletin? I'm sorry but I can't imagine any other problem than there are not the correct settings...

[GameCrash]

Please do not contact me via ICQ, Email, PM or anything other way than this thread any more. Thank you. :cool:

[Syseworks]

Just curious, will this import script work with vBulletin Lite? A buddy of mine has a UB2K and is considering vB lite :P

[GameCrash]

I have never tested it but yes, I think it should work... just test it ;)

[GameCrash]

Nobody has installed this hack? That'S not much... :pirate:

[breo]

Thx GameCrash!

I used your script and with the help in this thread I was able to import all the posts!

:-D

[Icemann3000]

Hi GameCrash,

i?ve made the import exactly you described in the reademe.txt.

Everything works fine, no errors are occured -- but:

After i?ve execute all "Updates...." i take a look in the BoardOverview and most of my board?s doesn?t appear.

However, in the Admin Point "Threads..Move" i can see all the boards, which i?ve "lost".

What happens ?? Can you help me ???

:noid:

<german>
Hallo GameCrash,

das .zip hab ich endlich bekommen nachdem ich mich doch noch erfolgreich einloggen konnte. ;)

Nachdem ich alle Anweisunge in der reademe.txt befolgt habe hat der Importvorgang auch ohne Probleme oder Errors geklappt.
Allerdings fehlen mir einige Boards. In der Board?bersicht ist nur eine Kategorie gelistet mit den dazugeh?rigen Sub-Kategorien.
Der Rest ist einfach "weg" (in der DB vermutlich vorhanden).

Bei dem Punkt "Threads..Move" sind aber in den PullDowns alle Boards drin die ich hatte. Wieso dort und warum fehlen die in der allgemeinen ?bersicht oder auch wenn ich das Forum aufrufe.

Ich bin total ratlos.
:noid:
</german>

Gru?
Michael

[GameCrash]

Could you please go to the cp and look if the forums apear there?

<german>Geh mal plz ins CP und schau ob die Foren da erscheinen...</german>

[Icemann3000]

Hi,

no, the boards doesn´t appear in the vb control panel, only by the menu point "Threads / Move"....

<german>
Nein, die Boards erscheinen im Control Panel nicht bzw. eben nur unter diesem einen Menüpunkt. Ansonsten kommt immer nur eine Board Kategorie....
</german>

[GameCrash]

well... don't know what's the problem... if they do not apear in the cp they do not exist (I think) and if they do not exist they can't be in the mass move...

would it be possible to get the url of your board and an account with admin rights? Just to see what's up with the cp ;)

<german>Sorry, keine Lust zu ?bersetzen ;)</german>

[flyguy]

Just bought vBulletin 2.2.0 and will proceed to downloading the UltraBoard import tool.

GameCrash - thanks for giving me the confidence to purchase and try to keep my forum moving in the right direction with vBulletin.

I will be downloading and installing vBulletin, downloading and installing the importer shortly...

Is there anything I need to do in UltraBoard to prepare for the import tool?

thanks in advance,
flyguy
http://flyfishingforum.com

[GameCrash]

Yes - you must create a backup of your forum (this backup will be used for import - so it doesn't matter if you use the DBM or mySQL version). It would be good to update the database before.

There are instructions in the zip file...

[flyguy]

When I put the ubimporter.php and ubimporter directory in the location where the UB files were (cgi-bin/UB), I got Server errors trying to run the php.

I then created another directory (see below) and got the following error...


Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /vbimport-temp/ on this server.

Apache/1.3.19 Server at <host> Port 80

:confused:

[coelho]

Hey GameCrash,

I also took long to change from my UB2k, as I still think it is a great script, but due to the unprofessional behaviour of the UB2K development Team and checking vbulletin I finally bought a license from vbulletin and imported my UB2K without any problems with your import utility :)

Some things got lost as you said, but all forums, users, styles etc got completely imported. Some of the stuff required some final adjustments but my Forum runs great now on vbulleting.

Thanks a lot for this great utility

[GameCrash]

Originally posted by flyguy
When I put the ubimporter.php and ubimporter directory in the location where the UB files were (cgi-bin/UB), I got Server errors trying to run the php.

I then created another directory (see below) and got the following error...


Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /vbimport-temp/ on this server.

Apache/1.3.19 Server at <host> Port 80

:confused:

You should put the ubimporter.php and the directory ubimporter in any directory which can access the UB2k files. Just try the root dir of you webpage... maybe you can't run php files in cgi-bin.

[flyguy]

Thanks for the reply. I took your advice and moved them to the doc root directory, which allowed me to reach the next step. I filled in the directory information and submitted.

I received this error:

Security Alert! PHP CGI cannot be accessed directly.
This PHP CGI binary was compiled with force-cgi-redirect enabled. This means that a page will only be served up if the REDIRECT_STATUS CGI variable is set. This variable is set, for example, by Apache's Action directive redirect.

:stupid:

It appears to be a nuance of using doc_root. I might try copying files from UB into another subdirectory...

If I copy UB files into the directory I want to run ubimporter from, do I need to copy everything in the UB directory or just certain directories? (I am not sure I could handle a copy of the entire thing)

thanks in advance.

[GameCrash]

It would be the easiest to copy the whole board... if you can't handle this I will try to give you a list of files/directorys you need...

[flyguy]

Your assistance has been incredible, thank you. I used a symbolic link (unix server) to make it appear as if the UB files were in the same directory and that worked fine.

I changed the admin password in the ubimporter tool and for some reason vBulletin control panel will not take that password?

[GameCrash]

As I told you in the mail, the vB 2.2.0 encrypts the passwords so the old way the script works will not help you. Please use the send password function until I have time to release a new version of the importer.

[flyguy]

Gamecrash - YOU ARE DA' MAN!! Thank you very much for your awesome utility and all the consultation.

I am down to a few final tweaks after the vbulletin tech staff helped me with the password encryption problem.

I hope this is the last question - but every post has a "\" at the end of each line of text... did I miss a setting somewhere?

I will be going through the entire process over again over the weekend and the things I learned on the trial run were really valuable. A little painful, but valuable just the same!

[flyguy]

One more concern, but getting closer...

The most important board with over 9,000 posts has vanished.

Actually, the board comes up as saying that it has all the posts but when I run the Update Counters function those threads/posts disappear.

Is there anything I need to do to prevent that from happening?

thanks in advance

[GameCrash]

do the posts exist? If not, try to change the "import x posts once" (I think it's called like this) to a lower value...

[cipap]

does it work with 2.2.0? anyone tried.. because i'm thinking of migrating a whole bunch (around 30, 000 users) off from a flat file ub2k to mysql vbulletin..

any ideas? *** 2.0.x does not have user password encryption unlike 2.2.x

[GameCrash]

It works for vB 2.2.x except this one password problem... but it will not work with any other UltraBoard than 2.2.x because they have changed their backup format...

[flyguy]

Yes, in fact there were 11,000+ posts from the original board

http://www.flyfishingforum.com/cgi-bin/UB/UltraBoard.cgi?action=Headlines&BID=2

I increased the # of posts per cycle to a high value, I will try them lower at your recommendation. Thanks, I will try it now...

[flyguy]

GameCrash -

I tried the whole thing again and here's what I found:

#1 => the "\" character shows up at the end of every line of text in every post. Is there a trick to clearing that?


#2 => One of the boards, entitled:
Flytalk III > Saltwater Flyfishing > Stripers and Coastal Gamefish

at URL:
http://www.flyfishingforum.com/flytalk2/forumdisplay.php?forumid=3

(Before I update counters and all that) lists 9579 posts and 1646 threads. On the original board, it lists: 11223 posts over 1645 (plus the one I made to test it = 1646). It somehow lost (11223-9579 posts) in the import counter.

#3 => I think the posts were never imported...
Even though the board lists 9579 in the vBulletin, none of them are accessible even when posts are displayed since the beginning of time. It seems only the post count made it over?

The ubimporter.php script never asked me to import these posts for some reason, because I set the import cycles down very low and if I had to click for 11,223/n cycles I would remember ;-)

#4 => When I update counters it goes to zero.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

[flyguy]

cipap -


RE: going to 2.2.0 -

The password enryption differences between UB2K and 2.2.0 cause a problem using ubimporter.php - but there is an easy fix if you have administrator rights to the mysql database on the vBulletin side.

Feel free to email me for specific information.

juro@flyfishingforum.com

[flyguy]

Gamecrash -

More information on the problems:

Failure to build an .export file:

I went back to my back-up log and found that one of the files terminated in an error... it says:

- - - Exporting the 'B2' database... Error:
- - - Copying the config file of 'B2' database... Done.

B2 is the one failing. The other backup directories have successfully built an B*.export file, B2 does not have one - but it has a .cfg file which is probably where the counter is coming from. The backup probably aborts at ~9k and the .export file never gets built.

The problem appears to be that the UB2k backup can not handle the huge board... and of course there is no one to ask at UB2K! :mad:

Removal of "\" characters:

Looking at that .export file, I see that each newline is contained as the characters "\n" on the Unix server. Is there an easy way to modify the importer to create 'native' newlines in vBulletin?

Another alternative would be for me to do a large-scale substitution on the .export file before running ubimporter, but I would need to know from you what you expect to see for newlines.

Loss of members and passwords:

The number of members has been reduced for some reason. This is not a big deal although people who had higher member status will not be happy starting over. This is the least important because it will be easy for people to re-register. I think the passwords are not working because of the encryption difference UB2K vs. 2.2.0.


Thanks for your help so far. I think if I can get rid of the slashes and figure out how to get an export file to build in B2 database, I should be able to make the move to vBulletin.


Juro
http://flyfishingforum.com

[flyguy]

GC -

I am taking the tactical approach of splitting the posts into two boards before trying again. I hope this solves the board error.

Will report later,
Juro

[flyguy]

--- back from the depths...

I manually split the posts into a several new boards and was able to build the files that ubimporter needs for each board to import! >phew<

Now the problem I face the problem of "\" delimiters at the end of each line and before each item of punctuation.

Any suggestions? It appears that the conversion is placing this char, which might have been necessary for pre 2.2.0 versions (?) 2.2.0 apparently does not need punctuation escaped.

Beyond that, a method of converting the UBCodes to vBCodes is needed to activate the links, show images, etc... but that's down the road.

Thanks again, getting VERY close!

[GameCrash]

I'm sorry, I my computer at home is down so I was not able to answer you earlier and I have not much time atm (at school) ;)

Well... the \n is the standard unix newline. It should not be shown in the text... do you use a windows server?

[flyguy]

Hi GC -

No, it's a unix server... the slash appears where there were newlines -and- before quote characters, both ' (single) and " (double).

I looked at the .export file over on UltraBoard and although there are "\n" chars at the end of every line the single quote chars are not escaped so I am assuming the slash is added somewhere along the way(?)

You can look at the results at:

http://flyfishingforum.com/flytalk2

[GameCrash]

maybe the following would work (if you want to import again):

Add the line

set_magic_quotes_runtime(0);

to the top of the page... over the database settings...

[flyguy]

It worked... :D THANK YOU! :D

So now all that remains for me is:

1) conversion of UBCodes to VBCodes for images and links

2) Passwords - forget it, everyone can fetch under the circumstances, never mind

3) conversion of smillies - not important

That might be it(?)

Q: Did the UBCodes get converted to VBCodes for versions prior to 2.2.0 ? (If so maybe I could figure out how to do it based on what you did last time)

[GameCrash]

uff :)

No, the Smilies and UB Codes habe never been converted. The problem is that they are very different and many administrators I know changed their vBCodes to the UB Codes as this is easier for existing users ;) Maybe this will be added in a new version...

[flyguy]

Thanks GC -

I have too many UB codes to ignore the issue so need some more info to move ahead...

Do you read the *.export file in the UB backup directory?

If so can I just make the edits to the .export file using a search/substitute script and then import it?

Thanks in advance.

BTW - I couldn't figure this out by looking at it because the codes are stored as HTML in the *.export files (?)

[interfx]

I am trying to tansfer an old UB2K forum on another server...

Here's what I'm entering, but I must be missing something...



Board: http://63.249.139.112/cgi-bin/UltraBoard

Private: http://63.249.139.112/cgi-bin/UltraBoard/Private

Public: http://63.249.139.112/UltraBoard/Public

Where import is located: http://www.christianmom.com/



Any ideas? Must be somethign really simple... I also have the *.tar.Z... Is there away to transfer just from the direectory, and all of the files?

[interfx]

OK, figured somehting out after moving the database...

I'm running UB2K 2.15.... How to find the upgrade to 2.2 so I then convert to VB???

I'm looking on the web, but can't find anyhting...

Todd

[GameCrash]

You need to use an absulute path, not an url... and no, I don't know any place where to download the upgrade as ub2k.com no longer exists and I don't have any old copy - sorry.

[interfx]

What is the consensus out there, to have the users get their new passwords??? My users post information came through, but it says they are not registered????

What's the simplest way to do for 1000's of users...

BTW, This is a simple, great hack!!! once I located a UB2K 2.21 version it worked great!

Thanks again -

Todd

[matde]

Hi,

I don't know what's going wrong, but somehow I don't get the "ubimporter" to work.

I have an ub2k 2.23 and a brandnew vB2.2.1 on the same server.

This what I've done:

1) configured ubimporter and copied it to the root directory (cause I can't call PHP-Scripts from my cgi-bin)

2)created a directory called "ubimporter" in my root-directory and checkmoded it 777

3)created a backup of my ub2k

4)called ubimporter.php from browser

Everything is going well until I come to the "select backup" page.
There is nothing I could select and when I click the "submit" button I get nothing but a reload of the same page.

Where's my mistake? I read articles of several Boards but I can't find an answer. Pleeeeassse help me!

matde

[GameCrash]

If you can't select any backup there are three reasons:

1) you don't have a backup (can't be as you just created one

2) you selected to compress the backup

3) your path to the private folder is not correct - please don't forget to use the ABSOLUTE path, not an url or something like that...

[matde]

Mmh,

1)I have 3 or even four backups, cause I'm making backups every few weeks.

2)I didn't compress the backups. This compress-function actually never worked on my system

3)I double checked the path...it's okay.

Any idea what I could try next?

Thanks for your help. I really appreciate it!

matde

[GameCrash]

Could you please post the path?

[matde]

Sure,

the absolute path I am using is:
/homepages/11/d16108769/htdocs/

the path to my Private folder is:
/homepages/11/d16108769/htdocs/cgi-bin/forum223/Private

Thanks for your help,
matde

[GameCrash]

well... yes, that should work. Could you pm me the UB2k url, the vB url and the ftp data, then I will try it...

[matde]

pm was sent!

[ptenthus]

I'm running into a problem using this import tool.

Everything works fine up until it starts importing posts. In the initial run, I selected 250 posts, at around post 249, it had a memory error.

In subsequent runs, I tried not importing the forums, but importing the posts only. I get a message "Importing forum 20..." and then nothing.

Any ideas GC?

[GameCrash]

Try to do only 100 posts and 5 forums per cycle. You will have to click on "next" very often but some servers there's no other way...

[ptenthus]

Tried just one small board, 50 posts at a time.

Same result.

Could you take a look, or tell me where I might see any error that it is running into?

Thanks.

Scott K
PT Enthusiasts

[GameCrash]

Please send me your data per PM, I will try to find the problem later... (sorry, no time atm).

[jam/hm]

Hi GameCrash,

I have same problem here.User data,forum data and forum messy import is ok.But in last forum import i get no response after about 30 minute.Is step 8 and 9 is important (or what is the step 8-9) ?Can i do something manualy ?

Sorry about my english :(

Thanks,
Cem

[GameCrash]

step 8 = importing pms
step 9 = cleaning up (deleting temporary files and tables etc.)

You could call step 8 manually (ubimporter.php?step=pms) but then you wouldn't have all posts imported.

ptenthus' problem was simply that there were too many posts so the script collidated with the server restriction. But 30 minutes? Don't think that's the issue. How many threads/posts do you have? What is the url of your forum?

[ptenthus]

Oh, that reminds me...

Thanks GC! You rescued my forums.

I, and about 2200 users, thank you.

Scott K
PT Enthusiasts

[GameCrash]

np :)

[EMPiRE]

Does anyone ever tested the ubimporter on a Win2K OS?

For it totally fails to work

I have succesfully installed vB, moved the complete UB2K from a Solaris server to the D: drive, started the ubimporter and it results in these errors:

The script first tries to read the *.txt (backup files) from D:/FF/cgi-bin/UB/Private/backups dir but there is no *.txt backup... the backup which exists has a .log extension. I have bypassed this problem by creating a.txt file with the dirname of the backup and it seems to continue...

I have continues leaving everything default. When clicking submit @ importing user this error appears: Can't copy the Accounts.export (this file exists in the backup)

I continue anyway, importing the foums goes ok, importing the moderators fails as there are no users... importing the posts also fails as it can't find the backup dir

So it has something to do with the first error when it can't find any backups!

Can someone help me out?!

[GameCrash]

Well... don't know. Could you try to chmod 0777 every dir and file in the backup dir?

[EMPiRE]

There are no file-rights possible like there are on Unix systems ;)

But I got it to work on Win2K

The problem of not finding the *.txt backup was that I never used an description for the backup, then this *.txt is also not created!

The only thing is on a Win2k system, that you can not import more than 5000 users and posts in 1 go otherwise it will hang (and wait forever)

There is only 1 problem that the new admin pw does not work (as there was also a UB "admin" user?) and I can't seem to get into the control panel...

Any suggestions on how to reset the admin pw?

[GameCrash]

You have to use the "Forgot password"-function. This is necessary for vBulletin 2.2.x as they started using encrypted passwords in this versions...

[mem]

is this script can import all ultraboard upload files ?
if the answer is yes , what should i do? all post import
success , but lost all upload file( *.jpg *.gif.....)

thx :)

[GameCrash]

No, it does not import attachments...

[TECK]

wow are still out there ub2k boards? impressive..

[sol]

One less Ultraboard forum.. another successfully converted to vBulletin. (800 members and 15,000 messages.)

Thanks for writing the importer, GameCrash :)

[JulianD]

Worked perfect with my board!!

Thanks Gamecrash!

[GameCrash]

:)

[bradLP]

Security Alert! PHP CGI cannot be accessed directly.
>This PHP CGI binary was compiled with force-cgi-redirect enabled. This
>means
>that a page will only be served up if the REDIRECT_STATUS CGI variable is
>set. This variable is set, for example, by Apache's Action directive
>redirect.
>You may disable this restriction by recompiling the PHP binary with
>the --disable-force-cgi-redirect switch. If you do this and you have your
>PHP CGI binary accessible somewhere in your web tree, people will be able
>to
>circumvent .htaccess security by loading files through the PHP parser. A
>good way around this is to define doc_root in your php.ini file to
>something
>other than your top-level DOCUMENT_ROOT. This way you can separate the part
>of your web space which uses PHP from the normal part using .htaccess
>security. If you do not have any .htaccess restrictions anywhere on your
>site you can leave doc_root undefined.

[GameCrash]

This is a problem with your php installation, not with the importer... does vBulletin work on this server??

Please do also try to upload a info.php with the following content <? phpinfo(); ?> into the same directory and run it - does this work? And if so, please tell me what PHP version you use (you can find this information on top of the info.php file)...

[Zachery]

.

[GameCrash]

??

[bradLP]

03-08-03 at 08:05 AM GameCrash said this in Post #165 (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?postid=362671#post362671)
This is a problem with your php installation, not with the importer... does vBulletin work on this server??

Please do also try to upload a info.php with the following content <? phpinfo(); ?> into the same directory and run it - does this work? And if so, please tell me what PHP version you use (you can find this information on top of the info.php file)...

GameCrash,
Vbulletin runs fine on the server. I already have that file on my server. I also tried having it in the ubimporter directory and that did not work either. Sorry for such a delay in response. I will be better this time :D

I am using PHP4.0.6

[GameCrash]

Try to upload the ubimporter.php into your vbulletin directory (and create the ubimporter directory in it, too) - maybe you are only allowed to run php scripts in some locations on the webserver, and as vbulletin works, it seems its directory works fine...

[Dean C]

What is ultraboard? :)

Link?

- miSt

[GameCrash]

It has been a popular forum system (written in perl) but then the developer has given up and so it's dead now...

[Dean C]

Oh i see because i had see this hack when i first came here and never worked out what it was :)

Thanks for the info :p

- miSt

[bradLP]

Today at 09:05 AM GameCrash said this in Post #169 (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?postid=385022#post385022)
Try to upload the ubimporter.php into your vbulletin directory (and create the ubimporter directory in it, too) - maybe you are only allowed to run php scripts in some locations on the webserver, and as vbulletin works, it seems its directory works fine...

Still no luck. Any other recommendations?