WebBBS to vBulletin 2.2.x Conversion Script

Hello all!

After much painstaking oogling at php code, I've created a conversion script to convert WebBBS messages to vBulletin. I created this a bit ago, but feel that it might be of use to someone out there so I thought I'd share it.

This was written to convert from a very old version of WebBBS (circa 1998), but has since been modified to work with 5.0. It should be a good start for anyone out there wanting to do this.

All of the instructions are included in the file as comments. Read them carefully! When finished, don't forget to update counters and the search table.

Anticipating vB3 like you wouldn't believe,
Paul

Update:

• Now corrects for GMT offset for older WebBBS versions (the newest versions use unix timestamps, so this isn't needed)
• Situation where extra carriage returns were being added should now be resolved.
• Link URLs and Images are now processed. URLs/Images in the actual message body (assuming you had HTML enabled on WebBBS) are not processed. Anyone willing to add this functionality, let me know.
• Situation where certain date strings would offset the timestamp incorrectly has now been corrected.
• Connection to the database is now handled much more efficiently.

NOTE: By downloading this, you agree that you will not send me countless PMs/e-mails asking for help with it. If you have a question, post it on this thread. I am by no means an expert. This is my first script in php. It was written to fill my need and may or may not fill yours. I do not have the time nor resources to provide support for it.

Also, as with all hacks on this site, this script is for registered vBulletin users ONLY. You are not permitted to distribute this script to anyone, under any circumstances.

[TheComputerGuy]

Three round of applause for Paul!!!!!!

Man you just dont know how much I Love ya!

[Paul]

Please let me know how it works out

[TheComputerGuy]

I will, and I soon will know, in about another week, after we buy another vB license

[Paul]

If you're buying a license on the premise that this will work for you, I'd suggest trying it out with the "light" version that is freely downloadable from vbulletin.com. I have no idea what the database structure is compared to the full version or if it would matter (although I sincerely doubt it since the conversion doesn't insert any thing special.. just the basics (nick, ip address, e-mail, etc..)). Just remember, there are no guarantees that it will work. I'd hate to see you spend up to $160 only to find out it's not suitable for you.

[TheComputerGuy]

I get some parase error on line 79 which is the local host line and nothing has changed......any ideas

[Paul]

Have you tried re-downloading the script? Perhaps there's a missing semicolon or something silly like that?
Are you using php3 or 4? I wrote it using four, although I don't know if it's compatible with 3.

[TheComputerGuy]

I am using php 4, I test the script out and I see it will work, but I have the board in a cgi-bin folder, and I keep getting a forbidden error on there, will I have to remove permissions off the file or such?

[Paul]

The script should be using the nobody account (assuming that's what apache is using) and therefore should have read access to anything that webbbs has access to. If you want to make sure, you can move the messages into a different folder or make a copy of them and change the permissions.. the script doesn't edit the message files.. it simply reads them and imports relevent values into the vb database.

Sorry it's taken me so long to respond... have you had any success with this?

[Paul]

Anyone interested in this conversion script:

It is not functioning due to a few syntax errors. I added a few variables that were formerly hardcoded into the script before posting it here and did not test the script prior to that as I had already completed my install. There are a few problems to note as well.... This script will NOT convert the timestamps on your messages to GMT, therefore messages may be off a number of hours when viewed in vB.. I have since written a script to correct for that error, but it is in no way in any condition to handle this problem for other users. Some points to consider: daylight saving time, your time zone, etc.

I will post an updated version of the conversion script later today that will hopefully fix the runtime errors.

Paul