YaBB to vbulletin Conversion Instructions: Alas the Holy Grail....

Hi all,

I know I'm new to you guys, but I just bought a vbulletin copy with an eye towards converting my YaBB SP1 system over to something more robust.

I'm a freelance LAN/WAN designer in Chicago, so although I do not consider myself a programmer, I'm fairly savvy when it comes to computers.

There is no new code involved in this process, and everything is done manually with the exception of a few scripts which you can download. I'm not sure all the scripts are GPL, so I'm not sure they can be distributed here...

Here we go:

Software List:

• phpbb version 2.0 RC1 (http://phpbb.sourceforge.com)
• phpbb Version 2.0 Release http://phpbb.sourceforge.com
• vbulletin Version 2.2.6 (Legit Version)
• Webmin (Linux Web Administration Package- or an admin program for mysql http://www.webmin.com)
• YaBB to phpbb Converter Version 1.2.1 (NOT the one they have available for download on www.phpbb.com. Go to the forums, and get the old release off the web page)

Additional Items needed:

• Strong Coffee
• High tolerance for frustration
• Realization that you are crazy, but will do it anyway....
• Excellent Computer Skills

If you do not have, these items- give up, and start your forum over.

Process:

In summary, this is a manual hack. The final product is *pretty* clean. Your user accounts/passwords will all be in place, posts in place, categories in place.

Be prepared.... your permissions are toast. You are going to have to re-group and re permission everything.

Here we go.....

First thing, backup your YaBB Gold/SP1 install, in fact make two backups.

Create a mysql database called "test".

Copy the files for phpbb RC1 to a directory on your web server called: phpbbrc1

Follow the instructions for installing phpbb RC1, and create an admin account (done in installer).

Upload the files and folders from the phpbb>>YaBBsp1 converter into a subfolder of the phpbb folder called "convert" and run the converter (via browser), fill in the requested information, and let her rip. If you have a large board this process will take quite some time. Start drinking the coffee....

The conversion is done... You are wired from coffee.... Now onto more interesting things....

Backup the database called "test"....

Now, create a folder on your web server called "phpbb", copy the files from the phpbb 2.0 RELEASE into that folder. There is a file that goes up with the install called "update_to_FINAL.php". Follow the intructions for UPGRADE which are provided in the release.

(You may see errors in the first stage of the convert- the docs say this can be normal for an upgrade. Make sure there are no errors in the SECOND stage... you'll know it when you see it)

Backup the database, name it "GoldUnaltered.sql"

Now the fun begins....

Go into the admin center of http://yoursite/phpbb (admin center found at the bottom of the phpbb main page after you logon.

Find the page that allows you to "resync" each of the forums/sections. resync everything. Then move all the sections and forums into the order you want them to be in when you convert to vbulletin (This also has the desired effect of re-creating "order numbers" for the forums and sections that were lost in the transition)

Rename your forums and sections (names are set to the cryptic internal names used by YaBB)

Backup your database.

Get some more coffee. Take a break.

Whew- ok now you are back. And now we get to the really hairy part of the whole thing (errr well it could get worse).

You need to have access to either commandline mysql or Web interface for mysql. If you own your server, I like Webmin- since it does everything including apache configuration...

Get into your admin interface and come back to these instructions....

YaBB formats it's data very differently that either phpbb or vbulletin So- read this carefully so you know what the mysql commands are doing.

First off, the conversion to phpbb left a lot of legacy YaBB data in the post fields. This is a problem. This data consists of smileys that no longer exist, formatting tags that are obsolete, "<br>" tags that YaBB ENCODES into the data for line breaks.

For example... go into you phpbb board and find a message long enough to contain line breaks, and edit it. The text that is presented to you has "<br>" tag in it... these have to go or the posts will be really screwed up and crash the vbulletin converter during conversion.

BACKUP YOUR DATABASE: name is GoldenAltered.sql

The command I used for this from webmin (also from command line) to remove the "<br>" tags is:

UPDATE phpbb_posts_text SET post_text = REPLACE(post_text, '<br>', '\n');

Next we have to get rid of the "size" statements which crash the vbulletine converter

Here's the code I used:

PHP Code:

UPDATE phpbb_posts_text SET post_text = REPLACE(post_text, '/size', 'b ');
UPDATE phpbb_posts_text SET post_text = REPLACE(post_text, '[size=]', 'b '); 


I am using "b" as an arbitrary replacement character... I want the content of my YaBB board... a few stray letters is no problem.

Now we have to force a reformat of the "quote" statements which are sill in the phpbb data

The code I used:

PHP Code:

UPDATE phpbb_posts_text SET post_text = REPLACE(post_text, '[quote ', '[quote] ');
[/quote] 


The previous code allows me to make the YaBB quote statments usable in vbulletin. The original YaBB code looks like this:

PHP Code:

[quote author=Maleficus=ASWP= date=04/09/02 at 13:36:21]I was playing some?? 


PHP Code:

 


The final code looks like this:

PHP Code:

[quote] author=Maleficus=ASWP= date=04/09/02 at 13:36:21]I was playing some??[/quote] 


Ok got that done? Go get some coffee, make a pass at the girlfriend, and go irritate a cop... Lemme know when you get back.

Ok back?

Well now you are ready to do a vbulletin install, and convert the data with the "official" phpbb converter.

First: Buy vbulletin....

Then follow vbulletings instructions for installing! I'm not here for that.

Once you have gone through the install process, and made an admin account on vbulletin, you are read to do the conversion....

Do the conversion.....

Note any errors that occur, and which threads they occur in during the conversion. When the conversion process crashes, it give cryptic, but useful information.... if the conversion does halt on you, note the data- and read on....

Smileys:

YaBB smiley suck... only because they mess up vbulletin. The posts I had problems with during the conversion process were ones where users put 5,000,000 smiles next to one another in all shapes and sizes. There was no rhyme or reason to the failure, and no ongoing pattern to the data. Therefor, using phpbb as my "data editor" I deleted any thread that crashed the conversion.

Did the post conversion work? Good! Read on.....

Bigger problems loom on the horizon....

Once the conversion goes through you are given some information which involves using the maintenance features of vbulletin. USE THEM! They rebuild a lot of lost data/post counts that are missing from the data at that point.

Did you board make it through all those rebuilds?

Well then I *think* you are done. Welcome to the 21st century!

NOTE: I'll be revising this tomorrow morning against my dev notes to see if I'm being accurate. This is the "beta" guide to a decidedly "beta" and totally hacky process.

Also this information is "Thank You Ware". If you use this information and get a system up- I want to hear THANK YOU loud and clear. This took four full days of my life to work out... I expect THANK YOU- I deserve THANK YOU- and I WILL get THANK YOU.

My old board is at http://forums.aswp.net/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl

My new board, when I open it to my org, will be at http://forums.aswp.net

You may take a looksie some time tonight....

UPDATE (July 1st 2003):

PLEASE NOTE:

It appears that in this conversion process that Instant Messages get imported into the wrong mailboxes....

BE AWARE!

I have not found a fix for this, and this could compromise security if you have sensitive information in your IMs....

WARNING WILL ROBINSON..... clear the IM's before importing!!

[memobug]

Hi,

I tried it both ways I did do an upgrade to phpFINAL and I did not see any difference in the result. That's why I asked what it was supposed to accomplish.

Passwords were intact in phpBBRC and phpBBfinal, but after the conversion, I couldn't log except as the admin in vBulletin.

Regards,

Matt