Help converting webwiz 7.9 (ASP) to phpBB 3.0

[smudgeroo]

I am currently using webwiz 7.9 - which is an ASP based forum , but i will soon be moving the website to a PHP server, and would like to move to phpBB 3.0.x

is it possible to keep all my old posts / member accounts ?

[AllenTriumph]

Don't know whether this is too late for you, but I recently converted my old Web Wiz forum to phpBB2 then upgraded to phpBB3.
If you still want help then I'll try and take you through it in layman's terms (I am a layman).

[BritInVA]

I'm also in process of moving from Web Wiz 3.9 (MS Access) to phpBB. Its a very small Community HOA site. Appreciate any guidance on how to do this too.

Thanks,
Mark

[AllenTriumph]

Okay. A few things before you start:
1. You need to set aside a clear day to make sure you can concentrate on the task at hand. You will need to take your Web Wiz forum offline while you do the conversion so that no posts are made during the time you are working.
2. You need to have full admin access to your SQL databases on your new phpBB forum server and a tool called phpMyAdmin. This is so you can import the old Web Wiz database tables into the new one.
3. You need to be able to download the Access database file from your existing forum to your PC and preferably be able to open it and modify it with Access or some compatible tool.
4. You need a tool to convert your Access db to a MySQL db. The tool I used was from Intelligent Converters (www.convert-in.com) for which I paid $29 - it was worth it, I wasted hours with a free one that didn't work properly.
5. You need a conversion script that will convert your [converted] Web Wiz tables into phpBB tables. I will attach the one I used in the next post.
6. You need to inform all your current members that the conversion will be taking place and ask them to make sure that their registered email address on their profile is up to date. One of the side effects of conversion is that they will lose their passwords so it's important that they are able to have a new password sent to them by the system.

If you are able to do the above, I'll continue with part two

[BritInVA]

Yes do have full access to both thw Access and MySQL databases......I plan on taking the old forum of line in the week prior to full transfer at which time I can convert databases.

Intrigued to find out more.

Cheers,
Mark

[AllenTriumph]

Okay,
I've found the convert_webwiz.php file that I used. It needs to be modified, I'll try to give you instructions in ta later post.
File is attached (I think).

[AllenTriumph]

Oh yeah, you also need this:

[AllenTriumph]

So, step one:

Make sure you're all backed up on your Web Wiz forum. Compact and repair the database and download a copy of the Access db to your PC.

Open the db in Access and modify/add tables as per the following (Full credit to hoberin and filex for instructions):

- Added tblModerator (since webwiz did not have this table) with columns “Forum_ID" and "Author_ID" with no data.
- Added column Guest in tblForum with no data.
- Added column Email_notify in table tblThread.
- Added column Status in table tblAuthor

So having done the above you can then save the Access database (give it a new name so you don't overwrite the original) then use your Access to MySQL converter (Intelligent Converters as advised) to convert the file. Just use the default settings.

This will output an SQL dump of your Web Wiz database. Keep in a warm place, you will need this soon.

Step two follows.

[AllenTriumph]

Step two:

Install a lovely fresh phpBB 2.x to an available database on your server (you can use an installer such as Fantastico if provided by your host company, but phpBB advise you do full install as instructed).

Make a note of all paths, usernames and passwords associated with the install/database creation.

Don't create any forums or categories, just leave as is.

[AllenTriumph]

Step three:

Using your host cpanel and phpMyAdmin, open up the database of your fresh phpBB 2.x install.
What you are going to do now is import your converted Web Wiz SQL tables into the same database, alongside the existing phpBB tables.
Use the import function within phpMyAdmin, browse to your Web Wiz SQL dump that you've been keeping warm and execute the import.
All should go smoothly and you should see your WebWiz tables at the bottom of the list on the left hand side.

The next step is to run the convert script to merge the data from the Web Wiz tables into the correct phpBB tables.

[AllenTriumph]

Step 4:

Before uploading the UCS and converter script to your server, you need to modify (open up the file with your preferred editor) it as per the following instructions (full credit to IngerK via filex):

- All the places with time/date in convert_webwiz.php in the arrays changed it TO
array('post_time' , 'UNIX_TIMESTAMP(tblThread.Message_date)'

- In webwiz_prepare_messages function changed:
return prepare_messages($Message, TRUE, TRUE, TRUE, make_uid())
TO
$myvar = make_uid();
return prepare_messages($Message, TRUE, TRUE, TRUE, $myvar)

You can then upload the files to your server. Read the instructions in the READ ME file which is contained within the common_ucs folder. This will tell you where to put the files and where to put the convert_webwiz.php file so that it is available to the converter.

Once you have uploaded everything to the correct place, you can run the UCS script by inputting the path to the converter in your browser address bar (typically it would be something like http://www.yoursite.com/forum/convert/index.php)

I think what I had to do at this point was to copy the entire Web Wiz forum folder from the old server to the new server, i.e. in the public_html directory I had the full Web Wiz folder alongside the phpBB folder.

This allowed me to input the correct relative paths into the UCS fields (see below). If I remember correctly you need to put in the relative path from phpBB to Web Wiz.

Fill in the fields (as per instructions from filex):

- leave table prefix blank
- For old forum URL: http://www.yoursite.com/oldforum
- For old forum path: ../oldforum/

Once you have put the right thing in, it will execute the convert script. At this point you should be able to access the converted forum and see if the topics, posts and members have transferred into phpBB.

The only thing you need to do now is make yourself an administrator by going directly into the forum database using phpMyAdmin, finding your username in the users table and change the user_level to 1 (thanks to Lumpy Burgertushie).

Essentially you should be where you want to be now. Your users will have to update their passwords, you may have to check their ranks and groups and reset them manually.

[AllenTriumph]

Step 5.
Once you're happy with your phpBB 2.x forum, you can then convert to phpBB 3 which is well documented elsewhere.

I hope I've covered the essentials for you, sorry for being a bit vague on the final UCS settings in terms of what to put into the fields but I'm a bit hazy about that bit.

Main thing is, it is possible, and if I can do it (never touched php, SQL, Access or any of this server side malarkey before), then anyone persistent enough can.

Good luck

[BritInVA]

Thanks for detailed instructions - will report back.

Cheers,
Mark

[BritInVA]

Quick Question, the server we are moving to is Unix so in the IC Access to MySQL converter should I select Unix Style for Line Breaks of leave a default Windows Style?

Cheers,
Mark

[AllenTriumph]

Not sure but you're not going to do any damage by trying both. If one doesn't work just start from scratch.