Wanted to Convert my Forum frm SMF to phpBB

[bukharifaran]

Hi,

I have a forum which is using SMF script and I wanted to convert it to phpBB. I have 4786 Posts in 1592 Topics by 1116 Members.

Forum URL is: https://www.mobilefun.pk/forum/index.php

I know all the members and posts will be there and there will be no data loss, but I am more concerned about the settings, so I wanted to know a few things before I start.

1. What will be the new URLs? I am not using SE or User-friendly URLs, my forum URLs are simple like /forum/index.php?topic=2545 (an example). Will all these URLs remain the same, or will these URL changed?
2. Will there be any effect on my current search engine rankings?
3. What would be the effect on the member group settings? I have different member groups and different settings for them. For example, the basic group can't post in the forum without approval from moderators until 6 posts. New members can't share a URL to any site until they reach to 20 approved posts. Etc Etc.... Will these settings remain the same? Or do I need to make these settings again?
4. Deleted posts: I have a board, which is used to collect the deleted posts. For example if a forum moderator deletes a post, that post will not get deleted, instead, it will move to a board called "Deleted Posts". This board is only visible to me and from there I can either restore a post or can delete that post permanently. Do I need to implement these settings again or will it keep working on phpBB?
5. I am using a mod on SMF called Simple Portal which is used to use a sidebar, to show different widgets like in WordPress and to put ads on the top of the boards. Will I get any mod like this in phpBB or will I lost that functionality?

[warmweer]

What will be the new URLs? I am not using SE or User-friendly URLs, my forum URLs are simple like /forum/index.php?topic=2545 (an example). Will all these URLs remain the same, or will these URL changed?

They will be changed slightly and will look like the URLs on this board (have alook at the url to this topic, and this post, or forum).

Will there be any effect on my current search engine rankings?

I think it will but that should be temporary.

What would be the effect on the member group settings? I have different member groups and different settings for them. For example, the basic group can't post in the forum without approval from moderators until 6 posts. New members can't share a URL to any site until they reach to 20 approved posts. Etc Etc.... Will these settings remain the same? Or do I need to make these settings again?

The settings will be more or less the same but there are differences in the forum software so a perfect conversion is impossible.

Deleted posts: I have a board, which is used to collect the deleted posts. For example if a forum moderator deletes a post, that post will not get deleted, instead, it will move to a board called "Deleted Posts". This board is only visible to me and from there I can either restore a post or can delete that post permanently. Do I need to implement these settings again or will it keep working on phpBB?

The board 'Deleted Posts' you are referring to? If that is in a different forum (or subforum) within your board then those post will be converted along with the rest. If they are on an external board, they will stay there but the links will remain.
Bear in mind that due to differences in software conversiosn will seldom be able to convert to exactly the same permissions, so you'l have to tweak the permissions a bit (at least check them). This implies you should leave your board closed until you've checked all permissions and consider them satisfactory.

I am using a mod on SMF called Simple Portal which is used to use a sidebar, to show different widgets like in WordPress and to put ads on the top of the boards. Will I get any mod like this in phpBB or will I lost that functionality?[/list]

There are extensions available (or in development stage) that can do that. Have a look in the Extension Forums

[bukharifaran]

Thank you for the response. The drop in ranking because of the changed URL is a bit risky and it will generate 404 errors as well.
What should I do for the 301 redirects? Will there be any way to to redirect /forum/index.php?topic=115.0 to /forum/viewtopic.php?f=115.0 ? I mean the same post on the old forum should redirect to the new URL of the same post?

Regarding the deleted posts by moderators into the board "Deleted Posts", you can see the picture attached.

If any mode deletes a post from the Members Introduction, for them and other members, that post will be deleted, but actually it will move to the "Deleted Posts" board that you can see in the picture. This "Deleted Posts" board is only visible to super moderator mean only to the Owner.

[warmweer]

What should I do for the 301 redirects? Will there be any way to to redirect /forum/index.php?topic=115.0 to /forum/viewtopic.php?f=115.0 ? I mean the same post on the old forum should redirect to the new URL of the same post?

Not sure about that. A redirect for a fixed url to another isn't a problem but you're talking about redirect all :oldudomain/site1specific?variablenumberto :newdomain/site2specific? variablenumber
The redirect from olddomain to newdomain is easy, but keeping the variables?? I'll leave that to others to comment on. I think it can be done but I also think it's a bit complicated and; it it really necessary?

If any mode deletes a post from the Members Introduction, for them and other members, that post will be deleted, but actually it will move to the "Deleted Posts" board that you can see in the picture. This "Deleted Posts" board is only visible to super moderator mean only to the Owner.

Those post are on the same board so they will stay on the same board.
Bear in mind that any interal links posted on your board wil be invalid and even if that redirect could solve it, the best solution would be to replace the (old) links in your board with the new ones.

[genshijin]

Maybe a bit late now but I just spent a lot of time converting from SMF (6 years 1,300 topics,about 8,000 posts) to phpBB.

Simple Portal is not a problem. The recycle bin is imported as another board with the viewing permissions set to admin.
Biggest headache was from links in posts and special bbcode tags not processed properly. Topics and further pages not opening.
Users also reported passwords not working.

PHP Warning: in file [ROOT]/vendor/s9e/text-formatter/src/Utils.php on line 76: DOMDocument::loadXML(): ....

After editing as many out as I can find there are mostly php warnings. I have a few blank pages on search but it is getting acceptable.
Also some links - maybe long ones, that the convertor didn't deal with and these also stopped pages loading as they were corrupted. Took a long time editing 9MB phpbb_posts sql. Some topics which were moved with a redirect topic were also a problem.
I have about 15 missing topics (but show up in board index - nothing in sql database). Out of nearly 1,500 it doesn't seem so bad. I may have lost another 20-30 topics and 100+ posts.

Most of the problems were caused by mods using different bbcode not processed by the convertor or flagged up/ removed.
Things like;

[/CODE],[HIDE], [HIDDEN], [MENTION @username ]

... etc etc. If you used anything like that the posts will not display until you edit out of sql (some are easy search and replace).

Also, I had a lot of trouble converting - only one that worked was using the converter for phpBB 3.0. something. Then upgrading. When I tried it later to fix problems I couldn't get it to work again.
I think I got a conversion to work via MYBB (older version) - then upgrade, then convert to phpBB 3.0.x - then upgrade.
Seems everywhere converters are not being updated.

Look back at your mods that might have used bbcode and delete them from sql before you convert.
There might be better/cleaner conversions by going a roundabout route to another board and finally to phpBB.
Hope it helps.
Andy

[genshijin]

Update

I tried another (test) conversion again (SMF 2.0.15 to phpBB 3.0.14 using smf20_convertor_0.4.4).
Before starting I switched off bbcode and url linking in the SMF Admin panel (post settings). Then edited out all the tags I could find ... previously mentioned and stuff like [ img ] url, color, hr tag, all text markup tags - everything. I did this with a text editor and just search and replace in the database sql file (smf_messages). Drop the one in the database and imported the edited one.

The convertor worked perfectly. All my lost topics and reply posts are there. Now hopefully I can add them to the database to get the main site back 100%

Another Update
I got database update errors trying to go to phpBB 3.2.4 - database update only went as far as 3.1.0-RC6. After that I tried updating to 3.1.12 and that worked. Then to 3.2.4 and that worked.



Another Thing
I'm missing quite a lot of first topics - topic starts with only the replies. It could be some long posts (?) - longer than the limit set in phpbb by default (15000 char). Might be worth raising that before conversion.