YaBB 2.4 to SMF: Any luck?

[mrtoner]

Has anyone had luck migrating from YaBB 2.4 to SMF? I'm using the YaBB 2.2 converter with some success, with convert.php from here and yabb22_to_smf.php from here (please let me know if those are not the most recent). I was converting after installing a fresh copy of SMF 1.1.10.

I needed to make a change (in several places) to yabb22_to_smf.php to get it to work; I changed all occurrences of file($yabb[...) and dir($yabb[...) to file('/home/my_acct/public_html/' . $yabb[...)  and dir('/home/my_acct/public_html/' . $yabb[...) (probably due my specific YaBB installation). Also, there appears to be a bug in convert.php at line 1817: $from_prefix should be $to_prefix.

After making those changes the converter runs, but I get two series of notices:

Notice: Undefined index: userpic_width in /home/my_acct/public_html/smf/yabb22_to_smf.php on line 441
Notice: Undefined index: userpic_height in /home/my_acct/public_html/smf/yabb22_to_smf.php on line 442
Notice: Undefined index: userpic_width in /home/my_acct/public_html/smf/yabb22_to_smf.php on line 443
Notice: Undefined index: userpic_height in /home/my_acct/public_html/smf/yabb22_to_smf.php on line 444

and

Notice: Undefined offset: 8 in /home/my_acct/public_html/smf/yabb22_to_smf.php on line 1343
Notice: Undefined offset: 7 in /home/my_acct/public_html/smf/yabb22_to_smf.php on line 1345
...


Neither one is particularly important to me, but the indices and offsets probably should be fixed for others.

Okay, once the conversion was "complete," I received this error when I logged in:

You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ' 22, 1)' at line 3
File: /home/my_acct/public_html/smf/Sources/MessageIndex.php
Line: 103

Note: It appears that your database may require an upgrade. Your forum's files are currently at version SMF 1.1.10, while your database is at version 1.1.9. The above error might possibly go away if you execute the latest version of upgrade.php.

Any suggestions on what might be done to fix this error?

Member groups converted with some problems; members converted with some problems; settings I haven't checked; personal messages converted with some problems; boards and categories appear to be okay; topics didn't convert at all; posts did not convert at all; attachments I'm not sure about; and polls, choices, and votes I'm not sure about.

I'd be happy to start separate topics to address each of these table conversions. As I'm new here, what would the powers that be prefer that I do?

[Norv]

Hello there!
There will be no need to make different topics, I'm afraid the converter may have not been tested for a while and I'm not sure if it was at all on yabb 2.4. I will try to look into this, but I will try to do so tomorrow I think. The informations about the workarounds you tried already may be useful!
The files you were using should be practically the latest files for SMF 1.1.10, so I'm afraid there should not really be a problem there.

[HighAce]

Just wondering if there is any info on when a converter will be available for YaBB 2.4??

I have a YaBB 2.4 forum that i really want to convert over to SMF but just waiting on the converter, i tried putting my forum back to YaBB 2.2 and then using the Yabb 2.2 to SMF 1-1-10 converter but i don't think it liked going from 2.4 back to 2.2 as it had a few errors and some boards, posts and PM's went missing so i have put it back to 2.4 for now.

Really hoping you SMF guys can come up with a converter for YaBB 2.4 soon  , i so want to use SMF but i'm stuck at the moment and so far you guys are the only one's i know that actually have a YaBB converter!

Here's hoping one for 2.4 will be out soon. 

[Norv]

Due to unforeseen RL work circumstances, I've been very busy lately and couldn't do all necessary to start working on this. Yet, I have time now and I am trying to catch up delayed projects, including this converter, but I'm afraid I can't tell when it'll be though.

[globetrotting]

Hi,
I just wanted to point out that there a more folks (like me) out there waiting for a safe opportunity to convert their YaBB 2.4. to SMF.
Please don't forget us and keep us posted about progress made in this regard.
Thank you

[HighAce]

Hi Globetrotting,

Yes i understand how eager you are to have this converter finished off, we all are!    , i know of at least 9 people who are waiting to convert to SMF, unfortunately though Norv has been extremely busy as well as being away for a while, however i believe he is back working on this converter again as i had a PM from him the other day saying he was going to try and get it it finished off soon, so fingers crossed he will be able to, i know a lot of people are waiting on him to get this done but we must understand that he also has other commitments and jobs to do as well so we must be patient.

He has done such a fantastic job so far and it's a real change to have such great support compared to YaBB, so it will be worth the wait!

To keep up to date on this please see my other thread i originally started, this will be kept up to date on the converters progress or as things get fixed or tested: http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=350822.msg2621439#new , however please note that the last post i made needs to be updated as the fix i found for the PM's, well at least in my instance, did not work after all.

Regards.

Hi,
I just wanted to point out that there a more folks (like me) out there waiting for a safe opportunity to convert their YaBB 2.4. to SMF.
Please don't forget us and keep us posted about progress made in this regard.
Thank you

[mrtoner]

Patience is not one of my strong suits.  That's why I PMed Norv to see if waving money at him would make a difference  , but he's apparently been too busy to respond. Or he ignores PMs (understandable).

If another developer wanted to take this on, I wonder if a sizable bounty could be raised as an incentive?

[HighAce]

I don't think Norv is ignoring PM's, he is just really busy, and i think still out of town?

I really understand where your at, i have a YaBB forum which is causing issues with my hosting provider because of the flat file system it uses, it's putting undue load on their servers so they are asking me to fix it, remove the forum or they will close my account until it is fixed, thankfully though i have asked them to hold off a little while longer in the hope that Norv (or another Dev) can get the convert file fixed.

I also thought about waving money around but if people are busy they are busy, i doubt any amount can rearrange peoples busy lives, however once the convert file is completed and working i do plan on donating some money to either SMF or to whom ever gets it finished (their choice), not as a bribe to get it done any quicker but to show my appreciation for the work that has gone into it, i spent hours myself going through the code and while i did have a little success it was short lived and i understand now just how much time you can spend on it looking for bugs or problems.

So i know how you feel, i'm itching to dump YaBB and get SMF going as soon as i can, but we just have to be patient a little while longer, i'm sure Norv will be on to it just as soon as he possibly can, so hang in there, it will be worth the wait!

Patience is not one of my strong suits.  That's why I PMed Norv to see if waving money at him would make a difference  , but he's apparently been too busy to respond. Or he ignores PMs (understandable).

If another developer wanted to take this on, I wonder if a sizable bounty could be raised as an incentive?

[HighAce]

Well unfortunately it looks like i have run out of time!

I had a final demand email today from my hosting provider saying that if my YaBB forum was not fixed or removed within 48hrs they would have no choice but to suspend my account, apparently it is just causing to much of a load and they are not prepared to wait any longer for me to fix it, which i think is fair enough as if it's putting a strain on there server it must be impacting on other peoples accounts, so i can't really jump up and down at that.

So what am i going to do? , well my plan (only one) now is to just install SMF and restart my forum from scratch, there are going to be quite a few unhappy members but i have no alternatives or options left, however i will be making a complete backup of my YaBB forum in the hope that when the YaBB to SMF converter is completed down the track i may be able to salvage the 15000+  posts and topics, if not, well i guess that's life. 

[mrtoner]

In the meantime, what you may want to do is put YaBB into read-only mode so that your content is still accessible.

[HighAce]

Well i will be today making a complete back up of the YaBB forum and storing it away safe, once the converter is hopefully finished off i will then install YaBB just for the purpose of doing a convert and (hopefully) retrieving the posts and other information, but yes for the time being while setting up a new SMF forum the YaBB one will be in read-only mode, thanks for the suggestion.

In the meantime, what you may want to do is put YaBB into read-only mode so that your content is still accessible.

[mrtoner]

Well, I ended up hiring a programmer on Elance.com to convert my YaBB 2.4 installation to SMF. He did some work on the converter that I referenced above; I've attached it here for your use. (convert.php is included, although it's unchanged.)

Although the converter did transfer my boards, topics, posts, private messages, and members, there are some known issues:

• The converter still references YaBB 2.2
• YaBB avatars are not moved
• "Most Online Ever" is not updated
• The converter doesn't know what to do with topics that have been moved in YaBB
• There's some commented out debugging code included

To deal with the avatars, I created a "YaBB" directory in the "avatars" directory, and copied the YaBB avatars there. Then I ran this SQL query to update the location:

Code Select Expand

UPDATE `smf_members` SET `avatar` = CONCAT('YaBB/',`avatar`) WHERE `avatar` NOT LIKE CONVERT( _utf8 '%http://%' USING latin1 )

(Your mileage may vary using the CONVERT command. My SMF database uses the UTF-8 character set.)

To deal with "Most Online Ever," I took the values from my YaBB index page, ran the date through a timestamp converter, and put those values in the mostOnline and mostDate variable in smf_settings.

I believe this fixes the previously noted bug with member groups: "At this time there may be a bug with membergroups not creating post count based groups on their actual post based group numbers."

Oh, please note this was tested using SMF 1.1.11. (I'll upgrade to 2.0 as soon as it's out of RC status.)

I did spend some money, obviously. If you find this converter useful, I'd ask that you chip in to defray my costs at http://don.chipin.com/yabb-24-to-smf-converter

[HighAce]

I'm really glad you had luck with yours, but i decided to give up with mine.

However i had a chat with a Dev on PHPBB and he was kind enough to offer to write a converter for YaBB 2.4 to PHPBB3, it should be ready for me to test out soon and once it's working it will be available for public use, he is though only writing it to convert from YaBB 2.4 i believe so those with lower versions will need to update prior to converting.

I'll let people know when it's available as i know a lot of unhappy YaBB users are busting to get away from it so it's good other forum developers are starting to listen and do there own converters, i really didn't care what forum software i went to so long as i got away from YaBB!!

[mrtoner]

Another issue: the converter doesn't change any messages in links that point to the old YaBB forum. I don't think this would be a trivial task; here's what I did instead:

- I kept my old YaBB installation, putting it in a 'YaBB' directory off of the root directory (where SMF is installed)

- I put an .htaccess file in the directory where YaBB used to be installed (the root directory):

Code Select Expand

# Rewrite old YaBB incoming links
RewriteEngine  On
RewriteCond   %{REQUEST_URI}   /YaBB\.pl
RewriteCond   %{REQUEST_URI}   !/YaBB/(.*)
RewriteRule   ^(.*)$   YaBB/$1 [L]

This handy snippet rewrites the old links to point to the new location. Basically, it looks to see if 'YaBB.pl' is in the URL; if it is, and the URL doesn't already contain the 'YaBB' directory, it redirects the browser to that directory with the same REQUEST_URI.

- I changed the permissions on all my YaBB boards to allow only the Forum Administrator to post new topics or replies.

- I disabled forum registration.

- I created a news item, displayed in red and bolded, that informs users about the change in forums and the restrictions in place on the YaBB forum.

[sandrabright10]

I have also faced same problem earlier and lastly I gave up! Thank you to dig this up! I am also waiting for help.

[mrtoner]

However i had a chat with a Dev on PHPBB and he was kind enough to offer to write a converter for YaBB 2.4 to PHPBB3

I really had a choice to make, between SMF, IP.Board, vBulletin, and phpBB. I could have gone with any of them; I had developers willing to convert to any platform. In the end I went with SMF, since I wanted the Ad Seller Pro mod. IP.Board has a similar module, but at the moment I'm keeping my costs low.

[HighAce]

I have also faced same problem earlier and lastly I gave up! Thank you to dig this up! I am also waiting for help.

I know and understand that the SMF Dev's who are were working on it are busy and more than likely have other higher priorities and that is fair enough, unfortunately it got to the stage where i could no longer hold off and had to approach someone else to get a converter done, the PHPBB Dev even suggested if i couldn't wait a bit longer for him to do the converter then i could start a new PHPBB3 board right away and then when he finished the converter he could write a script to merge the converted YaBB board into the new PHPBB3 board keeping info from both, however as the converter is under way and i hope to be testing soon i decided to hold off and wait a bit longer, just knowing it's being worked on and being kept up to date on it is enough for me.

I do appreciate the work the guys here did on their converter and i'm sure when it does get finished it will be a great converter and highly sought after by a lot of YaBB users!

[SHADOLibrarian]

Well I just used the 2.4 converter - not a single message was converted. - But I also know there are issues with my hosting service. If I can get the converter to work on a different server, can I just upload the changes?

[mrtoner]

Well I just used the 2.4 converter - not a single message was converted. - But I also know there are issues with my hosting service. If I can get the converter to work on a different server, can I just upload the changes?

Nor sure what you're asking. You could try the converter on another server (although I don't know why the files I posted above wouldn't work on your server) and then take that database to your first server, I suppose.

[[email protected]]

Well, I ended up hiring a programmer on Elance.com [nofollow] to convert my YaBB 2.4 installation to SMF. He did some work on the converter that I referenced above; I've attached it here for your use.

Do you have any idea if your converter will work on YABB 2.5?