Question concerning the conversion of phpBB2

[WiZaRd]

Well, I wonder if someone has some experience with this and can help me out...

I currently have an Orion phpBB2 forum but I want to update to phpBB3. I already installed the new forum and tested around. A first conversion showed that the script can't detect the subforum feature of the Orion forum but that's not that a big deal, I'll try to rewrite the conversion script.
The main concern is, that I tried around a bit with the forum and I have several posts and users in the database. Will conversion work regardless the existing data (simply drop it) or do I have to use a "clean" phpBB3 version as a base?

[Mike]

If memory serves, the phpBB3 upgrade requires you set up a clean phpbb3 install, which it then uses to upgrade your existing site... If you only have access to one database, an alternate method is required... Assuming you can setup a second database the process is as follows...

1) Install a new phpBB3 install...
2) When you complete this, you will have an option to upgrade...
3) You tell the system the location of the old database and it imports the data... If it fails you loose nothing...

The method I use:
To ensure an almost perfect (perfect, in most cases) why not do it locally?

Do you have a local server set up?
If not... download WanpServer and install it.... only takes a few minutes...

Windows version:
Install to c:\wamp ... (if the default install suggest another folder change this to c:\wamp ... this will save time later on)...

Download the phpBB3 (3.0.7PL1) archive and extract... this should result in a folder called phpBB3...
Copy the contents of this folder to: c:\wamp\www\phpbb3 (note don't copy the phpBB3 folder itself, just the files)...

Become familiar with wamp:
Start wamp and browse to 127.0.0.1 (http://127.0.0.1 or localhost).
In your projects you should see: phpbb3... click it and install phpbb3...

When you comfortable with it, you can build a local copy of your site and upgrade without fear of loosing anything...
Post back when ready and we will do the next step....

In the mean time some additional info: Setting up a local server

[WiZaRd]

Well, yes, I've WAMP running... guess I'll just have to try it out, no?
It's a bit annoying because I did quite some changes to the board already (updates, hacks, etc.) and I don't want to lose those

[CaNNon]

The object would be to get the db updated, the code/mods would be obsolete in phpbb3 the code is just not compatible.

[WiZaRd]

Eurrrrr no, I meant that I added functions to the NEW board and don't want to lose them, now.
E.g. I'd have to re-install SGP and re-adjust all blocks - I want to save me from that work

[Mike]

Strangely enough... you could loose all other mods but as Stargate handles its own mods/blocks you would not loose any...
Backup all stargate tables...
Run the stargate removal tool...
Re add with AutoMod and the latest version...
Compare the stargate tables structure to see if anything was added or removed...
Manually edit the tables if needed and import them... (I can help here)...
You should end up with all you old block intact...

[WiZaRd]

Well, good news!

I tried a conversion today on my WAMP server and it worked pretty well
The greatest part is, that it actually worked with the test board, it simply deleted all users, posts and forums - great

The "bad" part is, that I have noticed 2 annoyances:
The first one is a minor one: even though I set the smilies per page to 10 via ACP it still shows a LOT of smilies (50!?) when trying to post a new thread... is this a bug or intentionally? If so: how can I change that?

The 2nd is due to the old forum being ORION based. The Orion forum included a subforum feature which was MASSIVELY used in my old forum, so I wanted to take them over and not re-assign all forums manually.
I changed the functions_phpbb20.php of the convertor as follows:

// Now insert the forums
$sql = 'SELECT f.forum_id, f.forum_parent, f.forum_name, f.cat_id, f.forum_desc, f.forum_status, f.prune_enable, f.prune_next, fp.prune_days, fp.prune_freq FROM ' . $convert->src_table_prefix . 'forums f
LEFT JOIN ' . $convert->src_table_prefix . 'forum_prune fp ON f.forum_id = fp.forum_id
GROUP BY f.forum_id, f.forum_parent, f.forum_name, f.cat_id, f.forum_desc, f.forum_status, f.prune_enable, f.prune_next, f.forum_order, fp.prune_days, fp.prune_freq
ORDER BY f.cat_id, f.forum_order';
...
...
'parent_id' => (int) ($row['forum_parent'] == 0 ? $cats_added[$row['cat_id']] : $row['forum_parent']),

Basically this seems to work - as long as I look into my database... in the forum, however, the result isn't always correct. For example some subforums are added to a forum that had no subforums... the funny part is, if I check out the forums in question in ACP then the CORRECT forum has the proper subforums - but on index, it's wrong...
Does someone has an idea? I guess I'll try and ask on phpBB.com, too

[Mike]

Did you re-sync forums?

[WiZaRd]

Yes, I did... but I obviously missed some SQL commands. I found a conertor on the phpBB forums that supports Simple Subforums and works fine with Orion, too
So the only problem is the one with the smilies...

[Mike]

What's the smilies issue?