Exporting SMF 2.x

I see where there is a migration tool for SMF 1.x but not 2.x. I'm really not sold on SMF but have enough content and users that I don't want to start over.

I realize there is a connector but want to move away from SMF.

Anyone know of a 2.x migration tool?

Thanks,

Brad

I might be able to loook into building you an importer next week but this week I am busy busy busy. If you are here Tuesday remind me and I will start work on it then.

Just like that huh? You must be the man!

I'm looking at OCP or Joomla, not a real big fan of Joomla either and SMF just hasn't impressed me.

I run some big sites on IPB's full suite but don't want to invest the money for this project.

I'll check back in next week.

Thanks!

lol No Chris is Da Man! I am just a bumbling fool with a rough grasp on how the importers work so I may be able to help. I like seeing people convert because the bigger the base the better this already awesome product will get.

Ok so I downloaded SMF 2.02 am about to install and start working on importer. I'll let you know when done. (may be a couple days as I have other stuff to do at same time.)

Outstanding! Thanks.

Another question for you since you work with importers. I have a site based on IPB 2.0, it has downloads, galleries and forums but the main source of data is the blog section. We use it as a news section with over 6500 articles going back to 2003. We started way back when with PHPNuke then went to CPGNuke then over to IPB. With the nuke solutions we had categories that had to be dealt with in IPB and of course now we have tags in addition to categories.

How thorough is the IPB converter? I have a second site with over 10k members, has more forum traffic but tons of photos and downloads.. might look at converting there too.

I'd appreciate any input you might have.

In truth my knowledge of the importers is somewhat limited. I helped create a Ravennuke 2.4 importer for someone basing it off the original nuke and phpbb2 importers already existing and of course adding/modifying what was needed to make this work. This gave me a basic understanding of the importers. Enough to work on new ones I hope and at least modifying existing ones enough to be sufficient for version upgrades I hope. As for IPB I haven't looked at it yet either so I can't say for sure its efficiency but I do know that when Chris (Whom I believe wrote the original importers) is very efficient for most things so I have considerable faith that the IPB one is fairly good but likely needing updated as I am sure he wrote it some time ago.

 I would suggest that any importers (including the SMF2 one I am working on) be tested on a sandbox before implementing live and even then don't forget to back up first. If you are willing to work on duplicating your site on a sandbox I am willing to help develop an importer for the IPB as well if needed as I feel these are critical areas to ocPortal to attract more new users and increase its userbase.

I have installed both SMF1 and SMF2 on a local sandbox to discern the DB differences between versions. My goal with the importers is to make them sufficient enough to import the most important data (users and groups and content data etc) but I am not necessarily looking at every possible last bit of structure from one system to the next. For instance permissions will likely need to be done manually after import. Your groups and forums and members will be there and perhaps some permissions but this is an area that may be easier for you to manually review after all the rest is imported than for me to spend a lot of time making sure it is perfect.

You had any time for this?

I have started on it sort of as I decided to write a config importer to help set it up first. Unfortunately I got sidetracked with other issues I had to deal with and was pulled away but am returning to it. I hope by sometime later this week I should have most if not all of it done. Sorry for the delay. I will update you when the progress is more significant.

Hey.. no problem, believe me I understand 'sidetracked' in a big way… my whole life is sidetracked right now.  

I appreciate your time and efforts.

Just an Update. Was working on this but temporary on hold as I have a client project needs working on. Should return to it next week some time.

So you know, it is taking a little longer because instead of delving right in and starting to convert the existing smf importer to work with smf 2 I am building a little class that helps me map config options from one CMS to ocportal first. While this slows down my work on this importer any future importers should be greatly sped up. Not to mention eventually I hope to convert this preliminary work on config matching to expand into a dynamic broad scoped importer that may work for importing nearly any cms automatically or at least help produce new importers with minimal effort.

Not a problem. Again, I appreciate your work. My sites are up and running just fine, we'll get this done when we get it done.

You had any time to work on this? I know what it's like to be busy and certainly understand if you haven't had the time.

I'm about to have some surgery in the next week or two and was hoping to have this to play with during my down time.

I'm so stinking fed up with SMF's borked mods section I can't stand it. I've been a Linux Admin for many years and have worked with every type of php/mysql software out there and have never had the issues that I've had with SMF.

Overall it's not a bad forum script but just has some issues that drive me nuts.

once again, I appreciate your time and efforts. If you were local the steak and whiskey would be on me.

I'm ready to migrate and give OCP a shot.

I actually haven't because of some client issues that had to be done that took much longer than expected. I am hoping to finish delivery on that tomorrow though and your project I am anxious to get to and is my next main goal and hope to have something for you this week.

Well, again, I certainly appreciate it. Let me know if you need anything from me.

Thanks,

Brad

One more here waiting for it. :-) i'm using joomla and smf at the moment and would like to convert to ocportal and ocforum. I already installed ocPortal, now getting used to it…

Wish you good luck with your work!

Picking this up tomorrow. Hopefully it won't take too long once I start back in it. I'll keep you posted.

Just to keep you informed I have been working on this but my approach so far has been to improve the SMF1 importer first as I have found a few bugs and as well am improving it to import and respect  more settings.  For instance Topic Icons where never imported before and now they are (of course being converted to ocp icons) as well as groups that were setup to promote based on points counts - although the group was imported all point count based promotion system was ignored therefor there would be no more auto promotion. I have corrected that and some other issues. I have a couple more issues to work on it and then more testing but once it is done it will make a good base from which to build the SMF2 importer. Will let you know more when I am closer to finished.

This is nearing completion.

I have 2 tasks left to do one of which I am considering not doing upon input from those interested.

Task 1 I still have to import Custom Profile fields from SMF2 to ocPortal - I intend to do this but its a bit of work. Took me forever to figure out where the dang values where stored but I found em.

Task 2 (Which I would  like to skip) is User Subscriptions.
Subscriptions work differently in ocPortal than they do in SMF

Primary differences are:
ocPortal only sets one subscription period but SMF allows multiple - ie different prices for package based on week, month, year type thing
Another problem is ocPortal only allows subscribing to 1 group per subscription where smf allows additional groups for the same subscription. This level of complexity would be very hard to deal with and I just can't see myself enjoying the great amount of time it would take to do this so I'd rather skip it. How important do you feel this area is to the importer?