Converting from SMF 1.1

[b0x]

I've done a few test conversions from SMF 1.1 and I must say I'm pretty impressed with the converter. The thing I like most is that the converter preserves the passwords.

During my test conversions I ran into a few issues. The first few times I ran the converter, it hang when converting the posts. It turned out I had a post on my forum where a member tried to embed a photo using bcc codes. The post ended with

Now that I've got everything converted I'm going over the forum to see what's been missed. The only issues that I have discovered so far, are:

/[img[

 and the converter didn't like it, but this was easily fixed by editing the post and removing the tag. The next errors I encountered were related to polls. It seemed there were a few duplicate, orphaned polls so I just deleted the ones the converter had problems with. These issues were easy to fix.

[*]Personal Messages were converted but are nowhere to be found (although there was an error which I'll have to look up)

So far so good. If I can get the above two issues sorted, I only have to come up with a strategy for letting the search engines know about the restructured URLs (going from www.mysite.com/forums to forums.mysite.com) and create some smart re-directs. Just a few more weeks...


Edit: the passwords don't seem to be preserved after all! Am I missing something?

[*]Signatures were converted, but ended up under 'About Me' in the user's profile and don't show up under posts

[Mark]

I'm glad your overall impression of the converters is positive :)

For those couple of issues - could you send in a ticket? I've not heard of those happening before, but if I have access to the site I can work out what happened and touch up the converters if need be.
Just ask for it to be sent over to the conversions department and it will find it's way to me.

As for passwords, they definitely should be working, again, a ticket will allow me to fix that.

[b0x]

Thanks Mark. I've resolved the personal messages issue (sorry, I had a major brain fart) and I had another look into the signatures issue. The signatures don't show by default after the conversion, but if I edit an old post I do have the option the add the signature and when I tick the box the signature shows up. Is there a way (other than running a sql query) to enable signatures for all converted posts? Or better yet, is there a global setting that enables signatures in all posts if the user has a signature?

The password issue is still baffling me. After the conversion I removed the converter directory as per the directions on the dashboard. I also uninstalled the conversion app. Maybe this is where I went wrong? I'll do a few more test conversions next weekend and if the problem persists, I'll open a ticket. Just a quick question: how does auth.php know what board I converted from? Is this stored in the database?

[Mark]

For the signature issue: that's a known bug. You need to run an SQL query on the posts table (I think it's the use_sig column needs to be set to 1).

For the login issue: you shouldn't have uninstalled the converter app. The converter application keeps a record of the conversion, so when you log in, the authentication logic sees you ran a conversion, and applies the correct login function for the software you converted from. But when you uninstall an application, all it's data is deleted.

[b0x]

Cool, I'll test the conversion again next weekend and let you know how it goes. Thanks for all you help, I really appreciate it!

[b0x]

I did a few more test migrations. Two accounts that have the same password failed to log me in. A third account with a different password logged me in straight away. The accounts that failed have a ! in the password. Could that have anything to do with the issues I'm experiencing?

[Mark]

Possibly, if you submit a ticket I can have a look into it :)

[b0x]

[quote name='Mark' date='25 August 2009 - 10:59 PM' timestamp='1251205179' post='1848756']
Possibly, if you submit a ticket I can have a look into it :)


Alright, you've talked me into it. ;) I'll be submitting a ticket somewhere in the next few days.

[b0x]

I finally converted my SMF forum to IP.Board last weekend. On top of that I also moved from shared hosting to a VPS. It was a lot of work but other than a few little issues, the conversion went pretty smooth. All thanks to your great converter, Mark.

[Mark]

Glad to hear it :D

Let us know if you need anything else.