Presale Question

[Feline Forums]

Hey there!

I am a forum owner of 2 years and am currently using Xenforo forum software. Lately, I have become concerned about their slow development pace and have decided to check Invision out. I was wondering, do the importers that come with invision work well for xenforo? How would I go about migration?
Lastly, is there a way to customize the default theme to have an image in the header, like what I saw on this forum?

 

[Feline Forums]

Oh, I forgot: Is there an option to create a footer in the core?

[Jim M]

1 hour ago, Feline Forums said:

I am a forum owner of 2 years and am currently using Xenforo forum software. Lately, I have become concerned about their slow development pace and have decided to check Invision out. I was wondering, do the importers that come with invision work well for xenforo? How would I go about migration?

You can see what our converters can do with XF here: https://invisioncommunity.com/services/convert/

There are quite a few customers who have converted so they can speak out on their personal experiences. We're here for any issues which you may encounter 🙂 .

If you are looking to go with our Cloud platform, you can reach out to our sales team for information on how we process conversions for you.

If you are going self-hosted, you can see some basic instructions in our guides: https://invisioncommunity.com/4guides/getting-started/migrating-from-another-platform/installing-the-converters-r209/

 

1 hour ago, Feline Forums said:

Lastly, is there a way to customize the default theme to have an image in the header, like what I saw on this forum?

Themes have a great deal of customization available. From simply uploading an image for a logo or customizing it all to your liking via CSS or PHTML.

For more info, you can read here: https://invisioncommunity.com/4guides/themes-and-customizations/getting-started-with-themes_324/introduction-to-themes-r108/

1 hour ago, Feline Forums said:

Oh, I forgot: Is there an option to create a footer in the core?

A completely custom footer (like ours here) would require theme customization. However, basic customization like adding copyright and some other small settings is configured in the core software.

[Randy Calvert]

As someone who migrated a site from XF a little more than two years ago, I can say that the converters work well and that the community likes the IPB platform much more.  

[Feline Forums]

Thanks for the quick responses!

I leaning towards going with you guys. My current site is self hosted, so I will use the supplied converters when Installing Invision. I can just install Invision on another directory and then move it to the root of my domain when I am finished, correct?

[Randy Calvert]

It would most likely be better to move all of your XF files into a different folder.  That way you don't have to deal with changing your licensed URL later, or needing to update board paths again, rebuilding the system cache, etc.

I would:

• Move XF into a subfolder (like "old).
• Install IPB in the root.  (Don't forget to choose to download the converters when you download the software!  It's a checkbox that is sometimes easy to miss.)
• Install IPB as normal.  
• Once complete, login to the ACP and do some basic configuration (site name, etc).  I might also create member groups and set their permissions.
• Turn the forum offline.
• Go to the converter section of the ACP and select new conversion and choose XF.  Point it to the database and provide the system paths of the files.  (These will be server paths like /home/username/public_html/old/avatars)
• Once the converter completes, check over the rest of the settings/permissions!  IPB and XFs permissions don't quite match up, so just make sure you don't accidentally expose your moderator forum, etc.  🙂 
• Once everything looks good, turn the forum back online.  

If you ever do a manual upgrade, always make sure to download the converters.  It is what will manage the old redirects for you so if someone goes to an old bookmarked URL that it gets mapped to the right IPB URL.  If you ever remove the converter app, your site will still work...  but all the auto redirects will stop working as there is nothing mapping them anymore.  

Edited April 6, 2023 by Randy Calvert

[Feline Forums]

Sounds good. Afterwards, is it recommended that I delete xenforo files and the database, or should I just put it in offline mode?

Will the upgrade to IPB hurt my site in terms of SEO?

Edited April 6, 2023 by Feline Forums
I had another question :D

[Randy Calvert]

I personally just password protected the folder (htpasswd) so that only those who had the specific password can get to it.  That way if I needed to lookup anything or verify something...  I still had the old site available.  I could go look up what the exact old permissions were, or what I did for emoji, etc.  (Some of my legacy emoji did not transfer easily so I had to tinker with those afterwards.)

I only needed it for about a few days, but I left it around just in case and finally ended up deleting it after about a year.  But that was just for my own peace of mind. 🙂

Regarding SEO...  you might take a temporary hit for a bit as Google has to completely reindex the site, follow redirects, etc.  I felt an impact for about 2-3 months (did I mention Google is SLOW?!) but then it ended up being better ranked than it was before.

[Feline Forums]

Alright, I think I'll do that. Thanks for the help, I'll keep you guys updated on my progress. 🙂