IP.Board Importer - Feedback Required

Kier

XenForo developer
Staff member
As those of you who run both IP.Board and XenForo will have found out, the forum permission scheme between the two is fairly radically different.

IPB has a concept of permission sets, which are set uniquely on every forum that is created.

XenForo on the other hand starts with a base of user group permissions, and then adds custom forum permissions on a per-group basis if required. If no forum permissions are defined for a particular user group for a particular forum/node, the user group permissions are used.

This leads to a dilemma as to how to import these permissions.

On the one hand, we could import all the permissions verbatim, but this would mean that every user group would have specific permissions set for every forum. While this is possible, it it not the way that XenForo is intended to be used, and may make ongoing management difficult.

Alternatively, we could do a more simple interpretation of the IPB forum permissions and limit the translation to private / public switches and then allow the admin to go through the forums and set up specific permissions as they required.

Thoughts? Ideas?
 
Looks like I'm on my own voting "Verbatim import, setting explicit permissions for every single forum" - I like that with the vBulletin importer, the permissions are already set for me, I'd like the same to be true for the IPB importer, and I think that the Verbatim import would be more accurate
 
Looks like I'm on my own voting "Verbatim import, setting explicit permissions for every single forum" - I like that with the vBulletin importer, the permissions are already set for me, I'd like the same to be true for the IPB importer, and I think that the Verbatim import would be more accurate
More accurate, yes, but highly unmanageable. vBulletin's permissions can be imported relatively easily because it also uses the forum permissions + usergroup permissions model that we follow, while IPB is radically different.
 
I found it not worth trying as if you can't get it 100% admins have to go though and check things anyway - and some have the false sense of security of "Oh the importer does everything I don't have to bother".

Setting all to a configurable default, then making the admin check the forum & user group permissions part of the process worked best in my experience.
 
While I have already imported from IPB I can say I would have rather it done a simple import rather than try to mimic IPB's permissions 100%

Jerry brings up a great point as well, if people think it's importing everything over and it's 'ready to open' then if something is missed it could be a hassle... having the admin take some ownership during the import and checking things is a good idea in my opinion.

Jamie
 
the safest will be the SIMPLE IMPORT
anyway its easy to manage the permissions setting on XF.

talking about import
one thing the biggest problem for importers to xf like me
is the Private Messages imported to XF as Unread conversations
500messages and 500times you need to click leave conversations.
that maybe off topic but somewhat related to importing :)
 
the safest will be the SIMPLE IMPORT
anyway its easy to manage the permissions setting on XF.

talking about import
one thing the biggest problem for importers to xf like me
is the Private Messages imported to XF as Unread conversations
500messages and 500times you need to click leave conversations.
that maybe off topic but somewhat related to importing :)
My IPB importer retains the read-state of your conversations.
 
I don't have IPB, so won't be importing from it, but this right here, says it all for me:
On the one hand, we could import all the permissions verbatim, but this would mean that every user group would have specific permissions set for every forum. While this is possible, it it not the way that XenForo is intended to be used, and may make ongoing management difficult.
If I were someone importing from IPB, I would rather start the permissions from scratch, ensuring that everything is done correctly and at the same time, making it possible to make changes in the future with minimum effort.
 
While I have already imported from IPB I can say I would have rather it done a simple import rather than try to mimic IPB's permissions 100%

Jerry brings up a great point as well, if people think it's importing everything over and it's 'ready to open' then if something is missed it could be a hassle... having the admin take some ownership during the import and checking things is a good idea in my opinion.

Jamie
I don't have IPB, so won't be importing from it, but this right here, says it all for me:

If I were someone importing from IPB, I would rather start the permissions from scratch, ensuring that everything is done correctly and at the same time, making it possible to make changes in the future with minimum effort.

/Agreed with the above and with Jerry.

I'd far rather go though a process of manual permission review to make sure they are setup correctly in the XF paradigm. I think it's a case of short term vs long term, and I'll always tend to favor the long term solution. I wouldn't want admins to form a bad impression of how XF handles permissions, when the difficulties they encounter would actually be an artifact of the Migration rather than the XF permission system itself.

I voted: Simple import and make it clear that IPB imports need the admin to review the permissions.
 
This won't apply to me since I went IPB -> vB -> XF. But IPB has awkward permissions.. loved the way vB did and and now love the way XF has done it. Very simple and straight forward and that's how I like it :D
 
I also have a very complex and unique set of permissions that have built up over time... I know that the Xenforo permissions will never be the same, as it uses a different concept of permissions, so I say just stick to the usergroups and secondary usergroups and leave the more exotic permissions to the admin, as they will never be replicated anyway.
 
Looks like I'm on my own voting "Verbatim import, setting explicit permissions for every single forum" - I like that with the vBulletin importer, the permissions are already set for me, I'd like the same to be true for the IPB importer, and I think that the Verbatim import would be more accurate

I agree with you.
 
I won't be using the importer but I voted the simple option.

Providing support for the complex option would be more work if all of the settings aren't preserved exactly.

Even then, they will still have to be checked thoroughly, just to be sure - how many admins would do an import and take a board live without checking all permissions?
So you might as well do the configuration from scratch if you have to check everything anyway.
 
My IPB importer retains the read-state of your conversations.

ive done 4 sites converting from phpbb -->vb-->xf
all private messages in their inbox goes to unread state.

thats a good news for IPB importer then :)
again im going Offtopic here but somewhat related to importing.
Bulk "Leave Conversation" checkbox should be implemented on next upgrade
 
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