Analysis of Migration from SMF to XenForo

[SirLouen]

I'm planning on migrating from my SMF 2.0.15 installation to another forum CMS like XenForo

There are some features I'm currently using, and I would like to know to which extent XenForo could manage to do the same. Here we go

1. The migration process:

A) Apparently, I think it's going to be extremely painful, especially the Pretty URLs migration process since I'm using a not-official mod (SMF does not support Pretty URL). I think I will have to use some SEO tools like Ahrefs so I don't have to adapt 100% of Pretty URL and permit that the new board use their system, except for "top-URL" already relevant to Google

But I would like to know if there is an excellent converter that at least permits:

B) Migration of users (especially considering that some are already "registered" through a plugin called "OneAll Social Login".
I'm currently centralising all the registering process through Google+/FB with this site (OneAll)
So I'm not sure if this would be respected (probably not, so all users that registered with OneAll will lose their accounts on migration)
C) Migration of passwords
D) Migration of Forum, Categories and Subcategories
F) Migration of Posts
G) Migration of Post-Redirects
H) Migration of Bans
I) Migration of some stats (Posts views essentially and posts per user)
J) Migration of user groups (At least basic users + moderators + administrators)

2. Key Features. My board have some features that I've been introducing through several Mods. Some could be trivial but other things not so much.
I would like to know which would stay and which will be lost:

A) Social login through OneAll (in case 1.B it's possible, to keep OneAll or something similar, but users can keep their social access)
B) Gravatar Avatars linked
C) RSS Feed Poster: I have some RSS forums linked to certain parts of the forum. I have a cronjob that checks every X minutes to see if there is a new RSS entry an auto posts the new posts abstract as a new post
D) reCAPTCHA security for sign-ups and new users postings
E) Google Analytics simple integration
F) Simple Embeds (Youtube videos specially, just by posting the youtube video, the video appears)
G) SMTP STARTTLS compatibility (LOGIN+PLAIN modes) for sending emails from the forum
H) A nice "Thanking System"
I) All links are obfuscated by: "Register to see links".
J) Google Schema + Facebook Open Graph + Twitter cards meta generators
K) Possibility of manually managing nofollow links (for example, avoiding that
L) Possibility of manually managing noindex,dofollow pages
M) Possibility of manually managing canonical pages.
N) Related topics in each post
O) Alert system that includes: 1. Mentions (@User) 2. Liked post 3. Replies to one's thread
P) Adsense good Ad Management system (and anti-Adblocker if possible!)
Q) Top Menu Editor (to introduce some redirections or whatever)

3. Minor Features: Any of these will be highly appreciated
A) Disable "last edit" for Administrators: If an admit edit a self-post, or others post no last-edit appears if desired
B) Disable Subject Change for posts with an answer
C) Simple mechanism of changing the Post Authorship to a different member
D) Spoiler BBcode Tags
E) Multi-Quoting system

4. The extra important bit:
There is a particular functionality that we are using a lot: POST PREFIXES
Post prefixes are like a Tag [TAG] that are in front of posts like [Category1] [Category2], and they even have colours
There are multiple categories. This is useful to search for specific type of posts with that tag in front and also useful to quickly identify them
The problem here is that there are like +1.000 posts with this tags, so mainly I would like to know to which extent this could be a hassle and if there is already an integration feature in the system to do this
The mod we are using is: SMF Post Prefix
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=4038

This is all I need for a full "perfect" migration to a new CMS. I know it's pretty a lot, but If I cannot at least get more than what I already have, it doesn't make much sense the considerable effort to switch system. When I created the forum, I never knew it was going to grow enough to be interesting to pay for something more professional with pro-support and all that, but know I think it's an excellent opportunity. We currently have approx. 20K/users per month so it's not a huge forum, but big enough to be taken with more care.

 

[sbj]

Okay, I am bored so I will try to answer your questions.

1.
A) and B)
I can't much comment on the importing part, but as XF2 has no importer for SMF yet, you would have to import to XF1 and then upgrade from XF1 to XF2.
But how the importer does his job, I don't know as you seem to have custom stuff.
There are many people who offer their services and most of them have great reviews. So in case you struggle to manage it, maybe spend some cash and hire someone.

2.
I assume you will upgrade to XF2 and my responses will target that.

A)
I haven't seen an addon which has OneAll integrated. So you wouldn't be able to use that service anymore. But XF2 has its own built-in connected accounts where if you activate them people can login with their Facebook accounts and more. There are also multiple addons which extends this to other services, such as this and some other addons. You have to search the Resource Manager (RM) for more if those are not covering your wishes.

B)
Gravatar is built-in in XF2.


C)
https://xenforo.com/xf2-docs/manual/threads/#rss-feed-importer

D)
You can use reCAPTCHA and other Captcha types for sign ups. But for new users postings you can't use it. You would have to use the spam cleaner tool.
https://xenforo.com/xf2-docs/manual/spam/
Or make their posts moderated until they reach x amount of messages or something.

E)


F)
It is built-in for multiple sites. But there is also a very popular free addon for many other sites.

G)
https://xenforo.com/xf2-docs/manual/options/#email
Not sure if it does what you want.

H)
What do you mean? You can like messages and other stuff. You can rename it to "thanks" if you want.

I)
You need an addon for that. I think there are 2 paid addons which does that but I am not sure.

J)
I don't know.

K-M)
You need an addon, I think @au lait addon does the job and the I) one. But ask him, I wouldn't know for sure.

N)
You need an addon, I think there are 2-3 paid ones out there.

O)
It is built-in.

P)
You can add ads by using HTML to many places but if you are looking for a management system, you need to get an addon. There are 1-2 good paid ones I think.

Q)
Not sure what you mean but there is the navigation manager built-in where you can add your own links to the navigation bar or switch the order.


3.
A)
It is built-in. You can edit "silently" as admins when you check the checkbox while you edit a post.


B)
There is a permission where you can allow people to edit their own thread titles. But you can't make it dependent on if there is a reply or not.

C)
You need an addon. I think there is a free one and a paid one.

D)
It is built-in.

E)
It is built-in.


4.
You probably mean thread prefixes and not post prefixes, right? A thread is a topic you create and a post is every message/reply in a thread.

If so, prefixes for threads are built-in in XF.
https://xenforo.com/xf2-docs/manual/threads/#prefixes

 

[SirLouen]

4.
You probably mean thread prefixes and not post prefixes, right? A thread is a topic you create and a post is every message/reply in a thread.

Yes Thread prefixes

I haven't seen an addon which has OneAll integrated

This is one of the most critical, and I think it will be a deal breaker

Not sure what you mean but there is the navigation manager built-in where you can add your own links to the navigation bar or switch the order.

Yes, Navigation bar

I think you have answered most of my questions. I see it's likely that I will have to be paying more than the single license. I have to do a full budget in this case.

 

[sbj]

This is one of the most critical, and I think it will be a deal breaker

I don't know why you would need a 3rd party service as long as your users can connect with their Facebook, Twitter, Google etc. accounts which you can do on XF?

I see it's likely that I will have to be paying more than the single license. I have to do a full budget in this case.

Yes, very likely. XF2 is a great product but for many stuff you need addons which mostly are paid ones.

 

[SirLouen]

Yes, because for example lets say that the user MR.USER with email: mruser@gmail.com has registered using the plugin with his Gmail account
Then after import, the user clicks on "log-in with Google" so he is expecting to access as MR.USER

Yes, very likely. XF2 is a great product but for many stuff you need addons which mostly are paid ones

This is a little bit paradoxical, because what I'm willing is to bypass paying much more. I can already pay for addons in SMF... so if the budget goes too high, maybe is a bad idea

 

[sbj]

Yes, because for example lets say that the user MR.USER with email: mruser@gmail.com has registered using the plugin with his Gmail account
Then after import, the user clicks on "log-in with Google" so he is expecting to access as MR.USER

But that would be possible with XF. Or am I wrong @Brogan @Chris D ?

 

[Vekseid]

I'm planning on migrating from my SMF 2.0.15 installation to another forum CMS like XenForo

You might want to look at Elkarte. It's a straight upgrade and has a number of important features that Xenforo has (e-mail bounce handling, etc)

There are some features I'm currently using, and I would like to know to which extent XenForo could manage to do the same. Here we go

1. The migration process:

A) Apparently, I think it's going to be extremely painful, especially the Pretty URLs migration process since I'm using a not-official mod (SMF does not support Pretty URL). I think I will have to use some SEO tools like Ahrefs so I don't have to adapt 100% of Pretty URL and permit that the new board use their system, except for "top-URL" already relevant to Google

But I would like to know if there is an excellent converter that at least permits:

Xenforo uses a basic table lookup to handle this. I'm not sure how your mod would integrate with the converter, but fixing the converter to handle this would not be too much of a problem.

B) Migration of users (especially considering that some are already "registered" through a plugin called "OneAll Social Login".
I'm currently centralising all the registering process through Google+/FB with this site (OneAll)
So I'm not sure if this would be respected (probably not, so all users that registered with OneAll will lose their accounts on migration)

Connected account information doesn't transfer. Trying to add stuff to the converter is harder than just modifying existing code, in my experience.

C) Migration of passwords
D) Migration of Forum, Categories and Subcategories
F) Migration of Posts
G) Migration of Post-Redirects
H) Migration of Bans

Yes. Xenforo has an extensible authentication protocol and uses this to use SMF/MyBB/whatnot data for logins.

Sessions are gone, though, so users who are permanently logged in and forget their passwords will need help.

I) Migration of some stats (Posts views essentially and posts per user)

I'm not sure what you mean by post views. Thread views get converted. Note that a lot of stuff that you expect requires rebuilding caches. Xenforo is heavily denormalized.

J) Migration of user groups (At least basic users + moderators + administrators)

User groups carry over, but admins are a different thing and in my experience Xenforo has some curious ideas about who should be admin on conversion. Make sure you double check before opening your forum.

2. Key Features. My board have some features that I've been introducing through several Mods. Some could be trivial but other things not so much.
I would like to know which would stay and which will be lost:

A) Social login through OneAll (in case 1.B it's possible, to keep OneAll or something similar, but users can keep their social access)

Xenforo has its own connected accounts management, though some of it is in extensions.

B) Gravatar Avatars linked
C) RSS Feed Poster: I have some RSS forums linked to certain parts of the forum. I have a cronjob that checks every X minutes to see if there is a new RSS entry an auto posts the new posts abstract as a new post
D) reCAPTCHA security for sign-ups and new users postings
E) Google Analytics simple integration
F) Simple Embeds (Youtube videos specially, just by posting the youtube video, the video appears)

As mentioned all of this is in.

G) SMTP STARTTLS compatibility (LOGIN+PLAIN modes) for sending emails from the forum

Their handler is very heavy compared to SMF/Elkarte. If you're sending a ton of emails on very limited hardware, this may be a bottleneck for you. Otherwise Xenforo is only really missing Elkarte's reply-by-email feature in this regard.

H) A nice "Thanking System"
I) All links are obfuscated by: "Register to see links".
J) Google Schema + Facebook Open Graph + Twitter cards meta generators
K) Possibility of manually managing nofollow links (for example, avoiding that
L) Possibility of manually managing noindex,dofollow pages
M) Possibility of manually managing canonical pages.
N) Related topics in each post

Depending on what you want to do, 'M' is in default, otherwise you'll need addons for much of these, assuming liking is separate from thanks.

O) Alert system that includes: 1. Mentions (@User) 2. Liked post 3. Replies to one's thread
P) Adsense good Ad Management system (and anti-Adblocker if possible!)

Yes, though no anti-adblocker to my knowledge. There is some degree of ad management built in to 2.0, and a major addon for more.

Q) Top Menu Editor (to introduce some redirections or whatever)

Yes, thank heavens.

3. Minor Features: Any of these will be highly appreciated
A) Disable "last edit" for Administrators: If an admit edit a self-post, or others post no last-edit appears if desired

Yes.

B) Disable Subject Change for posts with an answer

Xenforo stores the subject with the title, so there are no subject changes. Have had some whining about this.

C) Simple mechanism of changing the Post Authorship to a different member

Needs addon.

D) Spoiler BBcode Tags
E) Multi-Quoting system

Built in.

4. The extra important bit:
There is a particular functionality that we are using a lot: POST PREFIXES
Post prefixes are like a Tag [TAG] that are in front of posts like [Category1] [Category2], and they even have colours
There are multiple categories. This is useful to search for specific type of posts with that tag in front and also useful to quickly identify them
The problem here is that there are like +1.000 posts with this tags, so mainly I would like to know to which extent this could be a hassle and if there is already an integration feature in the system to do this
The mod we are using is: SMF Post Prefix
http://custom.simplemachines.org/mods/index.php?mod=4038

This is all I need for a full "perfect" migration to a new CMS. I know it's pretty a lot, but If I cannot at least get more than what I already have, it doesn't make much sense the considerable effort to switch system. When I created the forum, I never knew it was going to grow enough to be interesting to pay for something more professional with pro-support and all that, but know I think it's an excellent opportunity. We currently have approx. 20K/users per month so it's not a huge forum, but big enough to be taken with more care.

That looks like thread prefixes. You'll need to modify the converter to import them, but they are built in.