bbPress to XenForo PreSales Query

[bbforo]

Hello All,

I currently have a bbpress forum and I am looking to migrate across to XenForo. The add-ons and themes are very interesting to me.

I know there isn't an official importer from bbpress, but I have seen an unofficial script someone was kind enough to share with other users giving feedback that it works well, so I will try that. Failing that, start from scratch. Anyone had any experience in using the unofficial bbpress to xenforo script?

The main query I have as to whether I buy a licence and use XenForo is... on bbpress you can have reply pages where each reply has its own page to feed through to the main topic. I have searched to see if there is an addon for this functionality but I was unable to find it - possibly as the terms are generic.

Does XenForo (out of the box or via an addon) have the functionality for topic replies to have their own pages? It doesn't matter if it is ".../topic-name-here.4567/94728/", ".../topic-name-here.4567/replies/94728/" or "/replies/94728/"

The last query is regarding website resources. I notice the CSS uses PHP scripts to output. I would prefer these to be static CSS files (in particular if I wanted to host all off the server with a CDN). Anyone have any success in replacing these lines with static files? It doesn't have to be automatic.

 

[Chris D]

I know there isn't an official importer from bbpress, but I have seen an unofficial script someone was kind enough to share with other users giving feedback that it works well, so I will try that. Failing that, start from scratch. Anyone had any experience in using the unofficial bbpress to xenforo script?

It seems there is one hosted here, not sure if that's the one you're referring to:

https://xenforo.com/community/resources/bbpress-importer.5474/

There's not a lot of feedback about it, but it seems like it worked for at least one person. Worth a try, at least

The main query I have as to whether I buy a licence and use XenForo is... on bbpress you can have reply pages where each reply has its own page to feed through to the main topic. I have searched to see if there is an addon for this functionality but I was unable to find it - possibly as the terms are generic.

Does XenForo (out of the box or via an addon) have the functionality for topic replies to have their own pages? It doesn't matter if it is ".../topic-name-here.4567/94728/", ".../topic-name-here.4567/replies/94728/" or "/replies/94728/"

Yes, this is the URL for that:

https://xenforo.com/community/threads/bbpress-to-xenforo-presales-query.130835/reply

(It's the thread URL with /reply appended)

You can also add ?quote=<post_id> to the URL which will take you to a page with the editor populated with the quote of the supplied post ID.

The last query is regarding website resources. I notice the CSS uses PHP scripts to output. I would prefer these to be static CSS files (in particular if I wanted to host all off the server with a CDN). Anyone have any success in replacing these lines with static files? It doesn't have to be automatic.

I'm not aware of anyone doing this. This might not be as simple as you'd expect. The CSS is compiled into executable PHP code and can support dynamic functions executing within them such as dynamically replacing the values of certain CSS properties and objects with entries from our Style Property system on the fly. There's also various caching mechanisms built in so (in theory) there should be little benefit to it (though I also appreciate the need for serving it in such a way is reduced in HTTP/2 HTTPS environments).

 

[bbforo]

Hi Chris, Thanks for your quick reply.

Yes, that is the importer I was referring to. I could alternatively try converting from bbpress to another forum and then converting back over to xenforo if unsuccessful.

I was referring to having the content of each reply on a separate page. It might be best to show you an example as I am probably not speaking too clearly. A random reply example from bbpress website https://bbpress.org/forums/reply/185248/ It shows just the reply, with that respective post ID and no other messages. Although bbpress' implementation is poor of this feature (serves not much of a purpose) it is useful in particular for sharing forum topics with long post messages and most helpful displaying links of similar topics below it.

I am thinking if the "/reply?quote=1158864" can display a quote, with the ability to reply which is great, it must be possible to convert into ".../bbpress-to-xenforo-presales-query.130835/reply/1158864/" with the post content above the reply box. What is important is the ability to view the page without being logged in (absent of the reply box). Is it possible with XenForo to create custom URL structures like this? If so, would it be possible to retrieve neighbouring topics (previous and next) with a post ID?

If the CSS is cached then the page loading speed should be negligible - so not going to be a problem. I appreciate your time I realise I am asking a lot of questions. I don't expect someone to make an immediate update to XenForo with such features for me to buy it but I would like to know whether xenforo allows these abilities, as I don't know if the source code is readable or encrypted etc. or how the coding is tasked. I don't want to buy a licence to find out 5 minutes later it isn't compatible with that I am aiming to do. Thanks for your patience.

 

[Chris D]

Yes, that is the importer I was referring to. I could alternatively try converting from bbpress to another forum and then converting back over to xenforo if unsuccessful.

That’s a fairly common route that people take. It often results in passwords not coming across properly so it would require users to perform a password reset (via the lost password process) before they log in to XenForo the first time. Quietly confident that script ought to work though but of course do lots of testing!

I was referring to having the content of each reply on a separate page. It might be best to show you an example as I am probably not speaking too clearly. A random reply example from bbpress website https://bbpress.org/forums/reply/185248/ It shows just the reply, with that respective post ID and no other messages. Although bbpress' implementation is poor of this feature (serves not much of a purpose) it is useful in particular for sharing forum topics with long post messages and most helpful displaying links of similar topics below it.

I am thinking if the "/reply?quote=1158864" can display a quote, with the ability to reply which is great, it must be possible to convert into ".../bbpress-to-xenforo-presales-query.130835/reply/1158864/" with the post content above the reply box. What is important is the ability to view the page without being logged in (absent of the reply box). Is it possible with XenForo to create custom URL structures like this? If so, would it be possible to retrieve neighbouring topics (previous and next) with a post ID?

Sorry I misunderstood.

That isn’t a feature we have available and I don’t actually recall it being suggested in all these years nor have I seen it implemented in an add on.

On that basis it might be something that you will need to have custom developed.

I appreciate your time I realise I am asking a lot of questions. I don't expect someone to make an immediate update to XenForo with such features for me to buy it but I would like to know whether xenforo allows these abilities, as I don't know if the source code is readable or encrypted etc. or how the coding is tasked. I don't want to buy a licence to find out 5 minutes later it isn't compatible with that I am aiming to do. Thanks for your patience.

If you have programming experience (PHP) and a bit of patience (there’s a bit of a learning curve if you’re not familiar with OOP and MVC methodologies) then what you’re asking for should be fairly straightforward to develop yourself as an add-on. The source code is completely open and unencrypted and we have a powerful framework which allows most parts of the software to be extended.

If you don’t have experience or don’t want to then you could hire someone to do it for you. There’s lots of developers offering their services in the Third Party Service Offers forum and when you are licensed you could post a request in the Custom Service and Development Requests forum.

 

[bbforo]

Hi Chris, thanks a lot for your time. The content retained would be the most important aspect. With the email addresses coming across, as you suggest the users will still be able to gain access to their account.

I didn't think it would be as I did a search on here for quite a while and found nothing. I could look into getting that feature custom developed.

I have some PHP experience so I should hopefully be able to pick up on what I can do to add my required functionality. If not as you suggest I could post a request to get this achieved. You have been a great help, thank you very much.