Import from VB 3.8.x and Photopost?

[AnimeAi]

I'm currently planning to upgrade two large sites which are running on VBulletin 3.8.x and Photopost 7.x to Xenforo and media gallery.

Is there a built in importer in Xenforo 2.x for these?

I appreciate that all the other existing modifications installed will likely not have any viable upgrade paths but it is critical that these two have a simple method of upgrade.

The main other modification I would like to import would be "DownloadsII 5.1.2" into Xenforo Resources - is there a built in importer for this?

 

[Alpha1]

In XF1, there is an inbuilt importer for Photopost Pro as well as vbulletin profile albums.
For Downloads II to XF1 you need this: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/downloadsii-xenforo-resource-manager-importer.4465/

I dont think anything is available for XF2 yet. You could import into XF1 and then upgrade.

 

[AnimeAi]

In XF1, there is an inbuilt importer for Photopost Pro as well as vbulletin profile albums.
For Downloads II to XF1 you need this: https://xenforo.com/community/resources/downloadsii-xenforo-resource-manager-importer.4465/

I dont think anything is available for XF2 yet. You could import into XF1 and then upgrade.

Wow, that's amazing. If there are importers for all that it may well have tipped my hand on which software to recommend to my team for this upgrade.

Looks like it'll be a two step upgrade with first a conversion to xenforo 1.x then to 2.0... This will take a long time for my big boards.

How seamless is the upgrade from xf1 to xf2? Will a two step upgrade likely cause me any issues over a single conversion straight to xf2 from vb?

 

[Chris D]

To be honest, the import process from your old software will be by far the longest part of the process. The eventual upgrade from 1.5 to 2.0 should take no more than about 30 - 60 minutes depending on the size of your forum.

 

[AnimeAi]

Site 1 has Members: 66,216; Threads: 24,010; Posts: 2,793,744; Photos 46,870; photo Comments 251,932

Site 2 has Threads: 21,609, Posts: 2,434,012, Members: 56,715; Photos 23,335; photo Comments106,574

Site 3 has
Members: 144,449; Threads: 4,754; Posts: 207,357; Photos 52,957; photo Comments 77,630

I run on a quad core Xeon server with 32gb of RAM. How long am I likely looking at for each import? Minus custom mods I have on vb (photopost is unmodded), what data loss am I likely to have from the conversion?

 

[Alpha1]

What matters most is how fast one CPU is. XF import is single threaded. Basically a 100 core 2.1 GHz will be slower than a 1 or 2 core 4.0GHz
I did countless trials with my big board and it turned out much faster to set up a high GHZ server just for the import. That slashed my import time almost in half. I did however import my complete board with one importer after another, so I do not recall exactly how long the PP importer took. But in total we are talking days.

In regards to data loss: make sure to turn many logging options to 0 in admincp or XF will immediately remove your user change log, IPs, moderator log, user log. I'm currently having a new importer built to regain that data.

There are no redirection scripts for Photopost Pro yet so google webmaster tools and your error log will be filled with errors after going live. I'm currently trying to resolve that.

 

[AnimeAi]

Days... Wow... that'll annoy my members.

There is a big board shell importer modification for $150 I remember seeing. Does anybody have experience with how well this works to run the conversion compared to the official importers?

 

[Alpha1]

You can import your forum first well within a day if you have a fast server available, then open the new site. Then import PP and vb albums into XFMG and make it available to your member. Then do the same for XFRM.

I have the CLI big board importer but didn't use it. It is much faster and suited to import FORUM if you do not need to leave out anything or add anything. IIRC there were some data loss issues with it, but it also had a few small extras. There are a lot of happy customers of that importer. It does not handle Photopost.

 

[AnimeAi]

Thanks for the really useful info. I appreciate the time you're putting into helping me!

I think that since the cli importer only works with the forum and may miss things I'll probably skip it and do the longer (and cheaper) official import. Regardless I'll have to do a dry run with a copy of at least one of my current sites to make sure everything works as it should before I close sites for the real conversion and import.

 

[Alpha1]

I would do a few dry runs for all your sites. Its likely that you will encounter issues. IMHO its best to fix those issues on your old site. For example name conflicts or data that's too large or throws an error. Once you have identified all issues and fixed them on your old sites, then the final import will be smooth.
You really dont want to be knee deep into your final import and encounter issues.

 

[AnimeAi]

I would do a few dry runs for all your sites. Its likely that you will encounter issues. IMHO its best to fix those issues on your old site. For example name conflicts or data that's too large or throws an error. Once you have identified all issues and fixed them on your old sites, then the final import will be smooth.
You really dont want to be knee deep into your final import and encounter issues.

Good advice. Now to wait for patreon to pay out so i can buy all the licences and plugins lol.

If I have real problems with the import and decide xenforo is not going to work for me, is there a refund policy on the forum software and 3rd party plugins I buy?

 

[Paul B]

Many thousands of customers have successfully migrated from other software so I don't anticipate there being any major show stoppers.

However, if you do have any issues, or wish to discuss any purchases and licenses, submit a ticket.