Importing topics, members etc from SMF? And more questions.

[RedCat]

I'm interested in buying XenForo but I already have a forum running SMF with around 500 members and around 18,000 posts. I'd like to import those into SMF, is there a way to do that?

I also like to add Steam intergration and a portal plugin, are those available? I've seen this SMF importer but it seems outdated.

 

[MattW]

You'll probably want to do a double import via phpBB3

There is a guide here on how someone else did it.

I also like to add Steam intergration and a portal plugin, are those available?

Steam : https://xenforo.com/community/resources/steam-authentication-integration.1336/
Portal : https://xenforo.com/community/resources/cta-featured-threads-portal.2599/

 

[RedCat]

Thanks, I hope that SMF guide tutorial still works.

I take it that portal adapts to any theme?

I don't see this listed but I'd like to be able to add my own blocks to the portal/frontpage. Is this supported and if not do you know of another portal plugin?

Edit: Do you happen to know whether I can disable the normal XenForo login with that Steam plugin? I'd like people to only be able to sign up using Steam.

 

[MattW]

Edit: Do you happen to know whether I can disable the normal XenForo login with that Steam plugin? I'd like people to only be able to sign up using Steam.

No idea, I don't use that plugin.

I don't see this listed but I'd like to be able to add my own blocks to the portal/frontpage. Is this supported and if not do you know of another portal plugin?

There are other ones available, but the main one is now unmaintained : https://xenforo.com/community/resources/8wayrun-com-xenporta-portal.90/

I take it that portal adapts to any theme?

Providing they use the same style classes as XenForo, they should do.

 

[Mag07]

I recently made the move from SMF2+Simple Portal. I've done my import through MyBB 1.8 (1.6 importer in XF worked great for that).

As for portal, there doesn't seem to by anything like Simple Portal that's actively maintained. This was my only gripe with XF. However, I've settled on Widget Framework. It's free, works reasonably well, and allows you to create a homepage with some flexibility from multiple widgets (blocks). There is a small learning curve if you want to include things outside the incorporated widgets but it's a matter of poking around XF for few hours to figure out how it ticks which is to be expected with any software you're not familiar with.

Steam integration addon works great.

Overall, I'm a really happy XF user. The admin side of things is really intuitive and just makes sense. It's a pleasure to work with.
Addon support can be a little tricky, but I guess after a while you know which authors are worth your money Same for any forum products out there.

It's been roughly a week since the move, and so far we haven't run into any SMF feature that isn't available for XF in one form on another.

The few paid addons we went for seem well worth the money as well.

 

[RedCat]

Good to hear from another SMF user. I've been using SMF for more than 5 years now and I'm tired of it. It's really out-dated.

I'll buy XenForo but I gotta save up some money first.

The CTA portal will do fine for a while.

 

[Mag07]

Good luck. It took us nearly a year to make the decision as we're a small non profit community based around 1 game. Everyone is really happy with the move tho. From looks to functionality. From the admin side of things, it's really refreshing to have an active community to turn to, as SMF just feels dead. Feel free to sign in and poke around if you'd like to take a closer look at how the Steam integration or widget framework looks and works at http://www.frostmourne.co.uk.

Cheers.

 

[RedCat]

Yeah thanks. The only thing I don't like about XenForo how almost everything costs money. There are some plugins I would like to add which are each 20 dollars, I'll probably end up spending a good 200-300 bucks.

 

[Mag07]

Most likely, yes. We've spent 250 and that was factored into the decision from the very start. However, there are quite a few free addons floating around, guess it's all a matter of what you need for your community. In the recent years I've ended up buying premium SMF2 addons as well - simply because those authors actually bother with continuous development and support. To be frank, it's understandable that if you release something for free you have no interest in it becoming a second job.

Lack of an idea of how to properly monetize, be it by charging for license, or services offered, or both, is what is dragging SMF down - people are slowly but surely turning away from it :S

 

[+DS_DV+]

A small advice if you want to make a website (doenst matter if its a forum or clan or what ever)

take a good amount of money read much and make your own comperission whats the best for your situation.
Then spend the money wisly but dont be stingy!
The result will be good and youll be happy.

Otherwise you always try to safe some money and everytime you look at your own page youll be dissatisfied!
And after some years you had spend more then double the money you would have if you simplay buy a good solution.

What i try to say is dont be deterred to spend mony - youll be happy with the result!

PS sorry for my bad english

 

[RedCat]

Most likely, yes. We've spent 250 and that was factored into the decision from the very start. However, there are quite a few free addons floating around, guess it's all a matter of what you need for your community. In the recent years I've ended up buying premium SMF2 addons as well - simply because those authors actually bother with continuous development and support. To be frank, it's understandable that if you release something for free you have no interest in it becoming a second job.

Lack of an idea of how to properly monetize, be it by charging for license, or services offered, or both, is what is dragging SMF down - people are slowly but surely turning away from it :S

Yeah, they basically need to make something entirely new from scratch if they want to do any of that. I'm expecting to spend around the same amount, not sure if I'm willing to do that yet. But in the future when my community grows definitely.

A small advice if you want to make a website (doenst matter if its a forum or clan or what ever)

take a good amount of money read much and make your own comperission whats the best for your situation.
Then spend the money wisly but dont be stingy!
The result will be good and youll be happy.

Otherwise you always try to safe some money and everytime you look at your own page youll be dissatisfied!
And after some years you had spend more then double the money you would have if you simplay buy a good solution.

What i try to say is dont be deterred to spend mony - youll be happy with the result!

PS sorry for my bad english

I'm satisfied with my current website, in fact it's probably one of the better looking SMF sites out there but my issue is that it's not compatibly for every device and I would really like to add Steam integration to it. That, and ofcourse SMF's lack of updates etc. I'll wait til my community grows and then update, so thanks for the advice.

Here's my current site if you want to check it out: http://soundofviolence.eu/

 

[+DS_DV+]

[...]
I'm satisfied with my current website, in fact it's probably one of the better looking SMF sites out there but my issue is that it's not compatibly for every device and I would really like to add Steam integration to it. That, and ofcourse SMF's lack of updates etc. I'll wait til my community grows and then update, so thanks for the advice.

Here's my current site if you want to check it out: http://soundofviolence.eu/

ideed it loogs great
but i still can advice you to get to XF because the build in SEO looks realy great and i read some artikles about up to 60% more search traffic if you come from smaller CMS software.
So if you wanna grow your community ist faster with XF.

btw thats the reason im in the migration right now (until i used Joomla + SMF)

with best +DS_DV+

 

[Mag07]

While you wait, there are social login mods for SMF as well. They are not in the official repository. There used to be a premium one, not sure if that one is up to date; the other one, free, includes social media as well as Steam (https://docs.oneall.com/plugins/guide/social-login-smf/).

One thing I found long ago is to Google extensively. There are hidden gems out there for SMF that aren't necessarily mainstream, mod wise.
And yeah, your site looks great - Dzinner Studio do know how to theme and your customization of it is brilliant.

 

[Cethlenn]

I'm looking to move from SMF to Xenforo, with a 900 member board and 10000+ posts. I'm glad to see that others are able to import, though we have to use an intermediary board.
One question, though- did you have to remove addons, such as SMF Gallery, before export/import?

 

[Paul B]

The importer(s) will only import content which can be mapped to the destination database, so there is no need to uninstall anything.