Issues Migrating from an ANCIENT SMF forum?

[WalterBennet]

My forum is close to 20 years old. It predates SMF, all the way back to YaBB. Should I anticipate any issues importing/converting the db to be friendly with Xenforo? Really love what I've seen, and would LOVE to make the leap, if it's feasible without breaking my large, ancient community.

Thanks in advance to any and all!

 

[Chris D]

As long as you are using a current and functional version of SMF (pretty much just SMF 2.0 at this point) then it should be fine, though we'd recommend doing some test runs to be certain.

We do not currently support importing from SMF into the latest version of XenForo (2.1) so you will first have to install XenForo 1.5 and import SMF into that.

Once complete, upgrading to the latest version of XenForo should be trivial.

 

[WalterBennet]

We do not currently support importing from SMF into the latest version of XenForo (2.1) so you will first have to install XenForo 1.5 and import SMF into that.

Aha, I didn't know that. Thanks, that will save me some time.

 

[imno007]

You're lucky. Had to migrate my SMF forum back before they had an importer, so you should have it relatively easy.

 

[Overscan]

I'm just migrating my SMF forum which is more than 13 years old.

There's a modification needed to the importer to deal with SMF 1.0 era attachments which I hacked together, it worked perfectly for me and at least one other person. I also had to hack the database a little to clean up some messy permissions and start again. Nothing too tricky so far. Working on search improvements and theming at present.

Xenforo 1.5 is slightly disappointing in looks, but the quick and easy upgrade to 2.1 makes it really rather nice, and the styling is pretty simple compared to SMF.

If I can just make search better, I can call it done, and start planning for the actual migration weekend.

 

[dknife]

You're lucky. Had to migrate my SMF forum back before they had an importer, so you should have it relatively easy.

haha yeah I went from SMF to phpBB to XF for the import.

 

[WalterBennet]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone here. The DB import and 2.1 upgrade went perfectly. No issues. Loving Xenforo 2.1 now. Still learning how to fine-tune it to my community's specifications though.

 

[Mr. Doug]

I was in the same boat. What worked for me was to update SMF to the latest edition possible. Then migrate to XF 1.5, then update that to 2.1, then import the content into a production fresh install of 2.1. IT takes two separate servers to do it, but it worked flawlessly for me.

 

[WalterBennet]

I was in the same boat. What worked for me was to update SMF to the latest edition possible. Then migrate to XF 1.5, then update that to 2.1, then import the content into a production fresh install of 2.1. IT takes two separate servers to do it, but it worked flawlessly for me.

Hmm, all I did was this: Installed fresh XF 1.5. Imported SMF 2.0.13 db. Upgraded to 2.1.