Keeping IP.Board running after converting to XF (IPB in root of web space!!)

CTXMedia

Well-known member
If your IP.Board site runs from the root of your web space, i.e. "/" would it be possible to keep it running after converting to XF and putting XF at the root (maybe by changing the IPB index.php file to something else?).

There would likely be a post-migration requirement to access the IPB site/data/features to pull some of it over to XF add-ons e.g.; blogs, gallery images, file downloads, etc.

Anyone done this or know whether it would be possible?

The only alternative I can think of is to install XF under "/forums" and move it back to root once the IPB data had been copied over and the IPB software removed; but I expect that would screw up SEO/listings as the paths would all be changed twice in a short time period?

Any advice or thoughts appreciated.

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
The only alternative I can think of is to install XF under "/forums" and move it back to root once the IPB data had been copied over and the IPB software removed;
That's the way to do it.

but I expect that would screw up SEO/listings as the paths would all be changed twice in a short time period?
Why twice?

Install XF to forums.
Lock IPB.
Convert IPB to XF. (forums is unknown to the search engines)
Remove IPB from the root.
Move forums to the root.
 
Why twice?

Because IPB will need to be kept running post-migration; gallery, blogs, downloads - none of these will directly import into a stock XF install (since XF doesn't have those features built in).

I would need to get all the forum data over to XF (potentially under "/forums/"), put the forums live for people to use, then manually convert the remaining data to various add-ons - all of which will take me months to install, test, and transfer - and then, finally, months later, move it all back to the root of the web space (in which time Google et al will come along and start re-indexing!!).

This is why I'm wondering if it is possible to have XF at the root of the web space at the same time as IPB?

Maybe I'll just have to be a test-case if no one else has done it yet?

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
Why not move the IPB installation to a sub-directory/folder and install XenForo in the root?

Well, technically, it can be done - you update the config file after the move, then update a number of URLs via the ACP after that, and it should work.

My only question now, is how do the redirect scripts for XF work? Do they need to be placed within a specific folder of the IPB install, or would they just go at the root of the web space and redirect from there?

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
Well, technically, it can be done - you update the config file after the move, then update a number of URLs via the ACP after that, and it should work.

That was my theory when I changed domains on my IPB install, but people couldn't stay logged in because the URL containing the old domain was embedded in templates.

If you go that route, be sure to scour your templates, as well. If it held my old domain, it'll most likely hold your original URL too.
 
I recently moved from vB4 to xenForo using the same setup you're looking to accomplish. Like everyone else have been saying, keep the IPB license on root until you're finished with the import.

Once finished with the import, I'd move whatever it was in the root, where IPB is being housed - move everything that you recognize as IPB, [make sure you already have a new directory for xenforo, same goes for IPB] and put it into the [new] IPB folder. Once that's done, move everything that you recognize as xenforo in the root.

Now, when I say put every file from either file, I meant open the folder first, drag everything from inside the folder, into the intended directory.

What I did was the following:

Create new xenforo directory, install xenforo there.
Create new vB4 directory, move everything that I recognize as vb files and put it in new vb4 directory.
Drag everything I have in the newly created xenforo folder, also where I installed the software...
...put it in root...
I deleted the newly created xenforo directory, and I was done.
 
Thanks ... I'll look out for the domain sticking issue, and make sure I give IPB a thorough test to make sure I can still access everything I need from the sub-directory location, before starting the conversion. (y)

I may well also, for the purposes of the converstion, put XF in a sub-directory and leave a holding page at the root - this will give me a chance to check everything in private before moving XF back up to root level.

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
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