Migration exprience - vB3.8.4 to XenForo

Ingenious

Well-known member
OK, I have to admit, I'm really impressed :)

I've created a clone of my vB3.8.4 forum so I can try out a conversion of both XenForo and IPB3.2. I didn't want to buy both packages but I could not decide which one was best for me, without giving them both a thorough test, to see how well they converted my forum, and also test the all important tech support.

XenForo was, frankly, bloody amazing. My 160,000 post forum imported and rebuilt itself in almost no time. Posts were all there, users were present and correct, attachments all imported. Soft deleted messages remained soft deleted. I could have gone live with the converted forum within a couple of hours. This is the first conversion which I can describe as "painless". I can't comment on how good the tech support is because I haven't needed it yet.

Didn't have such luck with IPB3.2 I'm afraid. All attachments were missing despite having been imported (subject to an ongoing tech support ticket and a "patch" required), imported smilies didn't parse, custom BBcode went wrong, soft deleted messages were all converted to a "queued" status, members randomly given X number of likes and other oddities that will require some time to iron out.

I'm at that age now where forum software and conversions is a PITA rather than a source of excitement, but using XenForo for the first time from the admin side and I find myself having genuine respect for a quality product that actually works and getting momentarily excited before I regained control and reverted back to being grumpy.

Screen shot 2011-08-02 at 17.53.10.webp
 
OK, I have to admit, I'm really impressed :)
Me too. :)

This is one post that may be of interest in case you missed it, especially if you have created & deleted usergroups in the past on your vb forum. Though I believe the importer works fantastic, I don't see a downside to cleaning things up as much as possible before the final import:
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/import-guide.10053/#post-139437

When you do get your test import done into ipb, I would find your thoughts on that of interest as well.
 
Thanks Dean, I totally agree after this experience that it's best to do as much housekeeping as possible in vB first, so I'll reduce the usergroups down and also do some other housekeeping that's easier in vB than Xenforo when I do the "real" conversion. I wish I'd read your post first, rather than learn the hard way, still this is what test conversions are for :) It has been really good doing both conversions (IPB and XenForo) back to back and without any time pressure.
 
Thanks Dean, I totally agree after this experience that it's best to do as much housekeeping as possible in vB first, so I'll reduce the usergroups down and also do some other housekeeping that's easier in vB than Xenforo when I do the "real" conversion. I wish I'd read your post first, rather than learn the hard way, still this is what test conversions are for :) It has been really good doing both conversions (IPB and XenForo) back to back and without any time pressure.
I recommend at least 2 imports. If for no other reason a light bulb may go off in your head with regards to several aspects of xf you may want to take advantage of before going live.
  • Permissions
  • user states for awaiting email confirmation and awaiting email confirmation from edit (as opposed to user groups)
  • secondary user groups can do everything primary user groups can do including a custom title. No need to move primary user groups for paid subscriptions to get custom user title...
  • all sorts of nice touches.
 
Thanks for sharing your impressions, Ingenious, it looks like we're in the exact same boat. I just purchased IPB 3.2, looking to convert my vB 3.8 forum. However, when my testing showed it would take several days (literally) to for the converter script to handle all of my posts (5.3 million), I've started to take a closer look at XF but haven't purchased a license just yet.

Did you find the conversion with XF to be faster than with IPB?

Also, if you're going with XF now, what do you plan on doing with your IPB license? I may need to figure out where to dump mine... :)
 
Yes the conversion seemed quicker with Xenforo, particularly the rebuilding posts part afterwards. However I did have loads of errors each rebuild cycle with IPB so I am sure that slowed it down. For a forum your size I would definitely recommend buying Xenforo too, and doing a test conversion to both platforms so you can see what happens and have a play.

If you do a conversion to IPB I'd be interested to know how this went. If I do stick with XenForo for the "live" forum conversion (I'd need to wait until 1.1 anyway for the custom profile fields) I am not sure what I'll do with the IPB licence, I have not looked into whether you can sell them or not.
 
Mine went extremely well, with some excellent help from XF team.

QUESTION: It appears that the XF search system has not yet indexed the newly imported content as there are key phrases e.g. ("Gold Nugget" - soon to be PREFIX!) that appear in far more of the most informative posts historically than indicated by the list returned just after import.

How do I make SURE that all of the imported content gets indexed?

Thanks!
 
Mine went extremely well, with some excellent help from XF team.

QUESTION: It appears that the XF search system has not yet indexed the newly imported content as there are key phrases e.g. ("Gold Nugget" - soon to be PREFIX!) that appear in far more of the most informative posts historically than indicated by the list returned just after import.

How do I make SURE that all of the imported content gets indexed?

Thanks!
did you rebuild your cache?
 
Wow thanks for the quick reply, Brandon! Not sure if that was done as I didn't personally do the import. I've not done that before (newbie).
How do I do that or can you please provide a link detailing the steps to do it? I do have Super Admin rights.

Full breadcrumbs path is EXTREMELY helpful to me as still learning the ACP.
Thanks!
 
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