SMF Import/Conversion

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calum

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I am considering XenForo as a long-term solution to a pet forum that I run. It isn't too big, just 65,000 posts, but I really don't like SMF.

Is there a converted for SMF->XenForo? If not, is this something that is likely to be available in the next year?

If there is a converter, is it possible to convert from "SMF Gallery" to some sort of XenForo gallery? The gallery has 1300 photos taking up about 1000 Mb, the forum also has 2000 Mb of attachments.
 
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Hi calum, as someone who is also looking at converting from smf, I've looked at that importer and wouldn't bother. It's old and unsupported and it appears that a lot of people run into problems with it. If I choose to go with Xenforo, I'll probably just import to a phpbb install and then import from that to Xenforo. As much of a hassle as it might be having to go that circuitous route, I strongly suspect it will be a lot less hassle than trying to use that outdated importer. My two cents.
 
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Brogan said:
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/pre-sales-faq.4951/

There is an unofficial importer.

There are various gallery add-ons, I'm not sure about importers though.
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I just bought xenforo, based off of the fact that there's at least an unofficial SMF importer, however when I try to download the attachment in the thread you linked, I am told:
XenForo Community - Error
You do not have permission to view this page or perform this action.
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:(

Any ideas?
 
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ekoo said:
I just bought xenforo, based off of the fact that there's at least an unofficial SMF importer, however when I try to download the attachment in the thread you linked, I am told:
:(

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Have you associated your forum account with that of your client center? If you have, then try to log out and then log in again.
 
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borbole said:
Have you associated your forum account with that of your client center? If you have, then try to log out and then log in again.
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I didn't realize that was necessary, but I just associated it and logged out/in and still no luck. I also am not seeing any "customer forums" like they mention on the forum acct association page. Maybe it just takes time?
 
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ekoo said:
I didn't realize that was necessary, but I just associated it and logged out/in and still no luck. I also am not seeing any "customer forums" like they mention on the forum acct association page. Maybe it just takes time?
Click to expand...

Probably. Give it some time and if the issue has not been solved then, you can open a ticket at your client center so one of the xen staff can investigate this for you.

And welcome to xenforo btw :)
 
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borbole said:
Probably. Give it some time and if the issue has not been solved then you can open a ticket at your client center so one of the xen staff can investigate this for you.

And welcome to xenforo btw :)
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Thanks! Yeah, I love the forum system, been using it on a few sites now and figured it was time to bite the bullet and upgrade my own forum. :D

I'm now seeing the customer forums, but still no luck with the file. I'll give it a little while and see if it resolves itself.
 
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Just to add, since it's relevant to the OP, the importer doesn't seem to work any longer. It installs properly (I verified this several times that I was installing correctly), however there is no "SMF" option of any sort in the External Import options after activating the addon. So, I'm assuming xenForo has changed enough since the importer was originally made to render it incompatible.

As the developer of the addon said
I have no idea with how it is. This was made for an early version of XenForo and I don't have the time or patience to maintain it right now. Testing importers can take a lot of time and be frustrating so I really have no motivation to do it. I need to come up with a better way to test the imports and get this importer finished. It will be a while before such an importer will be of use to me again so I probably won't do anything until then.
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So, it looks like I'll have to run SMF through phpBB and then into xenForo. (edit: just ran the SMF > phpBB > xenForo conversion and it was pretty painless. Setting permissions looks like the only thing that's going to take a bit of time to sort out, but overall I'm really impressed with the xenForo converter!)
 
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ekoo said:
Just to add, since it's relevant to the OP, the importer doesn't seem to work any longer. It installs properly (I verified this several times that I was installing correctly), however there is no "SMF" option of any sort in the External Import options after activating the addon. So, I'm assuming xenForo has changed enough since the importer was originally made to render it incompatible.

As the developer of the addon said So, it looks like I'll have to run SMF through phpBB and then into xenForo. (edit: just ran the SMF > phpBB > xenForo conversion and it was pretty painless. Setting permissions looks like the only thing that's going to take a bit of time to sort out, but overall I'm really impressed with the xenForo converter!)
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Actually... if it was made for an earlier version, just download that version and install it, perform your upgrade from SMF then upgrade xenForo to the latest version (if that is an actual converter)
 
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@ekoo

I imported my SMF board through vBulletin 3.8, but if your experience is anything like mine you're going to end up with a lot of messy code after the import, quotes a scrambled mess, gibberish where you have apostrophes and ampersands and other punctuation, etc. Maybe someone here can give you some good advice for how to avoid most of that, I don't know. But if your experience mirrors my own, grab this addon by Kier, it saved me a lot of time and trouble cleaning up my import:

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/post-content-find-replace.1549/

Also, keep in mind that Xenforo's way of ordering nodes (forums) is not very good, to put it politely. It's been too long since I used phpBB, so I can't remember how it allows you to order your boards, but if there's an option to renumber them, then I recommend you do so before importing to Xenforo. But if you have relatively few boards, then don't worry about it.

Finally, be aware that you won't be able to import your users' passwords, if you didn't already know, at least not using the default settings. If you have the money you might want to get someone here (Jake Bunce) to do the import for you, that way hopefully avoiding many of these issues.
 
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imno007 said:
@ekoo

I imported my SMF board through vBulletin 3.8, but if your experience is anything like mine you're going to end up with a lot of messy code after the import, quotes a scrambled mess, gibberish where you have apostrophes and ampersands and other punctuation, etc. Maybe someone here can give you some good advice for how to avoid most of that, I don't know. But if your experience mirrors my own, grab this addon by Kier, it saved me a lot of time and trouble cleaning up my import:

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/post-content-find-replace.1549/

Also, keep in mind that Xenforo's way of ordering nodes (forums) is not very good, to put it politely. It's been too long since I used phpBB, so I can't remember how it allows you to order your boards, but if there's an option to renumber them, then I recommend you do so before importing to Xenforo. But if you have relatively few boards, then don't worry about it.

Finally, be aware that you won't be able to import your users' passwords, if you didn't already know, at least not using the default settings. If you have the money you might want to get someone here (Jake Bunce) to do the import for you, that way hopefully avoiding many of these issues.
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Everything seemed to import fine, in terms of the forums and posts.. But you're saying that the passwords aren't transferred? Wow, I hadn't had that problem in the past... I guess I really should have read up a bit more on this prior to making the leap. What's the point of a conversion if that's not even possible. Beginning to regret the purchase. :(

(edit: I mean, I love xenForo, but this is really going to be a nightmare for my users. I knew the conversion was going to be a nightmare... I guess I'll just have to use my license for another forum down the road.)
 
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Well, that's because you're having to go through another platform for the import. If it were one of the boards that Xenforo supported for a direct import, it wouldn't be a problem. I just ended up leaving my old smf forum up for a while, told members they would have to reset their passwords for Xenforo, but if they ran into any problems they could pm me on the old board and I'd get them sorted out. So that's an option - not ideal, but an option.

@ekoo

By the way, I should maybe add that my members were appreciative enough after the move that their contributions in the first week paid for my license (and addon's) so hopefully you'll have a similar experience. (y)
 
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imno007 said:
Well, that's because you're having to go through another platform for the import. If it were one of the boards that Xenforo supported for a direct import, it wouldn't be a problem. I just ended up leaving my old smf forum up for a while, told members they would have to reset their passwords for Xenforo, but if they ran into any problems they could pm me on the old board and I'd get them sorted out. So that's an option - not ideal, but an option. ;)
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Yeah, I know, I guess I was just hopeful, heh. I want to use all the awesomeness of xenForo, but damn... I'll likely have to go with a staggered launch like you mentioned if I stick with it. Oh well, nothing worthwhile is usually ever easy. ;)
 
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