SMF to XenForo

[qureshi007]

Dear sir I have a website where I am using SMF forum but now I want to change smf and use xenforo for forum but I have a problem that I have my previous posts on smf whom I do to want to waste you can see my old data and posts at my site http://www.achisite.com/ so is there any method available for migration of smf forum to xenforo and is there any discount coupon available ?

 

[DeroZ]

I did it via phpbb.
Why pay and loose passwords? when you can do it yourself and keep the passwords and your money?

Sorry, my english isn't good, i wanted to say that pay for mods isn't problem for me in response to @WCFA :

XF is a great software, but there are major differences between SMF & XF and they do things way different.
Options for XF are often paid mods that were free on SMF.

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so, there is no way to save users passwords ? after import to xenforo from phpbb3 or mybb, each user will need to apply recovery pass mail?

 

[loplo]

You are not loosing your passwords if you're doing it right.

 

[dknife]

You are not loosing your passwords if you're doing it right.

You're not really helping the conversation if you're not explaining how. XenForo will not authenticate passwords made by SMF like phpBB will as it's a different encryption mechanism. There are posts in this thread I believe on how to add in a special authenticate path to allow that but I didn't bother, I just made everyone reset their passwords. It was a great opportunity to connect with older members who haven't logged in for awhile as well as I sent out a mass email to all members.

Apart from passwords, I had everything come over including forums, posts, personal messages etc. The only issue I had was with attachments which apparently is hit n' miss depending on your host but can be resolved during the migration process by specifying full path to the attachments instead of relative, which I found out about post-migration. I then purged all old groups and re-created everything the way XenForo does it, which is miles better.

One item of note, if you want to do redirection, it is MUCH easier if you have a clean database in XenForo with nothing in it but your own user (which you want to make sure the email matches your old one). That way redirection can easily be done with .htaccess redirects as all the id's will be the same.

 

[loplo]

Message #56 helps with the passwords.
Everything needed is here in this thread.

 

[WCFA]

Comment:
SMF and depending on the server you are on can cause problems converting.
I have seen people do the exact same thing one holds on to them one does not.
I think its better to go in with the impression its not a perfect science converting then be told all is well and sunny.
Xenforo does not make a SMF conversion for a good reason, I suspect its how the SMF DB uses everything.

You may do well to ask over at SMF too, as to how people have successfully done it.
Oddly on our conversions staff held them and members didn't .

Good Luck.

 

[DeroZ]

ok, i read #56 but i know nothing about SQL

@WCFA , @dknife

after converting to xenforo, your users had to request new password using "forgot password" option?

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pd. I really think xenforo staff should make a smf convertor, i see many people interested

 

[WCFA]

For me that's what had to occur.

As far as converters , they should as SMF has got to be the best free forum software out there.
Which increases the odds people will be going to paid versions and XF is very affordable upgrade from free.

 

[dknife]

ok, i read #56 but i know nothing about SQL

@WCFA , @dknife

after converting to xenforo, your users had to request new password using "forgot password" option?

Yes that's correct. I don't know how many members you have and the kind of restrictions you'll be up against for SMTP limits for sending notification emails, but I only had 5000 members.

 

[imno007]

ok, i read #56 but i know nothing about SQL

@WCFA , @dknife

after converting to xenforo, your users had to request new password using "forgot password" option?

--

pd. I really think xenforo staff should make a smf convertor, i see many people interested

You might want to take a look at Jake Bunce's post on page 3 of this thread. But if you're not willing to attempt the database edits yourself, I definitely would not depend solely on your members doing password resets, because you will almost certainly end up with a bunch of bounced emails. At the very least you should leave up the old address of your site for an extended time, and put up your new Xenforo forum at a very similar address. So if your old forum is at mydomain.com/forum, put the new one at mydomain.com/forums (note the "s" on the end). Give your members plenty of warning of the move and the new address to access the new site, and let them know that if they have any trouble with password resets they can pm you on the old site and if they do you can do a manual password reset for them, give them a temp password. Also, make sure you disable all posting on the old smf forum after the move, because you'll inevitably get people who'll somehow miss your move announcement, no matter how many places you plaster it, and will continue to blissfully post on.

But if you don't want to edit the databases yourself and have the money, it would be much easier to pay someone like Jake to do it for you.

 

[MITK]

I am just working on a SMF to XF import.

I imported from SMF to PHPBB3 and then to XF. I have some cleanup to do but right now everything is going okay.

 

[dknife]

The regex replacer tool for XenForo was extremely handy for going over some of the bbcode that didn't translate well. Highly recommended.

 

[MITK]

That's exactly what i am looking at to fix some of the issues i am having.

 

[akafusion]

pay isn't problem for me, indeed i haven't decided yet between ipb or xenforo,

i prefer xenforo but i would not want to lose passwords

which is safer?

a) smf 2.0.7 -> mybb 1.6 -> xenforo

or

b) smf 2.0.7 -> phpbb3 -> xenforo

My question is which of these is easier, there seems to be a preference in this thread for phpbb3
I notice that the xenforo states that the convertor for mybb is only in beta stage , is it actually available from the CP of xenforo?

 

[MITK]

I went from SMF 2.x to PHPBB3 to XF 3.0.

Had a few [ I MG ] tage issues but was able to fix that, so far so good.

 

[TPerry]

My question is which of these is easier, there seems to be a preference in this thread for phpbb3
I notice that the xenforo states that the convertor for mybb is only in beta stage , is it actually available from the CP of xenforo?

Yes.. in fact in the public BETA of XenForo I converted over one of my sites using it. Worked fine for me (but it was a fairly simple setup with few add-ons).

 

[akafusion]

Well I've just done a test of SMF to phpbb3 that seemed easily enough.
I just had cpanel make the forum for me and added the install and conversion files to the required directory's, and ran the conversion
I've purchased Xenforo so will see how it imports to the test Xenforo forum

 

[DeroZ]

@akafusion

after converting to phpbb3 lost passwords? can you login on phpbb3?

 

[akafusion]

No the passwords weren't lost, I was able to login fine
I assume this happens on the conversion to Xenforo

 

[Skylined]

My question is which of these is easier, there seems to be a preference in this thread for phpbb3
I notice that the xenforo states that the convertor for mybb is only in beta stage , is it actually available from the CP of xenforo?

Some of us went that route, it has been tested and you're aware of the problems that you're goint to have and fix.

I assume this happens on the conversion to Xenforo

Exactly, that will happen from phpBB to xenForo

 

[akafusion]

Ok so all done and dusted.
There was a lot of user groups brought over, so I deleted all except the Xenforo standard groups and we will start fresh.
There are a few issues with images some embed codes work and others didn't, will just update as we go.

Just need a nice skin now

Not sure if can share a link here but this is the site www.enucleus.net