Not a bug vB 4.2.x import permissions?

[PaulProe]

Affected version

2.2

We are moving a vBulletin forum to Xenforo 2.2. Our first pass at the importer appears to have gone well, but as we work with it, it appears non of the permissions were imported. Did we do something wrong or is it typical or is it a bug?

Any suggestions or comments

 

[Max Taxable]

The permission systems are vastly different.

 

[beerForo]

It's expected you re-do the permissions with every importer.

 

[Max Taxable]

You haven't done anything wrong, just to clarify. Welcome to xenforo.

 

[rouar]

I like the Xenforo permission inheritance better, but it required a change in mindset. I wrote these notes as I documented my migration. Hoping it helps to understand the differences in behavior:

VBulletin and Xenforo both have a concept of “Primary” and “Secondary” usergroups. Users will exist in one as their primary, and 1:many as secondaries.

VBulletin is designed around moving users from one group to another. Xenforo does not recommend this approach. They recommend that users have “Registered” as their primary, and then be added (instead of moved) to other usergroups.

For example: rouar is a forum admin and supermoderator. He should be set up as:

• Primary usergroup is: Registered
• Secondary usergroups are: CanPostInClassifieds, Moderating, and Administrative.

Why? This simplifies the node permission setup, since most of the permissions can be inherited. For example, the Classifieds usergroup inherits all of its permissions from Registered, and we only need to set the permission for Can Create Thread and Can Post.

ACTION NEEDED: Move all users to Registered. This is done by Admin CP -> Users -> Batch Update (one at a time for each usergroup; set primary as Registered and secondary as the usergroup that you are updating). Then clean up the node permissions for each usergroup below.

simple examples of "clean up the node permissions for each usergroup":

• First run through all node permissions for all usergroups. Set everything to INHERIT.
• Admin forum
  • Set “Private Forum” to TRUE.
  • Set Administrative usergroup - CanView to YES. (Leave all other usergroups as INHERIT.)
• Classifieds forum
  • Set Registered usergroup - CanCreateTopics and CanPostReplies to NO.
  • Set CanPostInClassifieds usergroup - CanCreateTopics and CanPostReplies to YES.
  • Set BannedFromClassifieds usergroup - CanCreateTopics and CanPostReplies to NEVER.

 

[Chris D]

When trying to import permissions from disparate systems - which we used to do - often the results were even more undesirable than just setting everything up from scratch.

So we don't currently attempt to import them though we may introduce a wizard based approach in the future.