Vbulletin 3.8.3 with VBSEO to Xenforo

[Parminder Singh Chahal]

I bought a license a few days ago and installed it on a new domain to see what it is like and I like what I see so here I am looking to buy another license for one of my forums that is running on VBulletin 3.8.3 with vbseo 3.3.0 and convert it to xenforo.

My question is that is there a way to keep the old urls redirecting to the new structure I would get with xenforo? Is there a very straight forward way of doing this without any professional help?
I have too many forums and I like to keep things simple for future upgrades so there isint too much work to do every time a new version is released.

Also is there a way to have latest post first for guests/unrigistered on thread display pages?

 

[Dakis]

Yes there is an easy way, you just use the redirect scripts, I've done it just last month with zero problems. If you want I can give you a hand when you reach that point, it's very easy

 

[Floren]

If you use Nginx, you don't need the redirection scripts.

 

[Paul B]

The manual covers this with various links at the bottom of the page to the redirection scripts: http://xenforo.com/help/importing/

There are also many threads discussion it in this particular forum.

If you need any specific help with setting it up, feel free to ask.

 

[Ingenious]

Is there a very straight forward way of doing this without any professional help?

Yes, mine was vB3 with vBSEO and I converted fine (including redirecting to a brand new domain).

The process usually is to turn vBSEO off first, using their own recommended settings in your .htaccess file to redirect the vBSEO URLs to the normal vB versions (this setting is dependent on what settings you had active in vBSEO, but the vBSEO forum/FAQ has examples). Then, redirection scripts provided with Xenforo will pick up the vB URLs and redirect them to the new Xenforo equivalents.

 

[Parminder Singh Chahal]

Thank you every one for all the help. I have got a new license now for this forum.

There is a problem though. I installed xenforo about a week ago on the same server and had no issues apart from the installation script telling me that I need MySQLi which I did and installation went on smoothly and the forum is running ever since. I have made no changes on this server and today after I got this second license I tried to install it and first I got a 500 error so I turned off mod_security and now its telling me I need GD extension for PHP. I already have one instance of xenforo running on the same server.

The only thing different that I may be doing is that I downloaded xenforo script again today for the new installation... has there been a change?

I am not a server admin and have a server management company doing it for me so Ive raised a ticket to look into it but in the mean time does any one have any idea what could be causing this?

 

[Dakis]

Wait wait. Where did you install the second license? which folder?

 

[Parminder Singh Chahal]

I created a new Cpanel on this server. Old vbulletin forum is hosted on another server. The domain is pointing to the new server now where I am trying to install xenforo. There is nothing else in there.

 

[Parminder Singh Chahal]

Installing xenforo in domain root.

 

[Liam W]

You didn't download the upgrade package, did you?

 

[Parminder Singh Chahal]

I have completed the install and also converted the old database to xenforo. I haven't used the redirection script so the old urls are dead. Its a tiny forum with like 1000uv a day so not gonna spend more time doing things I will have to keep doing every time I do something to the forum.

I made a few stupid mistakes and thats what took me so long. This was my first conversion from vb to xenforo so I believe next one shouldnt take more then an hour or so depending on the size of the database ofcourse.

Xenforo has done a fine job creating this script. Conversion was easier then I thought it would be.

I was trying to import the old data base from the running forum from a different server and I just couldnt get it going. Has anyone been able to do that? Its some security crap which I do not understand so I just took a database backup from phpmyadmin and created a new database on the new server and restored it then used that with the import tool.

I will try using the redirection script for my next import.

Is there a better way of doing this? Is this how every one else been doing it?

 

[Jake Bunce]

I was trying to import the old data base from the running forum from a different server and I just couldnt get it going. Has anyone been able to do that? Its some security crap which I do not understand so I just took a database backup from phpmyadmin and created a new database on the new server and restored it then used that with the import tool.

The mysql server probably doesn't allow remote connections. That is typical. Normally the databases are on the same server for an import.

 

[Parminder Singh Chahal]

I spent some time looking at what was preventing the connection then gave up thinking it would be lot more faster and easier taking a backup and restoring it on the same box as xenforo and it worked smoothly.

 

[Parminder Singh Chahal]

If you use Nginx, you don't need the redirection scripts.

How does that work then? I have been looking at Nginx ever since I read your post and I am kind of ready to set up a VPS using Nginx. I have only ever used Cpanel with Apache and have no clue about other control panels.. Any suggestions what control panel would be the easiest to learn/manage?

I have been reading a lot and some people say Nginx would make server response time better when compared with an Apache run server. Is this the reason why you use Nginx?

And which OS would you suggest?

 

[SneakyDave]

A lot of people use nginx over Apache simply because of the smaller memory footprint.

I've rewritten my old VBSEO forum URL's to the modified forumdisplay.php script that Mike talks about here (for vB 3.x)
http://xenforo.com/community/threads/redirection-scripts-for-vbulletin-3-x.27845/

The forumdisplay.php script then should redirect users to the new location of the xF URL.

I use something like this in nginx to achieve that with a vB forum named "Miscellaneous". vBulletin/VBSEO is installed in forum root, the forumdisplay.php file is the modified version to redirect to xF, and my xF installation is in a different directory.

rewrite /miscellaneous/ /forumdisplay.php?f=17 permanent;