XF 1.4 vbulletin + vbseo 3.8 redirection help

[J-B]

Hi,

I've just installed and imported my old vbulletin database and that all appears to be working fine.

However I can't seem to get the redirection to work at all. vbulletin was installed into /forums/ and I've put xenforo into /forum/ (note the lack of the s)

I've changed the path and the archived import log lines in the 301config.php (which is in the old vbulletin /forums/ folder and double checked I've removed the ##.

    $fileDir = '/home/bbtactic/public_html/forum';

    define('IMPORT_LOG_TABLE', 'archived_import_log');

I'm not 100% sure the filedir is correct but I can't think what else it would be, the xenforo index page is at http://bbtactics.com/forum/

Do I need to remove the old vbulletin install completely from the server and just have the files from the redirection script in the old folder? The old .htaccess file still is still there, though I've added code given to me by using the http://tools.geekpoint.net/xfseo/ page.

However even just the index page of the old forum isn't redirecting to the new one. I'm not sure I've got the thread redirect correct or not but would have thought at least the index page would redirect if I had the basic redirection set up correctly...

Any help anyone can give me would be a massive help, if you need to know more information then do ask and I'll try and provide it.

 

[popowich]

The 301 redirect add-on only fixes redirects for thread pages.

You'll need to add .htaccess based redirects for any other vB specific pages you had such as custom index page, etc.

Route Filters can be used to fix forum names.

The old vB install should be in a different directory for reference. XenForo doesn't need it, but you might want to keep it around someplace that's not web accessible for a couple weeks to grab files such as smilies as needed or double check the old .htaccess, etc.

Use Google Webmaster Tools to keep an eye on what's broken with the migration and get the stuff that matters fixed.

Did you use the vBSEO links that had the thread numbers in the URL? I believe that was a requirement for the 301 redirect script to work too.

 

[J-B]

Hi popowich thanks for the response.

I did indeed use the vbseo with the thread number in. I'll look into sorting out a standard redirect and keep an eye out on webmaster tools as you suggested.

 

[J-B]

I've got the index to redirect ok, though I'm having trouble with the vbseo ones.

My old thread url is http://bbtactics.com/forums/bbtactics-forum-upgrade-t5083/

The new xenforo version is http://bbtactics.com/forum/threads/bbtactics-forum-upgrade.5083/

If anyone knows how to write the correct rewrite rule for that I'd be grateful, thanks!

 

[Mike]

What does your "old" htaccess look like?

 

[J-B]

Hi Mike, there were two of them, one in the root and on in the vbulletin directory.

I did wipe both of them thinking it would be easier to start from scratch, especially as the one in root had a lot of extra stuff in there from plugins I no longer use on wordpress. I might have a back up of them, was there a particular one you were after of the two?

 

[Mike]

The http://tools.geekpoint.net/xfseo/ tool gives you code that needs to be placed into the "old" location (where you're putting the redirection scripts), so you would need a .htaccess there.

When I hit your example old URL, it appeared to rewrite the whole forums/ to forum/, which isn't necessarily expected. (Though it could be approached that way, with the redirect scripts and vBSEO rewriting happening in the "new" location. This probably isn't ideal though.)

 

[J-B]

I put a redirection in the root htaccess to do the /forums/ (vbulletin) to /forum/ (xenforo) as that was all I was able to piece together on my own.

I've not got any redirect on the vbseo threads at the moment cause it was giving me an error. The geekpoint tool, none of the the presets seemed to work and unfortunately I can't get into the old vbseo control panel to do the backup to upload myself.

 

[Jake Bunce]

I've got the index to redirect ok, though I'm having trouble with the vbseo ones.

My old thread url is http://bbtactics.com/forums/bbtactics-forum-upgrade-t5083/

The new xenforo version is http://bbtactics.com/forum/threads/bbtactics-forum-upgrade.5083/

If anyone knows how to write the correct rewrite rule for that I'd be grateful, thanks!

Add these rules to the top of the .htaccess file in your old /forums directory:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule ^[^/]+-t([0-9]+)/$ /forum/threads/$1/ [R=301,L]

That will take care of those vBSEO thread URLs.

 

[J-B]

Thanks Jake, that did the job perfectly! Really appreciate your help.

 

[karabaja]

Add these rules to the top of the .htaccess file in your old /forums directory:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule ^[^/]+-t([0-9]+)/$ /forum/threads/$1/ [R=301,L]

That will take care of those vBSEO thread URLs.

Jake, could you help me?

These were my old URL at vB 3.8.

https://www.domain.com/subforum-177/threadtitle-94765/

Would this rewrite rule work for me also?