WBB 5 (Woltlab) importer

D3RB

Member
I would very much like to switch to Xenforo, but unfortunately there is no importer. We have over 600 forums that like to go over, just like our users.
I hope something like this might be planned.

I have also been looking for alternatives to switch to phpBB or MYBB and then to get to Xenforo. But unfortunately there is only one importer at MyBB for Wbb3 and Wbb4
 
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I would very much like to switch to Xenforo, but unfortunately there is no importer. We have over 600 forums that like to go over, just like our users.
I hope something like this might be planned.

I have also been looking for alternatives to switch to phpBB or MYBB and then to get to Xenforo. But unfortunately there is only one importer at MyBB for Wbb3 and Wbb4
I would really like to see this for Woltlab Burning Board 5 / Woltlab Suite Core, too!

Hi Guys,

i'm going from WBB 5.x to Xenforo this week after months of testing. There is a way, you will keep all the posts and topics, even the attachments! First of all you have to convert to mybb, the importer for mybb works just fine for wbb5.x, with only two minor adjustments. I can upload the adjusted merger tool for you and it will work.

Thats the fun part, the other part is going to be converting html to bbcode, since WBB uses html instead of bbcodes. And again, you guys are kinda in luck since i have written regexes for that part.

These are the steps you have to follow:
  1. Download Mybb and install it on your local machine
  2. Download 'my'(see attachment below) mybb merger tool that works with wbb 5.
  3. Download XenForo 1.5.16a via your custormer panel
  4. Convert to mybb and then to Xenforo 1.5.16a
  5. Install this free Xenforo addon: post-content-find-replace
  6. Use this spreadsheet to convert the html to bbcodes.
  7. If your happy with the cleaned up board, convert to Xenforo 2 and enjoy :).
Things to note:
  • Passwords don't convert from WBB to myBB, only on first login of the user(thats how they designed it)
  • My spread sheet is in dutch.
  • Post and Topic ID's will not be the same since mybb does not retain does post and topic ID's(sigh)
  • Test it many times over, there will be mistakes and errors!
  • Prepare to redirect the most populair topic/board url's to there new one so you don't lose your page ranking :)
Code:
Eerst BBcode aanmakeb --> First create bbcode!
Achteraf volgende DB query uitvoeren ---> Run subsequent DB query
Houdt enkel tekst over ---> Keeps only text
Verwijderd font tags ---> Removed font tags!
Pakt quotes zonder userID aan --> Addresses quotes without user / postID
(oude_bijlage_hier_terug_plaatsen) ---> (old_inline_attachment)


This tutorial assumes you know how to work with phpmyadmin and know how to setup a local test server, for example Xamp.
 

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Hello

Your very useful post will be much more useful to people if it is posted inside the Resources section here:

https://xenforo.com/community/resources/

Once you have copied the content over to a resource, let us know and we'll edit the content of the post above to be a link to the resource.

Will do this after i finished the conversion :)

//edit @Chris D could you edit my post and add this text above the first line:

"Warning: The attached merger only works with boards that where converted from WBB 4.x to WBB 5.x and won't work with WBB 5.x out of the box! i'll upload a working version for new WBB5 installs later"
 
I kind of would love it if Xenforo would have more direct importers from other forum softwares to Xenforo, without all the 2 step conversions.

@demon326 Good job on the work you do bud!
 
@demon326 I am trying to migrate from Waltlab Burning Board 5.0.20 to Xenforo 2 . I am following your given steps But unable to find the option for Burning Board 5 (find attachment). Is there any option that i am missing or anything else?
 

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am trying to migrate from Waltlab Burning Board 5.0.20 to Xenforo 2 . I am following your given steps But unable to find the option for Burning Board 5 (find attachment). Is there any option that i am missing or anything else?

Use the Wolt Lab 4 button, the code has been modified to work with 5. Atleast it worked like that about 6 months ago :)
 
Use the Wolt Lab 4 button, the code has been modified to work with 5. Atleast it worked like that about 6 months ago :)

I have tried Wolt Lab 4 button . But when i am trying to import users it shows me this error(find attachment).
 

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I have tried Wolt Lab 4 button . But when i am trying to import users it shows me this error(find attachment).

It says that it cannot find the colom 'aim' in the users table on the mybb install thus it cannot insert the data..

You can try to run is query on the mybb database as a workaround:

ALTER TABLE `mybb_users` ADD `aim` VARCHAR(50) CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci NOT NULL DEFAULT '' AFTER `icq`;

It should work then... The issue is because i used al older mybb version, prior the removal of aim that happend in may 2018:

If that does not work, download an older mybb version and do a clean install.
 
Is it still work ? Anyone had any success in importing from WBB5 to MyBB and to Xenforo?
 
I am looking to move back from woltlab 3.1 to xenforo2. If xenforo developers add import from woltlab directly I will be grateful thanks.
 
If we ever did implement it, it would likely only be from a recent/current version of Woltlab.

With that in mind, the OP implies there is an importer from Woltlab 3 to MyBB.

Your best route might be Woltlab 3 to MyBB then MyBB to XenForo 1.5. You can then upgrade XF 1.5 to XF 2.1.
 
Im not that advanced user, for me is to complicated import woltlab 3 to mybb then xf 1.5 then xf2 . Im Not even sure will work 100 percent. It will be very easy for us if xf developers implemented. Even so for latest/current version. This way list we know that will work ;)
 
It's not all that complicated. The process to move to MyBB is probably documented, then the process to move to XF we can also support you with.

To reiterate, we aren't going to be writing a Woltlab 3 to XF2 importer, ever. So at some point if we did release an importer (no ETA) you would need to upgrade to Woltlab 5 first anyway.

Alternatively, have a go at the MyBB approach (which it seems some have done with some success) and you might be able to move to us sooner.
 
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