XF 2.1 XF2 Late Adopter

[motowebmaster]

Hello Everyone,

My site, R3Owners.Net, is still on XF1. I've un-done all of my "bad decisions" since going from vb3 to XF1 in 2013 and am running 20 addons (including official XF addons).

I'm going to migrate the existing theme to an XF2 version. Even though XF2 can help do more, the community doesn't want their look/feel to change. I can make a major look/feel upgrade later.

What I'm not sure of is the particular items below. Going to setup XF2 in a separate development instance to test the upgrade on a copy of the database/files. Hoping some folks wouldn't mind sharing their thoughts:

1. Home Page - Currently using CTA Featured Threads. Used Xenporta in the past but had problems. Should I reconsider Xenporta for XF2, or the built-in features of XF2, or an alternative?
2. Tags - Currently using Tag Essentials. What would be the best option, and migration considerations ? If I un-install Tag Essentials before the upgrade, are my Tags still there?
3. XF2 Upgrade - I'm assuming that un-install of my plugins and remove all of the XF1 software files, leaving images. The XF2 Manual doesn't appear to spell-out which directories should be retained. I'm assuming that I would keep "data" and "internal_data" and remove everything else?
4. Plugin Considerations - I'm assuming that I would uninstall all plugins before the upgrade. On some plugins that don't maintain it's own data i would just manually record my preferred settings and manually reset them after the XF2 plugin equivalent is installed. However, on items like the XF Media Gallery, XF Resources, & etc that has it's own content would I un-install the addon before upgrading to XF2 or just delete the files and install the new plugin after the XF2 upgrade? If I un-install the plugin, would that content be retained?
5. Widgets - I keep blocking this issue from my mind, it doesn't look like it on the outside but have a lot of bd-widgets. I'm assuming that when I un-install this plugin that the existing data will delete as well - which means that I'll need to manually document all of the widgets and their settings beforehand. Is that the case, or is there an alternative?
6. Development site - is there a config.php option that I can input that would stop/block all outbound email and notifications? I'll block all outside access at my firewall, but don't want users to see emails/notifications from the development site.

Are there other concerns that I should add to this?

Appreciate your feedback

 

[TickTackk]

Plugin Considerations - I'm assuming that I would uninstall all plugins before the upgrade. On some plugins that don't maintain it's own data i would just manually record my preferred settings and manually reset them after the XF2 plugin equivalent is installed. However, on items like the XF Media Gallery, XF Resources, & etc that has it's own content would I un-install the addon before upgrading to XF2 or just delete the files and install the new plugin after the XF2 upgrade? If I un-install the plugin, would that content be retained?

Don't uninstall the add-ons. They will be automatically disabled when you upgrade to XF 2.

 

[Chris D]

Home Page - Currently using CTA Featured Threads. Used Xenporta in the past but had problems. Should I reconsider Xenporta for XF2, or the built-in features of XF2, or an alternative?

I can't really recommend a specific solution but it is possible to use the built-in tools of XF 2 to achieve a basic portal page.

I recently implemented one here: https://www.valvetime.net.

This essentially uses a page node, changes the index page route and widgets to pull threads and display the first posts from a specific forum.

Tags - Currently using Tag Essentials. What would be the best option, and migration considerations ? If I un-install Tag Essentials before the upgrade, are my Tags still there?

You would ideally need to check with the author of the add-on. I wouldn't expect it to remove existing tags which are a core part of XF, but you may lose some other data that the additional functionality of the add-on relies upon. It may make more sense to keep the add-on, then upgrade that add-on after upgrading to XF 2.1.

XF2 Upgrade - I'm assuming that un-install of my plugins and remove all of the XF1 software files, leaving images. The XF2 Manual doesn't appear to spell-out which directories should be retained. I'm assuming that I would keep "data" and "internal_data" and remove everything else?

Only remove the add-ons that you either a) no longer need or b) cannot be upgraded or imported into XF 2.1. Uninstalling an add-on will remove data and files that it has created.

Do not remove any files prior to upgrading to XF 2.1. You can tidy up unused files later.

Plugin Considerations - I'm assuming that I would uninstall all plugins before the upgrade. On some plugins that don't maintain it's own data i would just manually record my preferred settings and manually reset them after the XF2 plugin equivalent is installed. However, on items like the XF Media Gallery, XF Resources, & etc that has it's own content would I un-install the addon before upgrading to XF2 or just delete the files and install the new plugin after the XF2 upgrade? If I un-install the plugin, would that content be retained?

As I noted above, only remove the add-ons that you no longer need, cannot be upgraded or imported into XF 2.1. If you uninstalled XF Media Gallery, for example, you would lose all of your existing data and files that have been uploaded.

Widgets - I keep blocking this issue from my mind, it doesn't look like it on the outside but have a lot of bd-widgets. I'm assuming that when I un-install this plugin that the existing data will delete as well - which means that I'll need to manually document all of the widgets and their settings beforehand. Is that the case, or is there an alternative?

You would need to document all of the widgets and add them manually after upgrading to XF 2.1.

Development site - is there a config.php option that I can input that would stop/block all outbound email and notifications? I'll block all outside access at my firewall, but don't want users to see emails/notifications from the development site.

The config.php file is in a different location after you have upgraded.

Edit src/config.php and add:

$config['enableMail'] = false;

 

[MySiteGuy]

So far as the front page goes, I have experience I can share with both XenPorta and AMS on XF2.

XenPorta for Xenforo 2 is much easier to learn and use than it was under Xenforo 1.5. It relies on the standard Xenforo 2 widgets system for layouts, so it's a cleaner overall setup than it was before with it's own widget system. It will also import Xenporta data over from XF 1.x. Compared to AMS, I think it gives a much better front page.

AMS, on the other hand, gives a much better overall articles index page. It's articles look nicer, but the caveat is that it relies on its on data in tables for articles, whereas Xenporta extends the look of threads to look like articles/comments (like it did in XF 1.5). That makes it very easy to change a thread into an article and visa versa.

So, AMS out of the box is better for many to get an article system setup and underway. Whereas Xenporta is better for setting up a great front page portal. If you just want your front page to be article index-based with widgets: AMS. If you want more razzle-dazzle, but with more setup involved in the front page: Xenporta.

 

[motowebmaster]

Regarding my custom xf1 style, is it marked as "legacy" like xf1 plugins, after the upgrade to xf2.1 ?

I'd like to be able to view the templates in my old xf1 style if possible.

 

[Paul B]

No - XF1 templates are not visible in XF2.

 

[motowebmaster]

Ok, thanks for letting me know.

I re-imaged Pi 3B+, installed LAMP stack, and installed a fresh copy of xf1.5x on it with my XF1 Style. Interesting to see XF work in that scenario. It's on my LAN, not publicly accessible.

It will be funny if I never refer to it, but good that I've got it somewhere.