IPB to PHPBB

Databases
1

I am looking at downgrading my forum due to it not being popular as it once was.

I currently use IPB (www.avillafan.com/forum) but want to move to Phpbb which seems to be the best free forum software out there.

The problem is I can’t see to find out how to convert my database from one software to the other. It surely must be possible? I know I did it in the opposition direction a few years back.

I have tried both support forums for the softwares but both are as useless as the other.

Any help is much appreciated.

2

If you’ve used money already on IPB, I would recommend to keep on using it. If you switch from a paid application to an open source one, then you just basically threw your money away. Just because it isn’t “pleasing” to the eye, doesn’t mean it’s worth throwing your money away for. Unless it’s something that you don’t care for then you’ll have to figure out how both forums work. You’ll need to convert some of the tables to suit PHPBB. It’ll be difficult for the password part because they might be using different hashing algorithms so you may want to look into that.

3

The main reason for swapping is the ongoing cost.

Although not expensive - a license on IPB can cost around £60 a year (approx) which I feel could be spent better elsewhere on the website.

4

Alright. So like I said, you’ll have to figure out how both forums work. Since each forum software works differently, they might insert data differently. There isn’t a “one click-button” solution out there for this stuff. You’ll have to do a little bit of work yourself. I also mentioned another reason why this can be difficult due to the password hashing algorithms different software(s) use. It would be wise to look through some of the files to figure out what PHPBB is using and try to replicate this to convert IPB passwords to PHPBB. Though I don’t think this is possible unless IPB passwords are using something really easy to unhash and rehash. But I highly doubt it because this would be a security problem for IPB.

If you want a “one click-button” solution for this and don’t want to put in any effort, try searching “Convert IPB to PHPBB” on Google.

5

Thanks for your responses.

I did find a converter but it wasnt successful. I am not that ‘tech/code savy’ go go through the ins and outs of the MYSQL coding of the two forums etc.

6

That’s going to be a little bit of a challenge then. I don’t really think there is a converter for these software(s). If you don’t have a lot of users on the forum, then I’d suggest do a clean installation of PHPBB on a localhost version. Once you have that, you can try and create those user accounts again. For the passwords, I would recommend generating a password and sending the user the new password. Then tell them to reset the password as soon as they log into their new account. Then try to replicate the same contents you had on IPB. If there was some kind of specific post count on a user, try adding that in there. I know that in the past Sitepoint Forums actually switched from a different forum to Discourse. I don’t know the exact method they did to switch over so you might have to wait for a response from someone who knows. The only thing I can offer is recommending a manual switch that might take time to do.

7

Unfortunately that is exactly what is needed - a thorough understanding of both the “from” and the “to” database designs. Even then somethings might be missed or impossible to do (eg. incompatible password hashing).

If you can’t do it yourself, find working migration code, or don’t want to hire someone to do it for you, perhaps the best solution would be to close down the old forum and start the new fresh.

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