• Registered: 2005-11-13
  • Posts: 7

Topic: Converting from IPB with subforums?

Hello,

First of all thanks for making a board that focuses on the real purpose and use of a board and not a bunch of bloat.  Reminds me of wwwthreads before they got bought out; still one of the most full featured intelligent use boards... but couldnt handle performance.

I needed subforums on my site and switched to IPB.  Wow what a mistake.  From an admin perspective its ass backwards and has no site integration without being a "skinner".

My Question: id like to switch to punbb with the subforum mod to take in the subforums from IPB in their correct heirarchy.  Is this possible with the migration tool?

Thanks

  • Smartys
  • Former PunBB Developer
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2004-04-30
  • Posts: 7,844

Re: Converting from IPB with subforums?

I'd do a test conversion on a backup of the forum first, to see how it converts.
What should happen is that every forum will become a normal forum. Then, install the sub forum mod and turn the appropriate forums back into subforums

  • Registered: 2005-11-13
  • Posts: 7

Re: Converting from IPB with subforums?

Thats what I was afraid of.. we have a few hundred subforums.

Thanks I will give it a shot.

One more question, how does punBB handle upgrading when you have mods such as subforum and instant message mod?  Do you have to remod your board each upgrade?

4 Reply by Smartys (edited by Smartys 2005-11-13 23:14)

  • Smartys
  • Former PunBB Developer
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2004-04-30
  • Posts: 7,844

Re: Converting from IPB with subforums?

You can use the patch file or the hdiff
and a few hundred subforums? :-/
Let me check out the convertor code, see if there's a hack

Edit: Since I know very little of the DB structure of IPB, do you have "categories" and "forums", with forums being subforums?

  • Registered: 2005-11-13
  • Posts: 7

Re: Converting from IPB with subforums?

Thanks,

Actually the way it works is they just have a parentid field in the ibf_forums table.  They have another field that defines wether or not users can post to that forum essentially being the switch between category and forum.

Our site is like a sourceforge for niche 3d programs, so each file can have its own forum.  We then assign the owner of the file as the moderator of that forum.  We have over 10,000 files so good thing we are already looking to make a switch now (only had that system up for 2 months).

If you want I can give you a sql structure dump of ipb.

  • Smartys
  • Former PunBB Developer
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2004-04-30
  • Posts: 7,844

Re: Converting from IPB with subforums?

Mmm, that would be a good idea
smartys@gmail.com

  • Registered: 2005-11-13
  • Posts: 7

Re: Converting from IPB with subforums?

ok sending you one now

8 Reply by Smartys (edited by Smartys 2005-11-14 00:16)

  • Smartys
  • Former PunBB Developer
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2004-04-30
  • Posts: 7,844

Re: Converting from IPB with subforums?

Mmm, this might take a bit of work
Sec
Do you have more than 1 category?

  • Registered: 2005-11-13
  • Posts: 7

Re: Converting from IPB with subforums?

yes we have multiple forums which have children.

You can see an example here of a forum which is 5 levels deep and has 6 children itself:
http://www.highend3d.com/boards/index.php?showforum=316

Thanks
Will

10 Reply by Smartys (edited by Smartys 2005-11-14 00:58)

  • Smartys
  • Former PunBB Developer
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2004-04-30
  • Posts: 7,844

Re: Converting from IPB with subforums?

OK, one more question

You have, say, this: http://www.highend3d.com/boards/index.php?showforum=286
Then you have this: http://www.highend3d.com/boards/index.php?showforum=307
Then you have this: http://www.highend3d.com/boards/index.php?showforum=314
Then you have this: http://www.highend3d.com/boards/index.php?showforum=315
Then you have this: http://www.highend3d.com/boards/index.php?showforum=316
And finally you have this: http://www.highend3d.com/boards/index.php?showforum=317

Now, is 286's parent_id -1?

And are you certain the subforum mod supports subforums to that degree (I've never used it or looked at the code, so I can't tell)

  • Registered: 2005-11-13
  • Posts: 7

Re: Converting from IPB with subforums?

Yes, 286 has parent_id -1.

No I havent' installed the mod yet.  I asked my question here before attempting anything.  I will check it out, but all the different softwares i've seen handle subforums the same; just assigning a parent id and giving it a switch for category or forum.

Thanks for your time and support.