• Registered: 2005-05-02
  • Posts: 30

Topic: Questions after vBulletin --> PunBB

Hi,

I've converted from VB 3.x to PunBB, and am a happy camper! My first set of questions:

(1) I had only categories in my VB board, no forums. Just categories and then topics inside them. After converting, it seems PunBB is expecting some forums to display. How should I tell PunBB that  I had only categories and no forums?

(2) It seems the password storage mechanism is different across the two board softwares, so how should I manage the transfer -- will all of my users have to go through the "forgot password" rigmarole  at least once again?

(3) Is it possible to number of VIEWS of an entire FORUM (i.e., all TOPICS within it) on the first page?

(4) I'd like to change the PAGING code, i.e.. the way pages are displayed. Where can I find this code? Instead of "1 2....12" I would like to have "PREV .. 1 2 ...12 ...NEXT".

Thanks!
CM

  • From: 127.0.0.1
  • Registered: 2001-11-02
  • Posts: 9,167

Re: Questions after vBulletin --> PunBB

1. I'm not sure what you mean. What good is a bulletin board without any forums?

2. Yes, I'm afraid so. There really isn't anything we can do about this apart from change the way PunBB stores it's password hashes, but then we'll break the migration for some other forum.

3. Not without changing quite a lot of code.

4. It's in the function paginate() in include/functions.php

"Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life."

Rickard's Website

  • Registered: 2005-05-02
  • Posts: 30

Re: Questions after vBulletin --> PunBB

Thanks much Rickard.

(1) Ok, then how about having only forums, no categories? What's the easy way to change all my categories to forums, and have all the posts linked to the respective forums?

New question:

(5) I don't see an admin option for managing templates and whatnot, where can I do that sort of interface customization? (Sorry for this newbie question, I did go through the documentation). I want to include my sitewide menu on top, and, a sidebar on the right of the forums.

Thanks!!!

  • From: 127.0.0.1
  • Registered: 2001-11-02
  • Posts: 9,167

Re: Questions after vBulletin --> PunBB

1. I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you mean. I believe we have different opinions on what a category is. In PunBB, a category is merely a container for forums. All forums belong to a category and you must have at least one category. I can't imagine it works in any other way in vBulletin other than the fact that you can have subforums in vB.

2. http://punbb.org/docs/faq.html#faq3_3

"Programming is like sex: one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life."

Rickard's Website

5 Reply by Paul

  • Paul
  • Senior Member
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  • From: Wales, UK.
  • Registered: 2003-08-13
  • Posts: 3,089

Re: Questions after vBulletin --> PunBB

Just so we are speaking the same language. This is the vb3 index page.

http://www.post21.co.uk/files/vb31.png

6 Reply by craigm (edited by craigm 2005-05-04 02:50)

  • Registered: 2005-05-02
  • Posts: 30

Re: Questions after vBulletin --> PunBB

Yes, thanks Paul and Rickard. I want only one category. All my forums will go in there. I had this setup with VB, but while importing, I think somehow the converter has brought in all my forums as categories, and no forums. I guess I will have to figure out the structure and use some SQL. Given how much I am liking PunBB, it's worth the effort.

Although new questions:

(1) To simplify things even more, is it possible to disable the "Your post has been done" message? Can't I just reload the forum page after a post has been made?

(2) For number of views, some of my forums have millions of views. I would like the numbers to be separated by comma. Where can I use php command "number_format" to insert commas into the view count?

Thanks!

7 Reply by Paul

  • Paul
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  • From: Wales, UK.
  • Registered: 2003-08-13
  • Posts: 3,089

Re: Questions after vBulletin --> PunBB

I do wonder if it would be easier to use vb3's admin interface to change your forum structure to suit PunBB and then run the converter again. I've just got this strange feeling what you actually had was one forum and a bunch of sub-forums.

1. Set the redirect delay to 0 in admin/options

2. Have a look at line 218 of viewforum.php

  • Registered: 2005-05-02
  • Posts: 30

Re: Questions after vBulletin --> PunBB

Hi Paul

Thanks for 1 and 2.

For te forums structure, yes, I have all my 8 forums listed in the vbulletin "Forum Manager". I don't see any "Categories" at all in the admin interface of vbulletin. Each of these forums is enabled as "Act as Forum".

Furthermore, the documentation of vbulletin tells me:

There are two kinds of forums, a forum and a category. Forums can allow new threads and posts while categories cannot. Categories are used to group forums by topic. Forums of related topics are typically created as children of a parent category to group them by topic.

When adding / editing a forum there is an option called "Act as Forum". When this option is set to "Yes" the forum will act as a forum. When this option is set to "No" the forum will act as a category.

So, no, I don't have subforums. Only forums. Any thoughts?

9 Reply by Paul

  • Paul
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  • From: Wales, UK.
  • Registered: 2003-08-13
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Re: Questions after vBulletin --> PunBB

Does vbulletin allow you to create another forum set as "act as category" and then make all the other forums its children. In PunBB terms that would give you one category with x forums in it which is what you want.

10 Reply by craigm (edited by craigm 2005-05-04 11:35)

  • Registered: 2005-05-02
  • Posts: 30

Re: Questions after vBulletin --> PunBB

Good idea, let me try. Will report back, for posterity.

Edit: yoo hoo, it works! Hope this helps some vb convert in the future! smile

11 Reply by Paul

  • Paul
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  • Registered: 2003-08-13
  • Posts: 3,089

Re: Questions after vBulletin --> PunBB

Good, maybe an appropriate faq can be added to the converter.

To encapsulate the problem. If you have a vb3 board with all forums set to "act as forum" and no forums set to "act as category" then the converter will treat all the forums as categories. In order to convert, at least one forum must be set to "act as category" and the forums set to "act as forum" must be its children.