Forum module: Discussion thread for converting PHPBB data

thank you for that suggestion. is this the type of thing you would be interested in doing? How much would you charge? Feel free to send me a private message with more information.

I could possibly do this for other people but first I would like to…

1. Run through the process again with my own data.
2. Document the steps as I go through them and post them on the forum.
3. If possible have a developer or support person look over the docs to “sign off” on the process. While I did not see any problems with my own setup, I would feel more comfortable about the process if Rick, Paul, or Chris were to confirm that all relevant data points are handled in the process.

I should be able to get through 1 and 2 by the end of the weekend. We will then see if I can get someone to look at them and confirm that I have not left anything out. From there I will look into setting up some sort of test system so that we can verify the process worked correctly. At that time we can talk further about having me perform the steps for you if you are still interested.

I am also interested in finding out how can I convert a phpBB forum into EE. Any detailed instructions will be appreciated.

that is fine. I am going to go ahead and try to convert it myself if I have any spare time but if you beat me to it I would be very interested in you doing it.

I got all the user names data into the EE format in excel But could you give me more details on how to save/format it and then upload it into the database? And the unique id, what should I do about that?

Gratz on taking the first steps to getting your forum converted. Getting the databases into Excel is the easy part 😊

could you give me more details on how to save/format it and then upload it into the database? And the unique id, what should I do about that?

This is the meat of the process. I will indeed tell you how to do this, but this information will have to come in the documentation that I will write. The question can be asked in one sentence, but unfortuanately the answer will have to be a lengthy write-up. Your question about the unique ID has allready been answered in this thread, just look back a few posts.

I looked at the stuff about the unique id, and from what I got from it is that instead of copying the user information from the phpbb excel spreadsheet to the EE spreadsheet I should have first imported it using the MT import then do the spreadsheet editing. Second, the people in that thread had some issues getting it to work, did it work fine for you? Patience is a virtue I have been lacking lately and I will just bit my tongue about some of the other things until you get your documentation done…sorry 😊

If the unique_id is holding you up, don’t worry too much about that part. If you run a search on unique_id on the forums you will find a wealth of information. Basically the unique_id is simply… a unique id 😊

Take a look at the members table in EE and you will see the unique that is attatched to each of your numbers. In my own setup my account has 32 characters while everyone else has 40. I am not sure why there is a difference but I don’t think it matters that much. This number is randomly generated and you can do the same. Looking at the other unique ID’s you will see they consist of random numbers and lower case letters.

Here is one way you can create your own list for the unique_id field…

1. Go to http://www.winguides.com/security/password.php or any other random password generator site.
2. Make the generator spit out the longest list of 40 character passwords that consists of only numbers and lower case letters.
3. Import that list into the unique_id field of your members table for each user that you want to import into the system (I do all of this in Excel.)

Here is more information from Rick in another thread… http://ellislab.com/forums/viewthread/26982/

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thank you for your help, that is far from the only thing holding me up haha. But I will just wait until you get done with your documentation.

Why wait for me? Just keep going. That is how I did it, I just figured it out. Getting the users switched over is half the battle. The users part is actually pretty easy because tthere is relatively little information that needs to go into the database for each user. The forum data is a little more tricky because you have to figure out what tables contain information you need, and then you need to find out how to relate those tables into the EE database.

Well there are two problems holding me back from getting the excel tables into the database, and I have searched all over the Web, and I can’t seem to find a solution. The first, and biggest problem, is I have everything in an excel document right, but how do a get that into the database using phpAdmin? I have played around with it a lot, trying different combinations, but nothing seems to work. The other problem is that I am unsure of what some of the values mean and what to set for them in the exp_member_homepage table. Below are the ones I am unsure of and my guess, but like I said, I’m not sure:

recent_entries- if the user wants to be displayed in the recent entries recent_entries_order recent_comments - if the user wants to be displayed in the recent comments recent_comments_order recent_members - if the user wants to be displayed in the recent members recent_members_order site_statistics - if the user wants to be displayed in the stats for the site site_statistics_order member_search_form - if the user wants to be displayed in the member search form member_search_form_order

Well this is why I need to go back and do this again. My memory is a little fuzzy on this stuff. There is a way to import entries into Excel and then export them as the same format as you imported them in. I believe I used CSV. So you export the database in PHPMyAdmin in CSV, and then import them as a CSV file into Excel, make the changes, then export again as a CSV file. You should then be able to import the whole shebang again into PHPMyAdmin. Everything else is basically a matching game. You make your information look just like the information that is allready in EE… just add to it. That should get you most of the way, but there may still be some things that don’t make sense. When you get to that point I can help you more. I won’t be able to really start working on this until this weekend.

I cant get the spreadsheet to export in a way that looks anything close to what the original did

Phil:

recent_entries- if the user wants to be displayed in the recent entries 
recent_entries_order 
recent_comments - if the user wants to be displayed in the recent comments 
recent_comments_order 
recent_members - if the user wants to be displayed in the recent members 
recent_members_order 
site_statistics - if the user wants to be displayed in the stats for the site 
site_statistics_order 
member_search_form - if the user wants to be displayed in the member search form 
member_search_form_order

All of these have default values in the table. You don’t have to set any values for them.

The only thing you have to pass for sure is member_id.

If you use EE’s PHP routines inside of a template (which is how I do my imports) then you can “borrow” code from the way EE handles registration. A lot easier than going back in using PHPMyAdmin.

Look for insert_id in the EE files.

I also use getcsv which allows me to get the contents of a row in a .csv file.

Random number:

$randnbr = $FNS->random(‘encrypt’);

Just enough info to get you started.

Thanks for the advice. But a couple questions, how do you import them using EE’s templates? And what is this getcvs? I did some searching on google and didn’t really find anything that explained what it was. If I sent you the 3 tables could you convert them into CVSs for me? Or is that too much work. I really don’t know what I am doing haha, I am learning as I’m going and don’t know how hard things are til they are done haha.