Important Converting PNphpBB2 to Kunena

I am converting my PostNuke site with PNphpBB2 forums to Joomla, Community Builder and Kunena. Before I decided on using Kunena I was going to use phpBB3. I have already migrated my users over and I have all of my other data migrated, I am just to the point where I would like to move my Forum data.

My question is this: Is there an easy way to convert the existing posts from PNphpBB2 to Kunena without needing to migrate the users at the same time?

I have been trying to find out how to do this, but the posts I have seen are very old and don't really answer my question. I would like a simple process to do this, and not have to run though a gambit of updates just to find out it will not work because of something else.

G'day, soddoff (??? - what is that about and why did you choose that username?), and welcome to Kunena.

The simple fact of the matter is that if you are migrating a standalone web-based forum like PNphpBB2, punBB, phpBB and others like them, is that you also need to move across your users, too. Otherwise your forum won't make any sense.

Is there a simple way to do this? It depends on your definition of "simple". Others have written how to convert other forums to Kunena and to migrated them (and their users) across to Joomla. I haven't seen anything specifically about PNphpBB2 but perhaps if you search on that keyword here, or possibly in the JED , you might find some tips or some specific solution that applies to Kunena.

Maybe someone else has been in your situation before and they might have some suggestions for you.

Thanks for the reply sozzled, and g'day.

Yes I chose that name, and I have been going by it online for many years now. So "Why the name 'SoddOff'?" The short answer: Originality. I have been playing FPS games online seriously for many years but I really wanted a name that people would know me by, and also because most of the names I used in the past were quite common. So when Soldier of Fortune II came out I typed in the first name that came to me what I went to play online. "SoddOff!" Why did I think of that name? It is a homage to the British TV show "The Black Adder", so I just ran with it and it stuck. Now that that is out of the way lets get back on topic...

My PNphpBB2 install was part of a PostNuke installation so the account info was shared. I have already migrated my users, passwords, and news/stories from PostNuke but I have not found a way to migrate the forum posts and other related data. I have been looking for a way to do this for days now, but I have not really found anything. No tools or good up to date how-to guides. Most of the things I have seen say to convert to a version of phpBB2 then go FireBoard, then to Kunena (or something like that), but that process seems like something is guaranteed to fail. I am trying to see if there is a way to do this migration where it will succeed. I have looked though JED and searched this site before I posted. I am still looking but was hoping some reader may have the answer I am looking for.

Thanks for the detailed explanation (see also my PM to you).

If you understand how Joomla works, you will know that Joomla extensions use a common user database. Kunena is no different. Kunena also contains other data that is need by users to operate within the forum - for example, whether an account has forum moderation privileges, etc.

If you've migrated and/or converted your PNphpBB2 users to Joomla then they will be able to operate within the Joomla-Kunena context. The overall approach to migrating your existing forum messages is the same irrespective of what software they were originally created by. Essentially, you need to create a map the SQL table columns used the originating forum into the Kunena table structure. It would take too long to describe the details of that approach, but with a bit of patience you should be able to work things through using past experiences as a guide.

I have long held the view that it's often better to leave behind old forums and let them die a natural death. Many of the things that were discussed (sometimes years ago) are no longer relevant today, or the users who contributed to those threads no longer have the same interests and they've left to pursue other areas of interest to them. To put it rather bluntly - and I intend no offence to anyone when I write this - are we obsessed with migration? Anyway, that's off-topic, too.

As I mentioned before, I wish you success and I hope that you get this project sorted out for yourself.

You are welcome for the explanation.

My past experiences with migrating my users and content was finding a script that someone else did, made sure tables it referenced were correct and ran the script. I did not write the script and bu no means claim to know my head from my elbow when it comes to writing PHP/SQL. I know just enough to recognize -some- calls and commands but that is about it... So my experience guide could probably fit on a packet of sugar.

I have tried leaving my old forums behind once before (around 5 years ago) and all I got from that was 75% fewer users. It crippled my site. There was active conversations and games running which were lost. While I gave warnings there was a huge backlash. So I am not willing to have anything list this happen again, and running 2 forums is not an option. To much work to maintain it all.

I fully plan to prune old messages, but the current conversations are the ones I want to keep, and I hope you understand why migration is important. It is not because I am trying to move all my old crap from one board system to another, it is that I want to move current things and not make waves.

I will continue my search then because from what I am seeing in the comments is there is no interest in migration, though I could be wrong, but if I am not that is very disappointing.

Thanks for your time anyway.

I think you have one thing wrong. And that is that in the past there have been a lot of topics about migrating forums to Kunena. But the developers have a very big job in making Kunena 1.6. In 1.6 a very big part of the old code is gone, Kunena is much faster and will be ready for Joomla 1.6. So they spend all their time on that and the questions about migrating faded a little.

I'm pretty sure after the final is out they will try to spend some time on all the other requests made by the community. They can only do so much in one time.

I agree with what DTP2 wrote. There has been a lot of interest, there has been a large investment of users' time, in converting other forums to Kunena and in assisting users with "migrating" their old sites. There is still a keen interest to broaden the scope of what other forums can be satisfactorily transformed into Kunena and this work is ongoing.

However, I think it's also reasonable to say that (as far as the development team is concerned) there are other higher priority issues at the moment and when there's time to look into your question I am confident that you will get better advice than the little I've been able to provide to you. I'm sorry, but converting from "Brand X" forums to Kunena is not my speciality.

I understand wanting to continue development on v1.6, and I applaud you on that. New is always(?) better, especially when it adds new features and is streamlined with less bugs. I figured I would say something as I have seen more than a few requests for information on this topic in the forums when you search for it, but there has never been a definitive solution to those who have asked.

After some more searching via Google I have decided to try the Migrate PNphpBB2 to phpBB3 then Migrate phpBB3 to Kunena . While a round about process and not as quick as I would have liked I am now starting the second part of the process. Once I am done I figure I will just be able to import the data to the existing site and not have to look back... That is if I am lucky.

So, again, thanks for you time.

After some fighting, retries even a few database restores (all on a test installation) I can say I have gotten my data migrated. It was some work, and not easy, but it can be done if you have a couple hours.

Cheers!

As an epilogue to this topic let us revisit something that was stated at the beginning:

soddoff wrote: I have been trying to find out how to do this, but the posts I have seen are very old and don't really answer my question.

The essential problem that we, moderators and other users of Kunena, continually face is that users complain about the lack of detailed instruction, then they figure out a solution and post "Hey, guess what, I solved my problem!" and the rest of us are staring at train tracks, trying to figure out which way the train went. :laugh:

I'm glad things worked out well for you, soddoff, and thank you for writing back to say that everything is now the way you want it to be. We really appreciate that. I don't really expect you to update this topic with the detailed steps that you used (which might help someone else) because there are enough breadcrumbs scattered here to get others started; however, perhaps now you will understand why it's difficult for us to find help for other users who may be in your situation.

Best regards.