Migrating the forum software to Xenforo

J

Jeff W

Administrator
Staff member
Let's use this as the canonical thread for discussing various issues and feedback related to the migration to Xenforo.

If at any point you run into a problem where you can't login, you can reach me via email at support@themouthpiece.com

Issues that have cropped up so far:

1) Usernames can't contain commas. 7 users affected, I removed the comma from their usernames and emailed them that if losing the comma breaks the meaning of their username, I'm happy to switch them to a different username.

2) Cannot have multiple usernames per email address. 8 users affected, but after digging into it, it looks like they all registered both accounts initially and then never used one of them. So I just deleted the unused accounts.

3) Usergroup membership is currently structured a bit different than how it will work in Xenforo, so I'm reorganizing it to make it more like Xenforo which will make the migration process easier. All the changes are backend only, so you shouldn't notice anything different. However, if you do have any problems with not being able to login or post in certain forums, please email me.


I'll update this as I encounter more issues that may directly affect you. And feel free to chime in with any bug reports, requests, or suggestions.

Cheers,
Jeff
 
Cornet Nev.

Cornet Nev.

Member
I am a member already of two different computer help sites using Xenforo so I already know the set up from a users point of view. However the forum layout and styles are quite different to this vBulletin one. I therefore hope that users may have a choice of style as there is now.

For an idea of the styles presented, here are two links to the aforementioned Xenforo sites.

http://computerhelpforums.com/ (I am a moderator on this site, but not on the next one)

http://exts.org/

When folks find me you can't miss the valves going up and down on the cornet avatar LOL.
 
J

Jeff W

Administrator
Staff member
I'm a total idiot when it comes to design/layout, so I tend to use off-the-shelf designs, and there's a number to pick from.

Most probably what will happen is I'll first focus on migrating the site and just use the default skin while I clean up all the various details that need to happen like usergroups, making sure mods have the right permissions, etc and then work on finding a site skin that feels comfortable to use.

I don't mind shelling out the dough for a premium skin, and the two companies that tend to be leading the way in Xenforo skins are PixelExit and Audentio. If you have any of their skins that look appealing, let me know. Primarily look at which layout you like, as it's easy to customize colors/images on any of the skins.

Cornet Nev - Do you like/dislike the default Xenforo skin? I think it's not bad, but feels a little dated with the blue gradients.

I wasn't a fan of the exts.org skin, the colors and straight lines were little too harsh and jarring for me.

Personally, I like the Audentio Drift skin, to me it feels like a clean design that's still friendly and good attention to detail. A friend of mine owns phantompilots.com and I think something similar would like nice for tMP.
 
Cornet Nev.

Cornet Nev.

Member
I only gave the two links so other members can have a look at the styles, I tend to be a person that prefers an easy to read style that doesn't make you go yergh when colours either clash or are too stark, so as far as style here goes, I would be giving the usual list of available styles and see what the members think, and then select whichever seems the most popular to make as the default.
Always best to be democratic I think.
 
J

Jeff W

Administrator
Staff member
FYI - I haven't forgotten about this.

I've done a couple of test imports, and the forum migration worked flawlessly, but the image gallery had some problems.

I've filed a ticket with Xenforo, and as soon as we get that resolved I'll be able to move forward. Image gallery is a relatively small part of the site, but I'd still like to make sure everything comes across nicely when we do the migration.

I've already written/tested the URL rewrite rules, so that when we do migrate, the old vBulletin URLs will get forwarded to the correct posts/threads/user profiles.
 
J

Jeff W

Administrator
Staff member
The initial migration has been completed. There's still a lot of work left, but the site is at least usable.

Right now the site is running the default Xenforo skin, but I'll probably upgrade it to something a bit more custom in the next few weeks.

Let me know if you hit issues or questions...
 
Bob Sherunkle

Bob Sherunkle

Active Member
Looks like a disaster to me and threads viewed earlier today have disappeared.

Seemed fine to me as it was.

But then again I am not a qualified IT expert...
 
Pauli Walnuts

Pauli Walnuts

Moderator
Staff member
Hi jeff, I am seeing issues with imported tables and missing posts - this thread is an example where I know there had been later replies plus the tablie on this page is not formatting correctly.

cheers
Andy
 
tat

tat

Member
Is there a way of switching so the latest post comes up first rather than going to the last page and scrolling down?
 
J

Jeff W

Administrator
Staff member
Spent the day with family visiting from out of town, and headed to bed (late here stateside) so will continuing working on the site tomorrow.

Bob Sherunkle said:
threads viewed earlier today have disappeared.
Click to expand...
I put up a warning notice on the old site when I started the migration that I'd done the data export and any posts from that point forward would be lost. I should have specified that all activity from that point forward wouldn't be reflected, such as viewing threads, PM's, etc.

Pauli Walnuts said:
I am seeing issues with imported tables and missing posts - this thread is an example where I know there had been later replies plus the tablie on this page is not formatting correctly.
Click to expand...
Hmm... appreciate the report, but I'm not able to reproduce. I still have access to the old server, and this particular thread isn't missing any posts between old/new servers. Were you thinking of a different thread? Also can you clarify what you mean by tables? I'm not seeing any issues... maybe a screenshot? I don't see any tables in this thread.
Will definitely (try to) fix it once I can reproduce.

tat said:
Is there a way of switching so the latest post comes up first rather than going to the last page and scrolling down?
Click to expand...
Good question. There's no way to invert the posts ordering, but if I remember right, Xenforo will track which posts you've viewed, so when you open a thread it'll pop you to the newest unread post in the thread. Let me know if that functionality isn't working for you and I'll dig into it more.
 
tat

tat

Member
Jeff W said:
Good question. There's no way to invert the posts ordering, but if I remember right, Xenforo will track which posts you've viewed, so when you open a thread it'll pop you to the newest unread post in the thread. Let me know if that functionality isn't working for you and I'll dig into it more.
Click to expand...
No just goes to page 1 of 5 on the area 2016 test piece thread
 
J

Jeff W

Administrator
Staff member
I put up a quick logo--it's not great, but it's better than the default Xenforo logo and will suffice until I have time to fix it.

Pauli Walnuts said:
Hi Jeff - I did include the link to the offending page but that seems to have stripped out. Here it is again: 2016 Area Test Piece Rumours | Page 5 | theMouthPiece.com
Click to expand...
Gotcha--that makes a lot more sense!
After comparing the old vs new server, I think the posts in there that are missing are just ones that were made while I was in the midst of migration and so didn't get caught when I copied the database export over. Just a couple look like they're missing.

For the borked table, it looks like the problem is vBulletin had custom BBCode for tables. It's not standard HTML, and it's not BBCode that's supported out of the box by Xenforo. I did a quick database search, and 730 posts contain '[/TABLE]', which is too many to fix by hand. I'm going to post on the Xenforo support forum and see if anyone knows of a decent solution. At one time, there was an addon from an independent developer that handled this, but the developer was booted from Xenforo forums for shady stuff like putting backdoors in people's forums, so unfortunately that addon isn't a realistic option.

stevetrom said:
the new format is fine but how do I change my settings so that the latest post is at the top
Click to expand...
Just so I'm clear, when you say 'latest post at the top', do you mean on the forum home page or within a specific thread you want the posts ordered in reverse chronological order?
The latter isn't possible unfortunately, but as long as you're logged-in, Xenforo will automatically track which posts you've read and move you to the most recent unread post.

Also, FYI that I'm heading off to go backpacking in the mountains tomorrow and will be completely offline for the next few days. Keep posting if you have problems and I'll fix pronto once I return.
 
Bbmad

Bbmad

Active Member
Jeff W said:
Also, FYI that I'm heading off to go backpacking in the mountains tomorrow and will be completely offline for the next few days. Keep posting if you have problems and I'll fix pronto once I return.
Click to expand...
Keep a look out for Bears and cougars
 
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