Hi all,
I have been host to a certain online community for over a decade now. About 8 years ago I started a discussion page, which a few years later got upgraded to a forum by way of ikonboard or something similar (I forget). Anyway, a few years back I started using phpBB, and this has been the forum software that has remained and is still powering the community (of a few thousand-strong) today. However, it has had a few mods put in (primarily subscription and attachment mods, plus a bolted on gallery, all of which I know are present in vbulletin vanilla).
These days I am begining to feel like I am struggling with phpBB, and cant seem to easily upgrade it round the mods i have made, and have problems with the subscription system (called aMember Pro), which isnt entirely too well integrated. The forum members have kindly donated a bit of cash, which has gone mostly towards hosting and bandwidth, but I feel some can be used to begin afresh with some supported forum software like vbulletin. It certainly seems to be the one that keeps coming up as most used and usable...
The problem is is that I am very worried about the transition from my current phpbb mess to the shiny new vbulletin system. I know a fair bit about phpbb now because I do a bit of coding myself... but I am nowhere near as good at php and mysql as I'd like to be, and vbulletin is very unfamiliar grounds. I also have a feeling that running the free trial as a demo for another site still wont get me up to speed quick enough to perform a conversion myself. So basically, I would like to know what kind of help is available to me in this area. Is there anyone who might be able to do this for a small fee?
Also, for historical and nostalgic reasons (and so as not to shock my users too much), I'd really like to keep the design as similar to the previous forum as possible. Of course I don't mean masking the new interface at all, but I really want the overall design, layout and icons to be exactly what they were. Again, as I am not a designer, and I am most certainly not familiar with vbulletin templates, it would take me a very long time to learn how to do this (even if I could find the time in the first place). So again, is there someone who can do these kinds of things for a fair price?
After the full licence purchase of vbulletin, I really won't have many funds in the coffers at the moment, so I'm not talking commercial-style cash here but I'm certainly open to discussion. I am still looking at other options but am very interested to see what kind of help is available and what we can do with vbulletin.
Thanks,
Alek.
I can assure you though that you most certainly will not ever regret doing so.
After just migrating from phpBB I couldn't agree more. I only wished I did it sooner, VB is just simply superior in every way. VB is money well spent IMHO.
Cheers
After just migrating from phpBB I couldn't agree more. I only wished I did it sooner, VB is just simply superior in every way. VB is money well spent IMHO.
CheersMe too.Grade job:).Alek i make the transfer from phpbb without problems.I didnt lost even one post!!So dont worry.
I migrated from phpBB to vB several years ago and quite simply haven't looked back at all. There is a script called ImpEx (Import / Export) which effectively does the migration job for you. You simply tell it where the source and desination db's are and way to go... well, almost anyway!
Thief - Missions Forum [Archive] - Eidos Forums::
Need some help Schwaa2 or anyone please Left for Dead? Finished Lord Alans Fortress Minor update to Maguire available. Help with D Thief Platinum vs Thief Gold
http://forums.eidosgames.com/archive/index.php/f-45.htmlHOME |
Desperately need help :/::
my share of forums before (smf, vBulletin and phpbb), websites designer or developper might disagree with you and think the exact opposite (actually, I do)
http://modxcms.com/forums/index.php?topic=28786.0HOME |
As for the style - if you wanted the exact same look as you have on your phpBB forum you would need permisison from the phpBB style author to port their style to vB, and then you'd need to get someone to do the custom phpBB>vB style design for you.
As for help around here: there's a gazillion people who are here and who would help, there's no real need to pay anyone to do this. Once you're a registered license owner you will be able to post in the other specialist forums and receive all the help you need to successfully migrate from phpBB to vB.
vB is a super BB application and you will find that many of the hacks you have installed and use on your phpBB site are actually part of the standard feature set of vB. Don't get the wrong idea about a free trial though.. there isn't one of these that you can use. There is a trial Admin area, but not one that you can use for a migration. You need to purchase a vB license and go from there.
I can assure you though that you most certainly will not ever regret doing so.
I think people are missing the point about the 3rd party subscription db. : I guess I'm going to have to just do it manually somehow...
Musicman, thanks.. I'll pm you.
Thanks Musicman and Abdujap,
I dont think the issue here is whether vbulletin is worth it or not, as it clearly is, and I know vbulletin has all the mods I need or want. :)
However, I'm not so sure about how easy it will be to migrate from my installation of phpbb. As I said in my original post, there is a 3rd party subscription program I'm using which has seperate db tables for registered users... This will somehow have to be correlated when the vbulletin users are set up. I know for a fact that if I do it myself it will take a fairly long time to get right and I'll probably screw it up first few times.. :( Hence I really think I need to find a "specialist" and offer some payment for services rendered... or at least to help see me through by taking a look at the db and setup and let me know if im gonna be in big trouble or not... I was kind of hoping that someone from vBulletin may offer some kind of help in this as a bit of side work? :o
For the design, the phpbb template was custom made for me so permission is not a problem (although I will probably let them know beforehand). And for the "need to get someone to do the custom phpBB>vB style design" - are there any specific forum areas or websites where such people can be contacted?
Thanks,
Alek.
Well, I have done a few conversions of phpBB styles to vB, but not graphically rich ones. PM me the URL of your phpBB forum and I shall take a look for you and see if I am able to do it.
 Red Hat's Rough Recovery From CFO Exit
 Windows Live Finds a New, Pre-installed Home |
PRINT
Add to favorites