Faster Converter to phpbb3

[q250]

Hello,
I have problem, my forum have 390.000 posts and 90.000 users. Converting still take place, now its about 13 hours and till end it will be aproximetly 16 hours.... Its "ok" for me now, because i do this only for tests... but when i will be real moving to phpbb3 i cant shutdown forum for such long time.

My proposition? Add quick option for converting data faster, at once or use another algorith.

[Kevin Clark]

i cant shutdown forum for such long time

Why not?
It's only a day and if you tell them when you're doing it they won't be too bothered, surely.

By the way, out of interest, that doesn't sound like many posts for the number of users. Only an average of 4 each.

[q250]

Because day without working is heavy finansal lost from advertise... user lost ---> more finansal lost etc.

Yup because of best information in this 390.000 posts... we got up to 1044 users online

[Ash Hi Fi Zone]

Because day without working is heavy finansal lost from advertise... user lost ---> more finansal lost etc.

Yup because of best information in this 390.000 posts... we got up to 1044 users online

I think the best way you can do the conversion would be to disable your forum, download the DB and convert the DB on your locahost and then upload the db back to the server onto a fresh phpBB installation - this might speed things a lil bit

[Nicholas the Italian]

I think the best way you can do the conversion would be to disable your forum, download the DB and convert the DB on your locahost and then upload the db back to the server onto a fresh phpBB installation - this might speed things a lil bit

Or maybe not.
time(dowload + convert_local + upload) < time(convert_remote) ? I don't think so, unless you're on a very very slow shared server.
And you can't (shouldn't) enable your board while you're converting off-line, or those messages will vanish once you upload the converted db.
If phpbb.com can manage 8 days off, you can manage 16 hours off.

[Kevin Clark]

Because day without working is heavy finansal lost from advertise... user lost ---> more finansal lost etc.

Yup because of best information in this 390.000 posts... we got up to 1044 users online

So why not make a redirected page with all your ads on?
If you explain why the forum will be offline for a day (and it is only ONE day) and do it well in advance, I can't see you losing users. That's just daft if people don't come back because you're offline for one day for some maintenance.

Your other option of course is to stay on phpBB2. You don't HAVE to upgrade and v2 will be supported for a long time to come yet.

[Ash Hi Fi Zone]

Or maybe not.
time(dowload + convert_local + upload) < time(convert_remote) ? I don't think so, unless you're on a very very slow shared server.
And you can't (shouldn't) enable your board while you're converting off-line, or those messages will vanish once you upload the converted db.
If phpbb.com can manage 8 days off, you can manage 16 hours off.

There is one advantage to my method... In case your internet connection or your server connection goes offline even temporarily you lose all the work which was in progress.... Besides you are bound to have the backup db in any case..... Downloading the phpBB 2 db without the search tables itself will reduce the db's size..... And today almost everyone has a good broadband or higher internet connection with a minimum rate of 256kbps..... So download and upload's time can be quite faster...

yes I agree that you need to disable the board anyway.... One more advantage of my method is you can make all the changes to the converted database much faster on your localhost than on a remote one and it is quite secure too .....

[q250]

Well good idea i will try do it in offline mod... why? Coz complete conversion took not 16 but 36 hours... and in the end, i got -326 users, -5 posts and no forums displayed on index... data in database was pretty much good (posts, users) but displaying it was bad, something go wrong. So im going to make fun on offline mode.

Next thing that isn't mentioned in any doc's is:

// Batch size, can be adjusted by the conversion file
// For big boards a value of 6000 seems to be optimal
var $batch_size = 2000;


Which will help a lot i hope in install_convert.php

[code reader]

I think the best way you can do the conversion would be to disable your forum, download the DB and convert the DB on your locahost and then upload the db back to the server onto a fresh phpBB installation - this might speed things a lil bit

that's not necessary.
there is no need to disable the board, and lose revenues and readers.
you only need to disable posting and registration for the duration of the conversion, practically making your board "static content" for this time.
if you also post a good explanation of why this is done, i think most of your users will be willing to live with it.
it is relatively easy to block posting with phpbb2, however, you will need a small hack to block subscription for this period.
so the order of operation is such:

1. install and activate hack to block registration
2. use ACP to block posting. users can still browse your forum and click on ads for the duration of the process.
3. full backup
4. copy backup (both files and DB) to local machine
5. convert locally
6. backup local olympus board
7. install olympus on host
8. restore on host the backup created on (6)
9. verify that everything is in place: forums, posts, users, administrators, moderators, avatars, smilies, ads, etc.
10. at this point you may want to organize your forums with some hierarchy, or not.
11. last step: switch from old board to new board

the beauty is that you can exercise all the steps except the first two and the last until you feel comfortable with the process, and then do it. also, if anything goes wrong, you undo steps 1 and 2, find and fix the problem, and then repeat.

good luck.

[Ash Hi Fi Zone]

Yes what code reader has suggested is a nice option.... The main reason I m stressing doing the conversion locally is that you have more control over the DB than on the remote.... If you seem to miss some users or some posts then file a bug report for the phpBB 2 to phpBB 3 converter and also for the one you pointed out too.....