Updating from 2.0.x to 3.0.0

[mansuetus]

Well, that sound quite clear. I'm looking forward downloading that "convert script" and discover its features ^^

[SamG]

Yeah, it'll be fun to see how it all works out.

Now that I think about it, though, I probably also should have said that I imagine any other MODs the developers decide to support in the conversion script (if any) would have to have similar functionality already in phpBB 3.0 …

[TimJBart]

When I update my 2.0.20 board to 3.0 I want to get rid of every mod I have ever installed and start afresh. What is the best way of doing this?

I just want to keep the posts in the database, nothing else.

Is it gonna be a case of deleting the whole install of phpbb2, installing a fresh phpbb3 in the same location and then uploading the old database which contains all the old posts?

I want to lose everything other than the posts, is this possible?

[tannie]

Yes it is very much possible provided phpBB 3.0 doesn't change the table names for users, posts & all the lot.

Anyways this process does mean a hell lot of work for you. I had done this once while changing hosts but that was 2.0.19 to 2.0.19... but what the heck users & posts don't matter on the version of phpBB.

Steps..
1. Take full database backup on your hard drive of previous forum.

2. Edit your SQL file to include only the forums, users, their posts & probably also user permissions. This may mean including 3 or 4 tables, don't remember all of them though.

3. Recheck that the tables do not include columns/rows added by any mods.

4. When you are done check that all table edits use ALTER TABLE. This is to avoid unnecessary errors.

5. Finally upload your file into the phpMyAdmin SQL query.

You are done...

Pls note that I have just given a rough idea of how to go about it. Please even check things yourself first before blindly following what I have said....

[Twillingate.info]

As some of the other members said, I won't be adding any modifications to my current phpBB 2 board, because I am waiting for phpBB 3.

I'm very excited for this version.

[EXreaction]

As some of the other members said, I won't be adding any modifications to my current phpBB 2 board, because I am waiting for phpBB 3.

I'm very excited for this version.

Heh, I will add all kinds of mods yet probably.
(I know how to easily remove all mods and get back to a clean phpBB2 install without losing posts and the importiant stuff...I can do it within a matter of minutes...so phpBB3 won't stop me from modding. )

[Eelke]

TimJBart: the one important point will be that no mods altered your database too far from standard.

Presumably, the converter that will come with phpBB 3.0 will simply read all info from the phpBB2 tables and insert it into a bunch of new tables. As long as queries that are created to access a "vanilla" phpBB2 database still work on your setup, you'll be fine. In fact, if that's the way it works it would "automatically" ignore any additions that mods have made to your database.

So, if you have any mods that add colums or complete tables, that shouldn't be a problem. If you have mods that change standard database fields, that may be a bigger problem, because the converter may not be able to make sense of the info anymore. It would be up to the mod author to provide you with some kind of way to make your db compatible again with standard phpBB2. I'm by no means an expert on all the mods that are available, so I am actually not sure how common it is for mods to alter the standard database structure, but I would think it to be uncommon because it is a bad idea to do so unless there is really no other way to get the mod to do what it's intended to do (precisely because of upgrading considerations).

[tannie]

All I did was to provide guidelines on how ignore unnecessary tables** (tables you can do without) when transferring your users & posts,etc.

It is pretty rare for mods to alter the original phpBB fields in tables. They usually just add rows or create new tables for use. Shouldn't be difficult for a trained eye to recover useful data from the sea of information on screen.



** This does not mean that you remove those tables from your new install if already present. But you need not check for them either. Just look for the necessary tables.

[Ron2K]

I'm using the Attachment MOD and Country Flags MOD, and don't anticipate any problems. That said, I plain to copy everything to a development server and do a test upgrade on that before I touch the production server.

[tannie]

Hey I just checked the Olympus phpbb_users table & my phpBB 2.0.19 table.

Guess what.. different fields so no easy manual conversion... will take a convertor to do that job... lol

I could provide a DOS program solution to that but not PHP. I dunno php...

All it would do is to create an SQL query for the user transfer.. these are just my ideas since DOS has it's own limitations also...