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View Full Version : Import from Akiva WebBoard?


GeekDrew
Sat 13th Aug '05, 3:06am
Does anybody here have any idea how hard it would be to import to vBulletin from Akiva WebBoard 7? A company I work with that has an ever-growing public forum is growing increasingly tired of the poor performance, lousy interface, lousy management, and general irritability that WebBoard provides. I already own a vBulletin license (though I'm not using it for anything at the moment), and I'm just wondering what it would take to import from WebBoard to vB. I've imported from IPB a couple of times, and have had no problems with that... but I'm told that WebBoard is generally a pain in the arse no matter WHAT you try to do.

I don't have experience with MSSQL or ASP (which is what our install of WebBoard uses, I believe), but I do have experience with MySQL and PHP... if no importer script currently exists, do you think it would be terribly hard for me to write one? I'm willing to jump through some hoops, if needed, just because of the level of hatred I have for WebBoard.

I have searched the forums in regards to this, but haven't found anything useful.

Does *anybody* have any suggestions for me?

Thanks!
Jerry
Sat 13th Aug '05, 4:11pm
Do you have a link to the products home page ?

All I can find is this : http://webboard.oreilly.com/
GeekDrew
Sat 13th Aug '05, 5:02pm
Do you have a link to the products home page ?

All I can find is this : http://webboard.oreilly.com/

Sorry about that. O'Reilly created the prodoct, IIRC, and Akiva bought it from them. Here's the link that I have for it: Akiva WebBoard (http://www.webboard.com/products/webboard/index.cfm)
Jerry
Sat 13th Aug '05, 5:55pm
Sorry about that. O'Reilly created the prodoct, IIRC, and Akiva bought it from them. Here's the link that I have for it: Akiva WebBoard (http://www.webboard.com/products/webboard/index.cfm)

Yes thats the same link I have, if you have the source database I can look at it for you.
GeekDrew
Sun 14th Aug '05, 2:37am
Yes thats the same link I have, if you have the source database I can look at it for you.

Unfortunately, I don't. It's a situation where I'm out of the loop, and the only way to get "in" the loop is to say that I can absolutely get it done... and even then it's a touchy situation.

Is there any documentation in general about how the importing system works (specifically, what steps need to be taken / data needs to be moved, to complete an import)? I've taught myself PHP and MySQL, so I'm also wondering if it's something I'd be able to just do myself (assuming I get the database), or if there is something that I'm not currently aware of that would be standing in my way.
Jerry
Sun 14th Aug '05, 6:07pm
Unfortunately, I don't. It's a situation where I'm out of the loop, and the only way to get "in" the loop is to say that I can absolutely get it done... and even then it's a touchy situation.

Is there any documentation in general about how the importing system works (specifically, what steps need to be taken / data needs to be moved, to complete an import)? I've taught myself PHP and MySQL, so I'm also wondering if it's something I'd be able to just do myself (assuming I get the database), or if there is something that I'm not currently aware of that would be standing in my way.

Well basically if you can get a database 99% of the time I can do it, you could write your own importer or use the ImpEx core and write a new system but I've written 74 importers now so I should be able to get it done fairly quickly :)
GeekDrew
Sun 14th Aug '05, 6:36pm
Well basically if you can get a database 99% of the time I can do it, you could write your own importer or use the ImpEx core and write a new system but I've written 74 importers now so I should be able to get it done fairly quickly :) Great!

Right now I've got the forum set up as a sort-of "trial" for a few select members of the community, so that they are able to evaluate whether or not vBulletin is "easy enough to figure out" that our user base won't leave when they see something new (our community is not the most tolerant of change, unfortunately...). If that goes successfully, I'll get a copy of the database from the current server, and since you've (obviously) got a ton of experience writing importers for vB, I'll look you up (will probably post a message here).

Thanks! ;)
Jerry
Mon 15th Aug '05, 12:43pm
and since you've (obviously) got a ton of experience writing importers for vB, I'll look you up (will probably post a message here).

I'm the importer developer :)

Just PM me if you get the database.