External incoming links

[sinucello]

Hi,

after switching a big forum that already existed several years to vbulletin, there will be a lot of external direct-links (Google!) formerly pointing to threads or postings of your forum that won`t work anymore. Therefore it would be great if some kind of translation table could be created during the import. This could be the basis of some Apache-rewrite rules that create redirect permanent lines out of this table.

I need such a feature and in the open source world, I would now start a call for sponsoring and ask who else is interested and would throw a few bucks in the bucket. But this is a commercial system and I have no clue how it is handled here.

Ciao,
Sacha

[Jerry]

I've thought of two main ways of doing this.

a) Apache, probably with mod_rewrite and using the existing import id's in the database to find the new post/thread URL.

b) A 404 page. From the old URL you can get the $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] or $_SERVER['REDIRECT_QUERY_STRING'] from there you can get the 404 page to give a "Wait looking up the new page, I'm going to redirect you" message.

An example would be (a link to a phpBB thread) :

http://www.example.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=372469

The 404 page looks up the thread where the importthreadid is 372469 and directs you there, personally I would add some logging as well.

Though this would have to be done on a per system basics as the URL and file names are all different, i.e. phpBB uses viewtopic.php we use showthread.php other systems use different names and GET data.

[Jerry]

Thinking about it, I'm going to do this, if you want to help test it PM me.

[TimS]

Jerry, I am also very interested in such a creation. Facing the same problem with 7 years worth of incoming links that are going to instantly become useless without some sort of rewrite help.

Thanks :)

TimS

[Jerry]

Jerry, I am also very interested in such a creation. Facing the same problem with 7 years worth of incoming links that are going to instantly become useless without some sort of rewrite help.

Thanks :)

TimS

A ubb.classic custom 404 could be interesting I'm not 100% familiar with the URL make up for forum/thread/post/user selection, so what I've thought about is...

Working on the basics of a custom 404 redirect look up where you can add your own "My old URL's look like this and mean this" config, so it can be used for any system, so I don't have to write specific sections for 76 importers :)

[TimS]

Jerry, the potential problems would be many - not trying to discourage you, but the biggest hurdle would be something I'm facing right now.

For 4 years I've been running UBB with "spider friendly" URLs with "fake .html extentions" enabled. It's worked wonders for search engines, we are very well indexed. Except the friendly URLs require that ultimatebb.cgi is present and accessible. And the problem with that is, I would like to use a redirect to send any hits to my forum main page (ultimatebb.cgi) to the new vBulletin forum main page.

And that would no longer allow the spider friendly URLs to work because they don't represent actual html pages.

Your problem, if you attempt this script, is that there are a number different URL options in UBB - normal, spider friendly using paths, short spider friendly and spider friendly compatibility mode - and then an option to add "fake" .html extensions.

I'm confused already...good thing I'm not working on this rewrite script, huh? ;)

TimS

[Jerry]

This script is going to help redirect users that are using external links and internal link parsing, not to help with search engines.

[Jerry]

Well I've done it and its in tools/404.php, it will work in place of internal link parsing as well, though you'll have to know how to set up a 404.php page as well as a 2nd 404 page for links that aren't from the old forum.

[denby]

Très élégant! :)

At this stage it's only for forums migrated from phpBB2 but hey, I'm happy!

For those who'd like to know, here's how to setup the 404.php and fallback 404.htm page.
Download Impex from the member's area and extract the 404.php file from the /tools folder.
Edit the 404.php script to configure it for your forum. Jerry has peppered the top of that script with comments and examples.
Upload 404.php to your forum directory (e.g. http://www.example.com/forum/404.php) (http://www.example.com/forum/404.php%29). chmod it to 644
Add a new table to your vB database called 404_actions using phpMyAdmin (or some other database interface). See the notes at the top of the 404.php script for the SQL. Be sure to prepend your table prefix to the table name (e.g. vb3404_actions). [should the SQL listing in the script be annotated Jerry?]

Create an HTML file called 404.htm containing a nicely formatted message about not finding the file your visitor sought and suggesting they contact you if their problem persists. Upload that file to your webroot (e.g. http://www.example.com/404.htm). chmod it to 644
Create/amend your .htaccess file in your forum directory (e.g. http://www.example.com/forum/.htaccess). You need one ErrorDocument 404 directive that says:ErrorDocument 404 /forum/404.php NOTE: when you configure 404.php (step 2), set the constant $standard_404 to the full URL path of your 404.htm file (e.g. http://www.example.com/404.htm).

Have I missed anything?

Jerry, your code is simple and sweet but robust. Your timing is perfect as I'm just about to migrate from phpBB2 to VB. So long as I preserve the import IDs after migration, this will allow my members to use links with the old forum URLs and preserve all external links validity into the bargain.

Thanks a lot! :)

[Jerry]

Très élégant! :)

At this stage it's only for forums migrated from phpBB2 but hey, I'm happy!


If there are any other Tier 1 systems that people want this for let me know and I'll add the relevant URL parsing.


For those who'd like to know, here's how to setup the 404.php and fallback 404.htm page.
Download Impex from the member's area and extract the 404.php file from the /tools folder.
Edit the 404.php script to configure it for your forum. Jerry has peppered the top of that script with comments and examples.
Upload 404.php to your forum directory (e.g. http://www.example.com/forum/404.php) (http://www.example.com/forum/404.php%29). chmod it to 644
Add a new table to your vB database called 404_actions using phpMyAdmin (or some other database interface). See the notes at the top of the 404.php script for the SQL. Be sure to prepend your table prefix to the table name (e.g. vb3404_actions). [should the SQL listing in the script be annotated Jerry?]

Create an HTML file called 404.htm containing a nicely formatted message about not finding the file your visitor sought and suggesting they contact you if their problem persists. Upload that file to your webroot (e.g. http://www.example.com/404.htm). chmod it to 644
Create/amend your .htaccess file in your forum directory (e.g. http://www.example.com/forum/.htaccess). You need one ErrorDocument 404 directive that says:ErrorDocument 404 /forum/404.php NOTE: when you configure 404.php (step 2), set the constant $standard_404 to the full URL path of your 404.htm file (e.g. http://www.example.com/404.htm).

Have I missed anything?

I don't think so, though I'll write a 404.impex.readme.txt now explaining this process.

Jerry, your code is simple and sweet but robust. Your timing is perfect as I'm just about to migrate from phpBB2 to VB. So long as I preserve the import IDs after migration, this will allow my members to use links with the old forum URLs and preserve all external links validity into the bargain.

Thanks a lot! :)



Thanks, welcome to vBulletin :)

[Jerry]

Ok, I've added a 404.impex.readme.txt now to explain how to set it up, as well as how to do a multi import redirect and the SQL I'd use for logging.

I plan on adding all the Tier 1 systems to the URL parsing (as possible).

[sinucello]

Hi,

Jerry, thank you very much for your quick solution. I`ll test it next week.

Ciao,
Sacha

[Jerry]

Jerry, the potential problems would be many - not trying to discourage you, but the biggest hurdle would be something I'm facing right now.

For 4 years I've been running UBB with "spider friendly" URLs with "fake .html extentions" enabled. It's worked wonders for search engines, we are very well indexed. Except the friendly URLs require that ultimatebb.cgi is present and accessible. And the problem with that is, I would like to use a redirect to send any hits to my forum main page (ultimatebb.cgi) to the new vBulletin forum main page.

And that would no longer allow the spider friendly URLs to work because they don't represent actual html pages.

Your problem, if you attempt this script, is that there are a number different URL options in UBB - normal, spider friendly using paths, short spider friendly and spider friendly compatibility mode - and then an option to add "fake" .html extensions.

I'm confused already...good thing I'm not working on this rewrite script, huh? ;)

TimS


I've added 301 redirect now, so search engines will know what's going on.

[gfuchs]

Don't know if anyone else has asked but I'm working on a Ubbthreads conversion. This would be sweet to have for it.

Looking at the script, I think if I just parse viewthreaded.php and viewflat.php I'll probably pick up the vast majority of requests.

The rest I'll just dump to the main forum page.

Greg

[Jerry]

Don't know if anyone else has asked but I'm working on a Ubbthreads conversion. This would be sweet to have for it.

Looking at the script, I think if I just parse viewthreaded.php and viewflat.php I'll probably pick up the vast majority of requests.

The rest I'll just dump to the main forum page.

Greg

PM me and I'll update the tool with your help for the URLs to parse.

[Tomzl]

I'm a little confused. Does this mean that whenever some visits the no longer active phpBB2 topic/post URL, they get forwarded to the correct new vBulletin URL?

Or is this just a not found page that gets displayed and user still can't see the correct topic?

[Colin F]

If they visit the no longer active phpBB2 topic, they would receive a 404 error.
What this does is redirect the 404 error to the actual vBulletin page.

[Tomzl]

If they visit the no longer active phpBB2 topic, they would receive a 404 error.
What this does is redirect the 404 error to the actual vBulletin page.

By actual vBulletin page do you mean the URL of that same topic now in vBulletin format or just the vBulletin main page? Sorry for the stupid questions, I just want to be 110% sure that I understand this correctly.:)

[Colin F]

If possible to the same topic in vBulletin.

[Jerry]

One of the config options in the database is a 404 or 301 choice :


$do_404 = false; // true = a 404 (Not Found) redirect. false is a 301 search engine friendly redirect (Moved Permanently)


So depending on if you want a 404 or a 301 (I would advise a 301 as search engines will handle it better) you can set it how you like.

Either way the page will attempt to use the import id's to find the post/thread/forum/user in the vBulletin forum that the phpBB URL was pointed at.

[gengar56]

Thanks. I will look at this later today. This is a much better solution than what I was thinking before. I currently have my phpBB forum hosted at mydomain.com. I have installed the test vBulletin forum at mydomain.com/forum. This new subdirectory currently has vBulletin in it, so I was thinking that I would leave phpBB and vBulletin installed simulaneously, with phpBB left as an archive, and front page hits redirecting to /forum. Then, I could also add a link at the top of my phpBB template saying "This is an archive. Go to /forum for the active forum."

Using 404.php could solve this. Is it correct that the 301 redirect will cancel out the 404 that the server sends? Thus, nobody could ever know that it's actually a redirecting 404?

I use a special URL scheme for my phpBB forum. URLs look like /article#####.html, where ##### is the topic ID. Of course, after using Impex, vBulletin's topic ID is different. But since the import IDs are still there, it should be able to find the new topic ID and redirect the visitor properly. My only concern is: can it parse article#####.html?

[Jerry]

phpBB redirects are set up with the default file names :


$old_forum_script = 'viewforum.php?f=';
$old_thread_script = 'viewtopic.php?t=';
$old_post_script = "viewtopic.php?p=";
$old_user_script = 'profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=';


While it might work by changing the URL parsing in 404.php the idea of leaving the phpBB board static and just using it for read only refrence.

[Onur]

is it possible you search this tool from vb-germany?
incomming link converter 4 phpBB, wbb + smf (http://www.vbulletin-germany.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22931)

[Jerry]

is it possible you search this tool from vb-germany?
incomming link converter 4 phpBB, wbb + smf (http://www.vbulletin-germany.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22931)

Search the tool ? I wrote the original, I believe vb-germany must of written the others, so you would have to ask them about it.

[Smoothie]

Will this work if your previous forum was IPB?

[Jerry]

Will this work if your previous forum was IPB?

Currently no, though it is planned.

[marksman]

I would just like to throw out my advanced thanks for this. I am working on my second vb installation and this time it is a conversion of a phpbb forum and was really worried about losing the ability to redirect users and search engines from one to another. This looks like the perfect tool and really makes my life much easier.

Thanks. Hopefully all goes smoothly for me when I upgrade. :)

[Tomzl]

How does this script handle phpBB URLs like http://example.com/viewtopic.php?t=13205&start=225 which do not end with the topic number (for example search results and links to certain pages of topics). Does it look for topic 13205 or report an error because of &start=225 at the end of the URL?

[Colin F]

As far as I know it searches for the topicid.

[Jerry]

How does this script handle phpBB URLs like http://example.com/viewtopic.php?t=13205&start=225 which do not end with the topic number (for example search results and links to certain pages of topics). Does it look for topic 13205 or report an error because of &start=225 at the end of the URL?

It would redirect you to the vBulletin thread that had the importthreadid of 13205.

[marksman]

I must be setting something up wrong. I have got it now where it will go and redirect me to the regular error page, but it will not consider any of the urls as valid and forwad based on them, and it is not logging anything, so I am having a hard time determining why it is not liking the data being fed to it.

I think it might be the way I have the configuration set up but I am not sure. I have tried it a variety of ways.


Edit: I got it working. It is my own dumb fault. Been 12 hours on working on converting my site over so I will blame it partially on fatigue. When I set up the table in mysql I did not pre-pend forum_ on to it, like I have with my vbulletin tables. I figured as long as it knew in the file I would be okay. Of course it wasn't looking for it. As soon as I remade the table with the proper name it worked like a charm.

Awesome tool. Thanks Jerry.

[Jerry]

ubb.threads support now.

[Jerry]

Yea, not quite sure where that = came from !

Get rid of it.

[echamberlain]

I'm trying to convert from PNphpBB2 and my forums are not in subfolders.

The old forum looks like http://domain.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-9940.html and the new vBulletin forum is http://forum.domain.com/showthread.php?t=456.

Has anyone already done the script modifications to get this to work?

[Jerry]

I'm trying to convert from PNphpBB2 and my forums are not in subfolders.

The old forum looks like http://domain.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-9940.html and the new vBulletin forum is http://forum.domain.com/showthread.php?t=456.

Has anyone already done the script modifications to get this to work?

Not for those type of links, it would need modification for that.

[lknmedia]

I have migrated from phpBB2 to vB 3.6.

First .. thanks for the awesome Impex script. Worked great! We had 1.2 million posts to migrate and it went without any major problems!

I am trying to use the redirect script and have a few questions:


1) I am only getting the not_found.html page and not getting redirected to the new forum.

here is my 404.php config


// System
#Currently supported : 'phpBB2' 'ubb.threads' 'vb3' 'ipb2'

$old_system = 'phpBB2';

// Domain
// Example :: http://www.example.com/phpBB/

$old_folder = 'phpBB2/'; // With trailing slash
$old_ext_type = '.php'; // Including preceding dot
$standard_404 = 'http://www.mydomain.com/not_found.html'; // The usual 404 that this script replaces

// Example :: http://www.example.com/vBulletin/

$new_domain = '';
$new_folder = 'forum/'; // With trailing slash
$ext_type = '.php'; // File extension type that vBulletin is using, i.e. index.php including the preceding dot

// Database
// This is the vBulletin database, needed for import id look up and logging
This is working. THe database was created and is logging entries.
// System

$refresh_speed = 0; // Speed of the redirect, 0 advised.
$do_logs = true; // Always best to log to see that its working and if there are any "Unknown link type, talk to Jerry" links
$do_404 = false; // true = a 404 (Not Found) redirect. false is a 301 search engine friendly redirect (Moved Permanently)


2) For the $new_domain config I have tried everything ... what EXACTLY should go here assuming my domain is mydomain.com?

3) I am getting 10 and 20's for the action codes in the 404_actions table.

Example = incoming /phpBB2/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=3571&sid=07...
outgoing = http://www.mydomain.com/not_found.html

I get that for every attempt at accessing the old forum.

My .htaccess is redirecting to the 404.php (since the not_found.html page is coming up).

4) Does it matter that I changed the phpBB2 folder name and deactivated the old board?

5) I do NOT have table prefixes.

Any ideas?

[Jerry]

1) I am only getting the not_found.html page and not getting redirected to the new forum.

I have updated the script with a debug flag now so you can activate that and it will die after it has found the link type and the SQL, if the action is blank then its not parsing the REQUST_URI correctly, which is also displayed.


2) For the $new_domain config I have tried everything ... what EXACTLY should go here assuming my domain is mydomain.com?

I'm guessing it is correct and the URI isn't being parsed correctly, download the latest 404.php, copy the config over and set debug to true and see what it displays.


3) I am getting 10 and 20's for the action codes in the 404_actions table.


Well its working, though not dealing with the URI, see answer to 2.


4) Does it matter that I changed the phpBB2 folder name and deactivated the old board?

Nope, as with the working of the script as long as the importid's are left in the database your fine, part of the design as you should be able to completely remove the source system and the 404 will use the target database to redirect.


5) I do NOT have table prefixes.

Any ideas?

Grab the new 404, turn debug on, see what the action is (if anything , and the URI) then post back here and I'll try and give you the correct code to match for your redirects.

[Viper007Bond]

Why not use regex instead of substr? The current system is not working for profiles for me:

http://forum.finalgear.com/profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=2

Debug on:

Action :: user
SQL :: SELECT userid FROM vb_user WHERE importuserid = iewprofile
REQUEST_URI :: /profile.php?mode=viewprofile&u=2

Config:

$old_system = 'phpBB2';

// Domain
// Example :: http://www.example.com/phpBB/

$old_folder = ''; // With trailing slash
$old_ext_type = '.php'; // Including preceding dot
$standard_404 = 'http://www.finalgear.com/_404.php'; // The usual 404 that this script replaces

// Example :: www.example.com/vBulletin/

$new_domain = 'forums.finalgear.com';
$new_folder = ''; // With trailing slash
$ext_type = '.php'; // File extension type that vBulletin is using, i.e. index.php including the preceding dot

http://www.finalgear.com/phpinfo.php

[Jerry]

Some do, some don't its just the way its evolved.

[whizkid]

Hi there,

I am at a loss as to why my 404.php is not doing what it is supposed to do so as a last resort wanted to see if you can help.

I am running vb 3.6.1 and vbseo 3.0.RC5 .

The issue is, the script is redirecting everything to 404.htm regardless whether it is an old phpbb page or not. I have enabled debugging, this is what I get:

Action ::
SQL ::
REQUEST_URI :: /viewtopic.php?p=137&sid=fc4d584dc4cbcb88aa652fcaa5963c41o

I've also turned logging on but it does not seem to be generating anything for some reason.

My table does not have any prefix so don't think that's the issue as someone pointed out earlier.

Also in vbseo, all 404 requests are being redirected to 404.php via vbseo's redirect engine.

Any help/insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

PS: How can I tell if I have the importid's still intact in vbulletin (the entries exist but I am not sure what I am supposed to see in the tables)? Could that be the cause?

[developer45]

I wonder why this apache rewrite rule doesnt work for old phpbb2 links?

RewriteRule ^viewtopic\.php\?t=([0-9]+)$ showthread.php?t=$1 [R=301,L]

[antilope cobbler]

Hi jerry,
i'm trying to redirect my old phpbb2 forum to my new vbulletin version running both on IIS
i've installed the 404 script and also configured, but i am only getting the not_found.html page and not getting redirected to the new forum.

If i set debug on, i get this

Action ::
SQL ::
REQUEST_URI :: /404.php?404;http://www.mydomain.it:80/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=194

and nothing more... :(

any help ?

[Gabrielt]

I wonder why this apache rewrite rule doesnt work for old phpbb2 links?

RewriteRule ^viewtopic\.php\?t=([0-9]+)$ showthread.php?t=$1 [R=301,L]

You cannot redirect users to the same threadid only changing the script name because your new forum will have your old messages using a new thread id.

For example, a threadid number 12345 on your old forums might have been converted as 8765, for example, thus the need of a script for reading the database and learning what is the new threadid for your old message thread.

Cheers,
Gabriel.

[Gabrielt]

Regarding Invision Power Board (IPB).

There are two problems.

The official ImpEx 404 script does not take into account lofiversion, which is used by Google.

Also since the old links use index.php and as index.php exists, it does not cause a 404 error, thus the script does not work.

In order to solve these two issues, I create I new script based on Jerrys'.

I hope I will help other users migrating from IPB to vBulletin that don't want to lose their incoming visitors that still have old links.

Enjoy!

Cheers,
Gabriel.

[Gabrielt]

BTW. My script doesn't work well on big sites because each query takes several seconds. I had to disable it on my own forum (+400,000 old threads) because it was overloading my MySQL server.

I plan to write a 2.0 version with a fixed file-based lookup table. This would increase speed and not overload the MySQL server, even though we would need to run a query to create the lookup file once.

Cheers,
Gabriel.

[skyecom]

Question, will this work with the vBerror page mod? I know at one time the incoming links redirect was working but its not now.

I have vBerror pages 1.0 installed currently.

[Colin F]

That's something you'd have to ask the modification author.

[Fireproof]

Any hope for getting this redirect script for Web Wiz Forums moving to vBulletin?

[Marco van Herwaarden]

This script is not intended as a finished solution for all board types. It is ment as a framework to use to create the redirects needed in your specific situation.

[Gabrielt]

Hi there,

I created my new scripts and they are working fine now. Instead of consulting the database what I did was to create a fixed table containing the old threadid's (importthreadid) and the new ones (threadid). In order to improve performance (bigest issue I had) I created several tables.

First you need to run the script below to create the files (tables).


<?
$dbhost1 = 'localhost';
$dbusername1 = 'username';
$dbuserpassword1 = 'password';
$vbul1 = mysql_pconnect($dbhost1, $dbusername1, $dbuserpassword1);
if (!$vbul1) {
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
mysql_select_db("vbulletin",$vbul1);
$count=0;
$step = 1000;
$query=mysql_query("SELECT importthreadid FROM thread ORDER BY importthreadid DESC LIMIT 1");
$row=mysql_fetch_row($query);
$total=$row[0];
while ($count<$total)
{
$query=mysql_query("SELECT importthreadid,threadid FROM thread WHERE importthreadid>$count AND importthreadid<$count+$step");
$result="";
while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($query))
{
$result .= serialize($row);
$result .="\n";
}
$cachefile="/www/forum/converter/".$count.".php";
// open the cache file for writing
$fp = @fopen($cachefile, 'w');
// save the contents of output buffer to the file
@fwrite($fp, $result);
// close the file
@fclose($fp);
$count += $step;
}
?>

Then I added the following code at the beginning of my index.php:


// Converter Start
if ($_GET['showtopic'])
{
$showtopic=$_GET['showtopic'];
$file=floor($showtopic/1000)*1000;
$cachefile="/www/forum/converter/".$file.".php";
$dados=file($cachefile);
while (list($key,$value) = each($dados))
{
$row=unserialize($value);
$importthreadid=$row['importthreadid'];
$threadid=$row['threadid'];
if ($importthreadid==$showtopic)
{
break;
}
}
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://forum.clubedohardware.com.br/showthread.php?t=".$threadid);
exit();
}
// Converter End

And also created the file below and saved as index.php under /lofiversion:


<?
$url=$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
$result=explode("/lofiversion/index.php/t",$url);
$result=explode(".html",$result[1]);
$showtopic=$result[0];
if ($showtopic)
{
$file=floor($showtopic/1000)*1000;
$cachefile="/www/forum/converter/".$file.".php";
$dados=file($cachefile);
while (list($key,$value) = each($dados))
{
$row=unserialize($value);
$importthreadid=$row['importthreadid'];
$threadid=$row['threadid'];
if ($importthreadid==$showtopic)
{
break;
}
}
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://forum.clubedohardware.com.br/showthread.php?t=".$threadid);
}
else
{
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://forum.clubedohardware.com.br");
}
?>

I am not a real programmer myself, so this code may need a fine tuning, especially on the part that the script looks for a match inside the file, because right now it has to go to each entry until it finds a match instead of going directly to a match (I didn't know how to do differently).

Suggestions are welcome!

Cheers,
Gabriel.

[Jerry]

One soultion that I developed was having a table that was just :

type | source | target

Indexed from type and source.

Where type is post, thread, user etc

Target is the new id you want, and make that table, HEAP or MEMORY, that was dramatically faster than using vBulletin database and can be maintained with board with multi-imports with diffrent lookup tables depending on the redirect.

Though what ever works satisfactorily is a good solution :)

[esck]

my import method was:

imported phpbb to vbulletin at hold host, then move vbulletin to my new host, would that erase the importid?

could that be the reason that this script isn't working for me?

[antiekeradio]

if all went well, moving the database does not delete data in the database.

has the URL of your board changed?

[esck]

yes :(

I imported my site here:

import.mysite.com

I couldn't do the import on my main site, 'cause it was still live

[pmkb]

I have a phpbb forum that I am considering moving to vB. However, the forum is only part of the site. I have some static pages and a blog on the site too with an existing custom 404 page.

Will this solution work in this setup? It wasn't clear from the thread discussion if the solution allowed for a default 404 page if the URL being requested was not an old forum URL.

Also, did I understand correctly that the solution could be configured to send 301 permanently moved headers when the URL was an old forum URL and a corresponding page is found?

[pmkb]

Never mind. I figured it out.

Jerry, the script is returning a 301 and 200 headers when forwarding to the default 404 page. Is there any way to have it send the 301 only when a matching vB page is found and return a 404 when resolving to the default 404 page?

[pmkb]

Jerry, I was testing urls that do not pertain to the old forum (garbage files in the root directory for example) and they are not triggering the default 404 page. Only when I test for files in the old forum folder does the default 404 page get shown.

Also, the profile pages are not showing as expected (phpBB2).

[pmkb]

I solved the problem with 301 headers to the 404 page for old forum URLs that could not be matched to the new forum by adding a if ($new_url == $standard_404) conditional inside the else block at the end of the code.

I'm still having a heck of a time trying to figure out why neither of these blocks work when their conditions are true:if ($debug)
{
echo "<html><head><title>404 debug</title></head><body>";
echo "<br>Action :: " . $action;
echo "<br>SQL :: " . $sql;
echo "<br>REQUEST_URI :: " . $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] ;
echo "</body></html>";
die;
}

if (!$action)
{
?>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="<? echo $refresh_speed; ?>;URL=<? echo $standard_404; ?>">
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>
<?
If I enter a garbage URL or set $debug = true, I get the default browser 404 message and not the debug message or my custom 404 page (or that source code if I turn off meta refresh in my internet settings).

Any ideas?

[esck]

I'm having the same exact problem as pmkb, but I can't figure it out a thing about this.

I guees the problem could have to do that phpbb was "inside" a phpnuke cms, so urls, are not like the example ones, could that be the reason why this is not working?

[pmkb]

I found the problem. Per the wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/404_error):Internet Explorer (pre IE7), however, will not display custom pages unless they are larger than 512 bytes, opting to instead display a "friendly" error page.

So, I added this between the <body></body> tags in the sections for the 404 meta refresh:<h1>Page Not Found</h1>
<p>If you are reading this, then you have META-REFRESH disabled in your browser's internet settings.</p><p>The page you requested could not be found. It has either never existed, been removed or moved to another path or filename.</p><p>Please try navigating to the information you want from the site's <a href="http://www.yourdomaingoeshere.com/">home page</a>. There is a search function available for finding information in the forums.</p>
and it works now for everyone - including folks like me with screwy browsers.

[eJM]

How can I tell if the import IDs exist?

Thanks,

Jim

[Jerry]

As long as you haven't deleted them, they will be there.

[eJM]

Well, uh, I don't remember deleting them, but it was hectic then and I want to be sure. What do I look for?

Jim

[Jerry]

These SQL commands will tell you how many there are for each :


SELECT count(*) FROM user WHERE importuserid <> 0;
SELECT count(*) FROM forum WHERE importforumid <> 0;
SELECT count(*) FROM thread WHERE importthreadid <> 0;
SELECT count(*) FROM post WHERE importpostid <> 0;

[eJM]

And those can be done via the database query finction in the vB admin CP? Okay, I did that. I do get an error on the first command though:
error number: 1146
error desc: Table 'lbackus_vbulletin.users' doesn't exist
But I got results for the other 3 commands.

Thanks Jerry,

Jim

[esck]

I think you have to append your database prefix

example:

vb_users

[eJM]

There is no database prefix.

[Jerry]

There is no database prefix.


SELECT count(*) FROM user WHERE importuserid <> 0;


I do know what the user table in vBulletin is called, honest :o

[tintin74]

I'm trying to convert from PNphpBB2 and my forums are not in subfolders.

The old forum looks like http://domain.com/PNphpBB2-viewtopic-t-9940.html and the new vBulletin forum is http://forum.domain.com/showthread.php?t=456.

Has anyone already done the script modifications to get this to work?

Hi everybody and many thanks to Jerry for his work. I've the same problem of echamberlain. I've on Google 9000 urls of my phpbb board like:

http://forum.mydomain.com/thread-name-vt12345.html

Actually, apache rewrite the popular viewtopic.php, viewforum.php in this way:


RewriteEngine On

RewriteBase /

RewriteRule [.]*-vf([0-9]*) viewforum.php?%{QUERY_STRING}&f=$1
RewriteRule [.]*-vp([0-9]*) viewtopic.php?%{QUERY_STRING}&p=$1
RewriteRule [.]*-vt([0-9]*) viewtopic.php?%{QUERY_STRING}&t=$1
RewriteRule [.]*-vc([0-9]*) index.php?%{QUERY_STRING}&c=$1

I've test the 404.php script and it works well without url rewriting, but with "url rewrite" don't work.

I need a help,please.Anyone could help to find a solution for this?

Thank you in advance.

Tintin

[echamberlain]

I ended up using apache rewrites on domain.com to do a redirect to a 301.php file (modified version of 404.php) on forum.domain.com.

The 301.php file is responsible for the lookup matching and then running the new url through vBSEO functions to return the correct SEO friendly url to the browser.

[tintin74]

Hello echamberlain,

I'm interested about your solution, could you give me more details about "how to do it" ? I'm using Vbseo on my new VB board too.

Thank you

[tintin74]

Does anyone could help me to make some modification to 404.php to get a solution. I think it could be useful also for other people.

Thank you
Tintin

[Cars2007]

I've just imported a rather large vB 3.5 board to 3.6.8. ImpEx does not preserve thread or post IDs. It would be helpful if there were plugins for showthread.php and showpost.php that would translate old thread IDs into new ones. However, I think it would involve somehow forcing the auto_increment on thread and post IDs to be above the maximums for the previous board (to avoid collisions where old threads were deleted), and I'm not sure how to do that.

[Jerry]

ImpEx does not preserve thread or post IDs.

And it never will.

Userid mapping :

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/impex_terminology

(or any id's)

ImpEx will not force id's and break the database, that will never be supported.

The 404/301 script can be used to redirect internal/external vBulletin links that have changed, it's one more step for the look up, though the 301 will update search engines and the older data will fade and the newer will have the new links and be fine.

[Cars2007]

OK, I found out you can do this:

[edit: damaging]

I think at that point, you could add plugins for showthread_start and showpost_start that would do a 301 redirect to showthread.php or showpost.php with the right thread or post ID in the URL.

[Jerry]

This will never be supported and direct manipulation of the auto_inc isn't going to be supported due to merge imports, where id's will already exist.

[Cars2007]

The 404/301 script can be used to redirect internal/external vBulletin links that have changed, it's one more step for the look up, though the 301 will update search engines and the older data will fade and the newer will have the new links and be fine.Well, suppose the old board has threadids as high as 1500, but 100 of them were deleted or invalid in some way so the max thread ID ImpEx creates is 1400. I open the board and people start posting. How does it know the difference between thread 1450 (on the old board) and thread 1450 (on the new board)?

The auto increment adjustment is a bit wierd and not something I'd expect you to put into ImpEx. I just want to see if I can do it myself.

[Jerry]

Well, suppose the old board has threadids as high as 1500, but 100 of them were deleted or invalid in some way so the max thread ID ImpEx creates is 1400. I open the board and people start posting. How does it know the difference between thread 1450 (on the old board) and thread 1450 (on the new board)?

The old threads will be looked up on importthreadid then redirected to the new threadid, any link that doesn't find a page will be passed to the 301/404 script and then lookup on the import id's.

The auto increment adjustment is a bit wierd and not something I'd expect you to put into ImpEx. I just want to see if I can do it myself.

Possibly, I've seen a few try it, though it's really not something I want to promote or talk about here as it's a recipe for disaster.

[Cars2007]

I came up with a happy medium for cases in which vBulletin is imported to vBulletin. This lets your members take a stale pre-ImpEx link, like this:
http://myforum.com/showthread.php?t=12345
...and change 'show' to 'old', so they get this:
http://myforum.com/oldthread.php?t=12345

This has to be done BEFORE the ImpEx import IDs are dropped.

First, create a table to map the old to the new:

CREATE TABLE `legacy_thread` (
`oldThreadID` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
`newThreadID` int(10) unsigned NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY (`oldThreadID`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB;Then, copy the IDs into it:

insert into legacy_thread select importthreadid,threadid from thread;Finally, create a file 'oldthread.php' in the forum root directory:
<?php
// Use this at your own risk.
// ####################### SET PHP ENVIRONMENT ###########################
error_reporting(E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE);

// #################### DEFINE IMPORTANT CONSTANTS #######################
define('NO_REGISTER_GLOBALS', 1);
define('THIS_SCRIPT', 'oldthread'); // change this depending on your filename

// ######################### REQUIRE BACK-END ############################
require_once('./global.php');

// ################################################## #####################
// ######################## START MAIN SCRIPT ############################
// ################################################## #####################

$oldThreadID = $vbulletin->input->clean($_REQUEST["t"], TYPE_INT);

$sql = $db->query_read(
"SELECT newThreadID FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "legacy_thread WHERE oldThreadID='$oldThreadID'"
);

$result = $db->fetch_Array($sql);

$no_thread_URL = "{$vbulletin->options[bburl]}";

if($result[newThreadID]) {
header("HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently");
header("Location: showthread.php?t=$result[newThreadID]");
} else {
echo "<META HTTP-EQUIV='Refresh' CONTENT='0; $no_thread_URL'>";
}

?>
After that, you simply change 'show' to 'old' in a stale link and it'll bounce you to the right thread. It might be possible to use the cleaner supplied with ImpEx to preemptively do this to all references in your forum, but I haven't tried it so I don't know if it would work.

[Jerry]

A handy way of doing it, you can support multi imports with that too.

[quasar]

I'm trying to get my 404 page setup, but coming across problems.

My old forum was in the root directory, my new one in a subdomain.

I've setup my 404.php command like such:

// Domain
// Example :: http://www.example.com/phpBB/

$old_folder = '/'; // With trailing slash
$old_ext_type = '.php'; // Including preceding dot
$standard_404 = 'http://www.example.com/404.shtml'; // The usual 404 that this script replaces

// Example :: www.example.com/vBulletin/

$new_domain = 'http://www.example.com';
$new_folder = 'forum/'; // With trailing slash
$ext_type = '.php'; // File extension type that vBulletin is using, i.e. index.php including the preceding dot

Is that right, or should $old_folder be http://www.example.com/ ?

I've uploaded the .htaccess both to the root directory (where the old forum was) and the forum folder.

404.php is in the forum folder.

.htaccess:

ErrorDocument 404 /forum/404.php

Is that setup right, or am I doing something wrong? The redirects aren't working on what I've tested so far.

Thanks in advance.

[quasar]

I've updated a lot of details (removed the subdomain in case that was causing problems) and now everytime I click a link it goes direct to the 404.htm page.

I ran the SQL query listed in the help file and get the result that no files are recorded. It clearly isn't redirecting through the 404.php, and I'm now at a complete loss.

Any suggestions?

[fredang85]

It was working initially, until it stopped working yesterday, maybe after installed a vRewrite (seo script) plugin.

but i uninstalled it as it was giving problems.

but now, i'm unable to redirect. on debug=true, i get

Action :: thread
SQL :: SELECT threadid FROM vBull_thread WHERE importthreadid = 13197
REQUEST_URI :: /forums/viewtopic.php?t=13197

so why does it go to my not_found?

www.motorolafans.com (http://www.motorolafans.com)

[fredang85]

i would like to forward my attachment links as well

is this correct?


// It's a download link
if (strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], "/{$old_folder}{$old_attachment_script}") === 0)
{
$action = 'attachment';
$sql = "SELECT attachmentid FROM {$tableprefix}attachment WHERE importattachmentid = " . substr($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], strpos($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], '?id=')+3);
}




case 'download':
$new_url = "http://{$new_domain}/{$new_folder}showpost{$ext_type}?attachmentid=" . $row[0];
if ($postcount)
{
$new_url = "http://{$new_domain}/{$new_folder}attachment{$ext_type}?attachmentid=" . $row[0];
}
$action_code = 5;
break;


I did this but my debug was funny:


Action :: download
SQL :: SELECT attachmentid FROM vBull_attachment WHERE importattachmentid = =2955
REQUEST_URI :: /forums/download.php?id=2955

why is there = =2955?

[fredang85]

One more thing - My link was

http://www.motorolafans.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=4371&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

but its not converting properly.

I ran debug and got this:

Action :: thread
SQL :: SELECT threadid FROM vBull_thread WHERE importthreadid = orums/viewtopic.php?t=4371
REQUEST_URI :: /forums/viewtopic.php?t=4371&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Whats wrong?

[AffGuardDog]

I couldn't find any SMF version of this 404.php, is that possible?

My urls are like this:

Forum Post
xxxhttp://www.domain.com/forums/index.php?topic=226.0

Forum List (All Forums)
xxxhttp://www.domain.com/forums/index.php

Forum List (Specific Board)
xxxhttp://www.domain.com/forums/index.php?board=2.0

Member Profile
xxxhttp://www.domain.com/forums/index.php?action=profile;u=1



Not sure what else is needed :(

Thanks!

[Jerry]

I couldn't find any SMF version of this 404.php, is that possible?

My urls are like this:

Forum Post
xxxhttp://www.domain.com/forums/index.php?topic=226.0

Forum List (All Forums)
xxxhttp://www.domain.com/forums/index.php

Forum List (Specific Board)
xxxhttp://www.domain.com/forums/index.php?board=2.0

Member Profile
xxxhttp://www.domain.com/forums/index.php?action=profile;u=1



Not sure what else is needed :(

Thanks!

Yes it can be done by the look of those URL's, you would just have to customise the script to pull out the numbers (which are the import ids).

[AffGuardDog]

ok - well, I hope I can figure it out :(

[quasar]

I've updated a lot of details (removed the subdomain in case that was causing problems) and now everytime I click a link it goes direct to the 404.htm page.

I ran the SQL query listed in the help file and get the result that no files are recorded. It clearly isn't redirecting through the 404.php, and I'm now at a complete loss.

Any suggestions?

Any suggestions on this? A couple of weeks have gone by and I'm still no closer to solving the problem. I've checked everything over several times, but still the same result.

TIA

[quasar]

Finally sorted the problem thanks to the help of a friend. Just a quick explanation of what was wrong in case anyone else has such a problem (my comments are (quasar) followed by my comment):

phpBB2 forum import from a root directory (phpBB2) to a folder (vB3):

$old_folder = ''; // With trailing slash - (quasar) I left this blank as it was in root directory
$old_ext_type = '.php'; // Including preceding dot
$standard_404 = 'http://www.example.com/404.htm'; // The usual 404 that this script replaces (quasar) Full 404 URL, including http://

// Example :: www.example.com/vBulletin/

$new_domain = 'www.example.com'; // (quasar) without the http:// and no trailing slash ('/')
$new_folder = 'forum/'; // With trailing slash (quasar) Note this is the folder without the first slash, but includes the trailing slash
$ext_type = '.php'; // File extension type that vBulletin is using, i.e. index.php including the preceding dot

That's how I set up the 404.php file (along with database details).

Then, .htaccess should be like this:

ErrorDocument 404 /forum/404.php

Where by there is a preceding slash and a trailing one, but not the complete URL.

I found that it was a combination of both these that caused the problems.

Hope this helps someone in the future (Please note this doesn't supercede the readme file, but is meant to be a working example)

Quasar

[Coop1979]

Hi there,

I created my new scripts and they are working fine now. Instead of consulting the database what I did was to create a fixed table containing the old threadid's (importthreadid) and the new ones (threadid). In order to improve performance (bigest issue I had) I created several tables.

First you need to run the script below to create the files (tables).


<?
$dbhost1 = 'localhost';
$dbusername1 = 'username';
$dbuserpassword1 = 'password';
$vbul1 = mysql_pconnect($dbhost1, $dbusername1, $dbuserpassword1);
if (!$vbul1) {
die('Could not connect: ' . mysql_error());
}
mysql_select_db("vbulletin",$vbul1);
$count=0;
$step = 1000;
$query=mysql_query("SELECT importthreadid FROM thread ORDER BY importthreadid DESC LIMIT 1");
$row=mysql_fetch_row($query);
$total=$row[0];
while ($count<$total)
{
$query=mysql_query("SELECT importthreadid,threadid FROM thread WHERE importthreadid>$count AND importthreadid<$count+$step");
$result="";
while ($row=mysql_fetch_array($query))
{
$result .= serialize($row);
$result .="\n";
}
$cachefile="/www/forum/converter/".$count.".php";
// open the cache file for writing
$fp = @fopen($cachefile, 'w');
// save the contents of output buffer to the file
@fwrite($fp, $result);
// close the file
@fclose($fp);
$count += $step;
}
?>

Then I added the following code at the beginning of my index.php:


// Converter Start
if ($_GET['showtopic'])
{
$showtopic=$_GET['showtopic'];
$file=floor($showtopic/1000)*1000;
$cachefile="/www/forum/converter/".$file.".php";
$dados=file($cachefile);
while (list($key,$value) = each($dados))
{
$row=unserialize($value);
$importthreadid=$row['importthreadid'];
$threadid=$row['threadid'];
if ($importthreadid==$showtopic)
{
break;
}
}
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://forum.clubedohardware.com.br/showthread.php?t=".$threadid);
exit();
}
// Converter End

And also created the file below and saved as index.php under /lofiversion:


<?
$url=$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
$result=explode("/lofiversion/index.php/t",$url);
$result=explode(".html",$result[1]);
$showtopic=$result[0];
if ($showtopic)
{
$file=floor($showtopic/1000)*1000;
$cachefile="/www/forum/converter/".$file.".php";
$dados=file($cachefile);
while (list($key,$value) = each($dados))
{
$row=unserialize($value);
$importthreadid=$row['importthreadid'];
$threadid=$row['threadid'];
if ($importthreadid==$showtopic)
{
break;
}
}
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://forum.clubedohardware.com.br/showthread.php?t=".$threadid);
}
else
{
Header( "HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently" );
Header( "Location: http://forum.clubedohardware.com.br");
}
?>

I am not a real programmer myself, so this code may need a fine tuning, especially on the part that the script looks for a match inside the file, because right now it has to go to each entry until it finds a match instead of going directly to a match (I didn't know how to do differently).

Suggestions are welcome!

Cheers,
Gabriel.


Can someone help me figure out exactly how Gabriel did this? I'm moving from IPB to VB and have been unsuccessful so far using the 404.php file.

[compunerdy]

I followed the instructions but this is what gets displayed.

Notice: Undefined index: REQUEST_URI in D:\hshome\***\***\404.php on line 119

Action ::
SQL ::
Notice: Undefined index: REQUEST_URI in D:\hshome\***\***\404.php on line 353

REQUEST_URI ::

I edited the url where the *** are

[quasar]

What forum type are you migrating from?

[Ronan]

Ok, this is driving me insane :mad:

Is this what i am supposed to be doing?

- Put in .htaccess file in old phpBB2 root folder

- In the .htaccess file do a 301 redirect to the 404.php file (dont know how to do this)

I dont know how to do this and its not mentioned in the readme. I have tried a few different scripts, some do nothing, some bring me to the 404.php page but just redirect me to the "not_found.php" page.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[quasar]

The .htaccess in my post above was for the root server folder, i.e. in the html_public or www section of the site.

I'm not sure about 301 redirect, it's not something I've had to use atm.

Hope it helps.

[Ronan]

The .htaccess in my post above was for the root server folder, i.e. in the html_public or www section of the site.

I'm not sure about 301 redirect, it's not something I've had to use atm.

Hope it helps.

Thanks, but that it must mean it should go into the root folder of the origional phpBB2 folder. I still havent got it working, would be nice if the tutorial told you how to write the 301 redirect because i would say alot of people using this will never have used one.

My forum has now been down all evening :mad:

[Jerry]

Thanks, but that it must mean it should go into the root folder of the origional phpBB2 folder. I still havent got it working, would be nice if the tutorial told you how to write the 301 redirect because i would say alot of people using this will never have used one.

My forum has now been down all evening :mad:

This script is here as an example of how to accomplish something that I was chatting to the origional thread starter about.

As it isn't being accepted that way, I'm going to remove it and post it on vbulletin.org.

[steely]

will 404.php work for a phpbb3 "link translation"? ... or it's only developped for phpbb2?.

Thanks for support.

[Jerry]

This script was made as an example for people to modify and customise and complete for their own sites, not as a complete and working solution that is supported, only (as this thread covered) a suggestion and example for those who wished to write something to develop something for their site.

It was developed before phpBB3.

As it can not be taken as such, It will now be removed and this thread closed.