Converting from IPB to vBulletin

[SludgeMeister]

Hello,

I had an active vBulletin license some time ago and am looking to purchase again due to the recent developments.

I have a large IPB forum - One of the reasons for purchasing IPB was the fact they had Member profiles which are a big part of our website.

I now see vBulletin has this which I prefer over IPB's.

My first question is, is there any way for me to convert/import member profiles from IPB to vBulletin?

Most members on our IPB forum have added a Profile avatar, a bio, age, location, gender etc...The profile also lists comments (other members have made on that member's profile), buddy/friend lists, past posts, threads they have started etc.

If I were to convert I'd need to have this imported over to the vBulletin profile(s).

Is this possible?

I remember playing with Impex when I first used vBulletin to convert from SMF (I think - was quite some time ago) and that was alot simpler as it was a smaller forum and member profiles were not present.

I'd appreciate any help with this.

Thanks,

Tom

[Steve Machol]

Yes, we have import scripts available for IPB. You can read about them here:

http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/impex_ipb1.3 (IPB 1.1-1.3)
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/impex_ipb2 (IPB 2)

Please note that since IPB2 passwords are encrypted, they cannot be imported. Your users will need to reset their passwords after the import. You can read more about this here:

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

[SludgeMeister]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the response - I am aware as I said that one can convert from IPB to vBulletin but I want to be sure that I am able to bring over the IPB Member Profiles and their entire contents.

The links you provided were very helpful, but it states for "version 2.2+":

"Users

Majority of profile."

Could you clarify that this means, as my last post enquired, that things like comments, friend lists on IPB profiles will be brought over? Does it preserve the information contained on the IPB profiles and bring them over the vBulletin Member Profiles?

Thanks,

Tom

[Steve Machol]

Which version are you running? As far as I know the only things that are imported are hat is listed on those Impex pages.

[uberjon]

i would like to share my data from my other post in another section that may help you.

From what forum software did you convert to vBulletin to?

IPB 2.3.4

How big is the database in file size? (compressed/uncompressed, database or flatfile)

30MB or less in cpanel.

How many registered members?

620
How many threads?
1300
How many posts?
13500
How many attachments? (total and file size)
not many at all. less than 10 for sure.
And do you remember how long it took you to do the actual convert?

matter of minutes.


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however would like to comment on some small "issues" i had.

1: forums set to "archive" on IPB all lost their order. made a mess to deal with.
2: pms was mixed up. the in/out was all mixed.
3: the quote tags were not fully converted. as i have around 800 <div class= type stuff on posts. (manually removing from the database slowly.)
4: permissions for forum sections/etc were not transfered over. had to do manually.

and of course. passwords need reset..

other than this it seems to have been smooth sailing. i hope future versions will fix these import issues.

i do not believe that profile data was imported. as well as things such as your MSN address.

if the profile portion of the site cannot be "redone by users" i suggest you wait for maybe 1.89.x or 1.90 of the impex system