This guide describes how to use the phpBB3 import script for importing from phpBB 3.0.x and 3.1.x.

The script used in this Howto is included in Discourse since v1.4.0.beta5 and in the master or tests-passed branches.

What data will be imported?

  • Users
    • Avatars (optional)
    • Anonymous users (either as user “system” or as suspended users)
    • Password hashes that can be used with the migratepassword plugin (optional)
  • Categories and Forums
  • Topics and Posts
    • Polls (optional)
    • Smilies
    • BBCodes
    • Internal links to topics and posts
  • Sticky topics and (global) announcments
  • Private Messages (optional)
  • Attachments (optional)
  • Bookmarks (optional)

Importing using development environment

  1. Setup your development environment (e.g. by following the guides for Ubuntu or Mac OS X)
    The following instructions assume that you are using Ubuntu.

  2. Make sure that neither Discourse nor Sidekiq are running.

  3. Install some dependencies:

    bash sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev cd ~/discourse echo "gem 'mysql2'" >> Gemfile echo "gem 'ruby-bbcode-to-md', :github => 'nlalonde/ruby-bbcode-to-md'" >> Gemfile bundle install git checkout Gemfile Gemfile.lock

  4. Configure your import. There’s an example settings file at ~/discourse/script/import_scripts/phpbb3/settings.yml

  5. Start your import (change the path to your settings file if you put your custom settings somewhere else):

    bash cd ~/discourse/script/import_scripts ruby phpbb3.rb phpbb3/settings.yml

  6. Wait until the import is done. You can restart it if it slows down to a crawl.

  7. Start your Discourse instance: bundle exec rails server

  8. Start Sidekiq and let it do its work: bundle exec sidekiq -q default
    Depending on your forum size this can take a long time. You can monitor the progress at http://localhost:3000/sidekiq

Roadmap

Here’s a list (in no particular order) of things that are still missing from the importer:

  • Imported text that looks like Markdown should be escaped
  • Close topics that are closed in phpBB3
  • Import unapproved posts as hidden posts
  • Import read status for each post
  • Import custom profile fields
  • Import groups
  • Improve the BBCode to Markdown converter (ruby-bbcode-to-md)
  • Support custom patterns for internal links to topics and posts (SEO optimized URLs)
  • (in progress) Provide an easy solution for importing within a Docker container
  • (in progress) Add support for more database sources: MS SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL

Feel free to start your favorite Ruby IDE and help making the importer even better. :wink:

FAQ

I have a heavily modded forum. Will the import script still work?
Maybe. It depends on what changes those mods made to the database. You’ll have to give it a try.

I have custom smilies in my forum. Are they imported?
Yes. You can map them to Emojis in the settings file, otherwise they’ll get imported as images. All the default smilies (except , and ) have already an Emoji mapping.

The importer warns about invalid votes. What is wrong?
This happens when the votes in your database reference users or poll options that do not exist. The cause for the latter is usually a migration from phpBB2 to phpBB3. You can fix this with a simple UPDATE in your database if you still have a backup of your old phpBB2 database. Otherwise you’ll have to ignore those warnings.

Source: https://meta.discourse.org/t/importing-from-phpbb3/30810