Transition to Xenforo Forum Software starting...THIS WEEK!

Hello to all!


I have been spearheading the process to transition this forum from the current forum software package to a newer one called Xenforo for a little over a year. Besides the table at Fall Fest, this is the first public annoucement...I'll try to make it short.


On March 9th, conversion of the forum database will begin. I expect that the actual conversion process will take a few days, and after installation it will take a few days to get things configured. During that time, registration will be disabled but the current site will remain live. Any new content on or after March 9th will likely be lost. New posts may be manually transitioned, but that's about all - changes to profiles, newly uploaded photos, and new Private Messages will not be transitioned.


Over the next 10 days, I will be posting a series of videos to help everyone get oriented with Xenforo.


Here is a short list of things that are coming:


Fast

Modern look and feel, with a similar style

Robust (used by many "Big Board" forums - 3Reef and very recently Reef Sanctuary, with others not far behind)

Mobile friendly - fully functional and very clean, perfect for phone/tablet users without Tapatalk

Full Tapatalk functionality

Photo linking is just like other systems (uses IMG code, just like vBulletin, IP Board, etc)

Photo uploading is simpler, including drag & drop from your PC, and easy mobile uploading

Embedding video is as easy as copying & pasting the link

Search function works very well

One-click to "Like" a post

Profile posting and commenting

Additional permissions possibilities which can be reserved for Paid Members (perks)

Auto-saving of drafts

Event Calendar (which allows you to RSVP to events)

Tools for new users to orient them to the club

Sort members & threads alphabetically

History (of threads you have looked at)

Quickly find all posts/threads by a particular user

Automatic merging of duplicate posts/threads

Lots and lots of smilies to choose from

Resource Manager provides a place for adding helpful articles, tips, hints, tricks, etc.

Photo Gallery provides built-in function that is nearly identical to sites like Photobucket and Imugr, etc


Usernames vs Display Names: One important change to note is that there will no longer be a "Username" (your login name) and a "Display Name" (what everyone sees). Your new Username will be your current Display Name. There are a handful of current Display Names that do not meet the formatting requirements of Xenforo and I will be notifying those individuals of the necessary change that must be made.


Passwords: Existing passwords will not be retained. When the new site goes live, you will have to select the "Forgot Password" link, check your e-mail for a password reset link, and then enter a new password.


Avatars: Save your current Avatar if you wish to re-use it. I may be able to transition these, but it's a really low priority.


Tapatalk users: Initially, Tapatalk will not be activated. But not to worry, it will be installed, I just need to make sure that all of the settings are correct before activating it. In the meantime, you will be able to access the site directly on your mobile devices, as Xenforo is fully mobile friendly (you just won't get any push notifications). Once activated, you will have to delete GIRS from the list in your Tapatalk App and then add it back in.


That's it for now, please feel free to post any questions!


Bud

 

Thanks JB

10 days and counting!!

 

I will be shutting off new user registration tonight (probably between 9pm and Midnight) before I pull a copy of the database to send off for conversion.

If you signed up at Spring Fest and haven't created an account yet, today is the day to do it, otherwise you will have to wait until the end of the week when the new site is online. Your membership will be back-dated to Saturday.

The forum will remain open and you may continue posting. Posts made after the database copy is pulled will need to be manually transitioned but that is not terribly difficult.

Private messages will NOT be manually transitioned. All PMs made after the database copy is pulled WILL BE LOST.

Thanks and feel free to post any questions here!

I got a bit too busy to put together the info videos this week, but I have some time today so I will put together a few short ones. The database conversion will take a few days, so there is a bit of time for people to watch them.

 

User registration has been turned off.


Going to stop the SQL server and copy the database. Y'all are gonna get booted off, but not for long.


EDIT: locking this thread to server as a placeholder for the post-conversion processes that I will need to perform.


Please do not post to this thread (Tapatalk users)


Thanks


Bud

 

Just an update, things are taking a bit longer than expected. I had a number of bug-fixes that they have been working on and apparently a few of them are causing a bit of a headache.

They decided to do the conversion on the most current database whenever they have the bugs worked out, so I have been pulling daily backups for whenever they are ready to go.

Registration is still shut off. In hindsight, I could have left it on. But I was pretty tired of all the spammer registrations clogging up my e-mail anyways.

 

I've been informed that they will have the conversion process worked out by Monday morning, and I will be sending them a fresh copy of the database for that. I've done a few manual registrations, if anyone wants to set up an account they should e-mail webmaster@greateriowareefsociety.org and I'll set up an account for you.

 

The conversion is in the final stages. They've been working out a fix that I came up with for rassociating all the existing attachments. If it works, it will fix broken links for about 13,500 pictures that are currently on the server. They are definitely going above and beyond what I expected.

 

They've given me a target date of Friday for having the conversion done, that's when I'll get a first look at the result. If it looks good, I should be able to get things up and running over the weekend. If there is something considerably wrong, then it might be next week...

 

Changed the thread title, as this is dragging on a lot longer than expected.
Just so everyone knows, as of this posting <b>the forum software has NOT been transitioned</b>. I've had a few questions about site issues and wondering if it is the "new software"....you will notice a difference when it has switched over!!
The conversion company is taking a LOT longer than expected, I was told last Wednesday that the conversion code was being finished (they started from scratch instead of using the prior code, I don't know why but oh well) and that the final conversion process would start on Friday. As of late Saturday, it the conversion script was still running. There are also manual processes after that was done, and they are still working on that.
The latest word is that they will have something for me to review either today or tomorrow. But I'm not counting chickens yet, gave up on that this weekend.
I would complain about the amount of time it's taking, but considering what they were able to do on the dry-run, and considering that 1) they don't take payment until after the conversion is approved (so we haven't paid them anything yet) and 2) it only costs $230, I'm not going to complain too much.
It will get done, eventually.

 

At this rate, that's about right! Most of the conversions they do are cookie cutter, like wordpress to vbulletin or VB to IPB, etc. This one has been a challenge.

 

Ok!
GOOD NEWS:
The database conversion is finally complete! They nailed the photos/attachments issue, as far as I can tell. That was the biggest one I wanted them to fix. Also a few buggy formatting issues, another one on the list.
BAD NEWS:
The pretty much didn't get to half the stuff on my bug-fix list, but luckily, most of those are things I had to fix on the dry-run conversion, so I already know how to fix them. It will just take a bit more time.
TIMEFRAME:
I have a bit of a busy week, and parents in town over the weekend, but now it's on me! I hope that we can go live within a week...

 

I found a problem with their conversion related to the attachments (which wasn't as perfect as I thought) and they fixed it and updated it this morning. I'm now starting on the manual conversion steps, which will go into next week as I'm a bit tied up this weekend

 

It's coming along, piece by piece.
This weekend I managed to get the majority of the timconsuming database tweaking done, things like:
Setting up the User Groups and then mapping everyone's current group membership to the new system (this one took the longest)
Fixing a few missing sub-forums
Fixing user registration dates for the first couple hundred users
Fixing some username issues
Creating a thread mapping index for redirects
Manually adding in paid memberships for people who are paid members
Merging accounts that had issues
Deleting spammers (about 1200 accounts created in Jan/Feb due to DNN bug)
So I'm about to the point where I can stop monkeying with the back-end and start configuring the front end - permissions, addons, style, etc.

 

Weeded out some problem posts that were screwing up part of the process of bringing the DB up onto the VPS. taking a bit longer than expected, but it's needed to clean up some things...

 

Took a hit today. Something got hosed up and it took me a few days to realize the problem. Not a totally wasted week of effort...but enough time wasted to tick me off.

 

Good news!
After crunching through one issue after another pretty much every waking hour this weekend, I spent most of today taking the converted database provided by the conversion company and importing it into a completely functional and (knock on wood) error-free Xenforo installation!
I had to do a lot of clean-up work on several "hidden" issues...luckily, most of them I was able to perform through a series of SQL queries - about 4000 of them...which sounds worse that it is, I spent the weekend developing and testing the query set and ran them all in about 20 minutes this morning. Then I did a bunch of manual manipulation for a few hours. I then ran the import, which revealed some things I had missed, plus a set of queries I was missing. Lucky for me, there was nothing that required me to take a backwards step and have to do all the manual stuff over again. That would have ticked me off.
The next step is importing all the content that has been generated since the date of the conversion. That is a bit more of a manual process.