bbPress Invision v4 Converter

A (work-in-progress) converter to migrate from Invision Community (Power Board) v4 to bbPress (forums software for WordPress), built as a WordPress plugin.

Tested converting from Invision Community 4.3.6 to bbPress 2.6-rc-7 on WordPress 4.9.9 and PHP 7.2.

Installation and Use

• (optional) Install and activate Redirection plugin to ensure old links continue to work.
• (optional) Install and activate and WP User Avatar plugin.

1. Install the plugin files into wp-content/plugins/bbPress-Invision-v4-Converter/ and activate.
2. Navigate to WordPress Admin Dashboard / Tools / Forums / Import Forums (at wp-admin/tools.php?page=bbp-converter).
3. Fill in the source database details as usual with every bbPress converter.
4. Fill in the Original Invision Forum URL and Invision Files Source URL.
5. Press Start. (and be patient).

This plugin must remain active in order for users' Invision passwords to continue to work with WordPress (each user needs to log in once for the password to be saved natively).

Completed

• Users: passwords, roles, avatars (if WP User Avatar active), banning.
• Forums: importing.
• Topics: importing, unapproving, closing.
• Super-stickies (announcements): importing, unapproving.
• Replies: importing, unapproving, emoticons, images.
• Images / Attachments
• Broken link redirection (if Redirection active).

TODO

• Users: meta-data (social accounts...), old user profile URL redirects*.
• Topics: unapproving reasons.
• Favorites.
• Subscriptions.
• Redirection: urls with trailing slashes don't redirect, .jpg doesn't redirect.
• Forums reset:(media files remain and redirects remain).

Favorites: core_follow table

core_deletion_log maybe not addressed, thus undeleting topics

. Redirects can be deleted in a single click. Imported attachments are marked _bbp_attachment. No action seems to be called during the bbPress reset function.

Use wp-cli to text search for hyperlinks and see if there are any weird ones remaining (see convert_link... tables).

Add table of IPB tables in this document and comment what has been converted and what has not

Avatar not showing on: https://forum-staging.gv1md4q4-liquidwebsites.com/forums/users/roro/ (But is for other users)

User stats on user page not correct, but replies etc do list. (need to run another repair)

https://forum-staging.gv1md4q4-liquidwebsites.com/forums/topic/ Redirects to: https://forum-staging.gv1md4q4-liquidwebsites.com/forums/topic/topical-dnp/ (seems to be

Users

ipbforum.core_members values to consider importing:

Invision	Values/sample
restrict_post	[0, -1] -1 means view only?	bbp_set_user_role( $user_id, 'bbp_spectator' );
mod_posts	[0, -1] -1 means hold posts for moderation?
last_activity	unix time	update_user_meta( 'last_activity', '2019-01-05 20:26:47' );
timezone
allow_admin_mails	[0, 1]
members_disable_pm	[0, 1]
msg_show_notification	[0, 1]
auto_track	{"content":1,"comments":1,"method":"daily"}
pp_cover_photo	file path below /uploads/
bday_day, bday_month, bday_year
members_profile_views	int
pp_reputation_points	int		http://www.rewweb.co.uk/bbp-user-ranking/
signature

IPB temporary bans (temp_ban unix time > 0) are lifted immediately. (could be implemented by cron).

Ban warnings.

Topics

Unapproving, reasons stored in ipbforum.core_soft_delete_log;

• Up/down voting

  • ipbforum.forums_question_ratings has individual votes stored.

Posts

ipbforum.forums_posts.queued [-1, 0, 2] I think means moderation queue. 0 are normal posts. I don't know the difference between -1 and 2 or what it might be so hiding everything not 0.

ipbforum.core_soft_delete_log is the time and reason for unapproving the post/topic.

Subscriptions

Forum Subscriptions

Step 6

SELECT * FROM ipbforum.core_follow

Topic Subscriptions

Step 13

Favorites

Step 14

Images/Attachments Source/UI

Need to distinguish between the url location of ipb uploads folder for importing, vs. where it was when live.

uploads folder can be calculated from SELECT * FROM ipbforum.core_file_storage; Filesystem {"dir":"{root}\/uploads","url":"uploads"}

Maybe problems if WordPress is not installed in root (/)...

With the converter as-is, you need to edit bbPress-Invision-v4-Converter.php PHP ~line 13 $ipb_uploads_url to set a http source for the Invision uploads url.

A ticket exists for a general implementation of this on bbPress Trac: Add support for bbPress converter to import attachments.

Ideally a new form input would be added on the Import Forums page for the location of the old uploads folder. Http is fine, but local file path should work with PHP's copy function too.

V3 FAQ & Known Issues

Since this is based off the v3 importer, the same unimplemented features from v3 probably still apply: Invision IPB v3.1x, v3.2x, v3.3x & v3.4x Importer for bbPress (although this seems outdated anyway).

Core/WordPress Settings

Some settings from Invision to consider importing to WordPress. See ipbforum.core_sys_conf_settings for more.

Probably best not to overwrite these settings if they're not at the WordPress defaults.

Invision	Values/sample
allow_gravatars	[0, 1]
board_name	string	WordPress site title
email_in		Post via email
email_out
ipb_bruteforce_attempts
ipb_bruteforce_period
ipb_bruteforce_unlock
mail_method
pop3_password		Post via email
pop3_port
pop3_server
pop3_tls
pop3_user
profile_birthday_type
profile_comment_approval
profile_comments
smtp_host
smtp_pass
smtp_port
smtp_protocol
smtp_user
forums_rss
forums_topics_per_page

// Registration Terms & Rules

Messages

bbPress doesnt support PMs, afaik. BuddyPress would be the appropriate plugin to add if that is needed.

Status updates (core_member_status_updates) & replies (core_member_status_replies).

Redirection

Redirect plugin isn't invoked for .jpg files, only bare URLs.

Redirect paths with/without trailing slash. (add a regex to remove it).

Completed Notes

Announcements

Announcements uses a temporary post type announcement-temp which is only registered in the converter and the posts are immediately updated to become topics and their properties set.

Images / Attachments

The import step convert_anonymous_reply_authors() is overridden to import attachments. (since I don't see a way to add a custom step and this one didn't seem to be in use).

Missing files logged in error log.

core_attachments is joined with core_attachments_map and details are copied into a temporary custom post type (attachment-temp). Once the data is in WordPress, the posts are looped through, the files downloaded from the remote server, the attachment created in the media library for the correct user, and the link in the original post updated to the new attachment location.

A 404 redirection from the old path to the new is created, but needs to be exported from Redirection plugin to Apache/Nginx.

A meta key is added to each attachment, _bbp_attachment, for use with GD bbPress Attachments plugin.

This will work for forums attachments only, i.e. does not import messaging attachments or announcements.

As posts are imported, their content is scanned for old attachments (local but not mentioned in the database) and a meta key is set which once saved to WordPress fires the action to download the file and store it in the WordPress Media Library.

Attachment thumbnails as <img in the html don't preserve the size they had been, rather they WordPress medium size is used.

Emoticons

It seems the parent class callback_html() function was replacing bbcodes inside alt="" and title="" tags and not correctly replacing the image's url.

<img alt="&gt;:(" data-emoticon="" height="20" src="<fileStore.core_Emoticons>/emoticons/angry.png" srcset="<fileStore.core_Emoticons>/emoticons/angry@2x.png 2x" title="&gt;:(" width="20" />

<img alt="&lt;img src=" width="" height="" />:(" title="&gt;:(" class="bbcode_smiley" /&gt;" data-emoticon="" height="20" src="/emoticons/angry.png" srcset="/emoticons/angry@2x.png 2x" title="<img class="bbcode_smiley" title="&gt;:(" src="/angry.gif" alt="&gt;:(" width="" height="" />" width="20" /&gt;

This converter now copies over the original emoticon to wp-content/uploads/emoticons/, replaces the url in the post content, and removes the troublesome tags so the parent class doesn't mess them up.

User Profile Pictures

If WP User Avatar plugin is active on the site, the user's avatar will be added to the WordPress Media Library and used as their avatar.

404 Redirection

If the WordPress Redirection plugin is installed, this converter will add 404 redirects from old forum and topic URLs to the new bbPress posts.

It does this by saving the forums_forums.name_seo and forums_topics.title_seo into WordPress post meta, and having an action on their save to use that data to build the old url, e.g. /forum/6-forum-seo-name/, and uses the Redirection REST API internally to add the entry pointing to /?p=123, so permalinks can be changed later, to a group named bbPress, then deletes the new meta key.

Invision v4 Schema

Beyond what has been addressed by this plugin, further data and functionality in Invision remains to be addressed. Much of it is not directly applicable to bbPress, and much of what may be relevant to you was not to me. NA = Not Directly Applicable to bbPress.

Here are some notes on what I know:

Table	Purpose	Convereted	Notes	In my case
calendar_calendars		NA
calendar_event_comments
calendar_event_reminders
calendar_event_reviews
calendar_event_rsvp
calendar_events
calendar_import_feeds
calendar_import_map
calendar_venues
convert_app_sessions	Seems to be related to importing TO Invision.	NA
convert_apps
convert_bbcode_mediatag
convert_custom_bbcode
convert_link
convert_link_pms
convert_link_posts
convert_link_topics
convert_logs
core_acp_search_index	ACP = Admin Control Panel	NA
core_acp_tab_order
core_acronyms
core_admin_login_logs
core_admin_logs	Logs – might be useful to add as metadata to users and topics.
core_admin_permission_rows
core_advertisements	NA
core_announcements	Imported as Super Stickies.
core_api_keys
core_api_logs
core_applications	List of Invision plugins.
core_attachments		Forums attachments imported to Media Library	WHERE core_attachments_map.location_key = "forums_Forums"
core_attachments_map
core_banfilters				empty
core_bulk_mail	maybe the table of an add-on of ours
core_cache		NA		empty
core_clubs		NA	BuddyPress relevant?	empty
core_clubs_fields
core_clubs_fieldvalues
core_clubs_memberships
core_clubs_node_map
core_content_meta				empty
core_deletion_log			Maybe important are topics marked deleted here accounted for elsewhere?
core_dev				empty
core_edit_history				empty
core_email_templates			BuddyPress relevant?
core_emoticons		emoticons were imported when their direct URL was seen. Maybe a more thorough way would've been to use this table, to also add users' ability to use their familiar typed code :P
core_error_logs				empty
core_file_logs	Seems maybe to be deletion logs
core_file_storage	A single entry specifying the uploads directory, both path and URL.
core_files				empty
core_files_temp				empty
core_follow		TODO	also applicable to BuddyPress
core_geoip_cache				empty
core_googleauth_used_codes				empty
core_group_promotions				empty
core_groups	admin/member/mod groups	Imported, but assumed default Invision settings, and only for default bbPress groups.
core_hooks
core_ignored_users		NA	would need a bbPress plugin	empty
core_image_proxy				empty
core_incoming_emails				empty
core_ipsconnect_queue	Auth/SSO
core_ipsconnect_slaves	Auth/SSO
core_item_markers	Records which topics/posts/etc have been read by each user.		would need a bbPress plugin
core_javascript	.js files stored in DB
core_leaders	??
core_leaders_groups
core_log
core_login_handlers		NA	worth looking at to decide what WordPress plugins are needed
core_mail_error_logs				empty
core_member_history
core_member_ranks				empty
core_member_status_replies		BuddyPress relevant?
core_member_status_updates		BuddyPress relevant?
core_members		Converted to WP_Users. Not all data converted.
core_members_feature_seen
core_members_known_devices
core_members_known_ip_addresses
core_members_warn_actions
core_members_warn_logs
core_members_warn_reasons
core_menu
core_message_posts	Private messages	NA / BuddyPress relevant
core_message_topic_user_map
core_message_topics
core_moderator_logs
core_moderators
core_modules			Worth looking at for plugins needed.
core_notification_defaults	System notificaion settings
core_notification_preferences	Individual notification settings (beyond system set)
core_notifications
core_permission_index
core_pfields_content
core_pfields_data
core_pfields_groups
core_plugins			surprisingly empty	empty
core_polls				empty
core_profanity_filters				empty
core_profile_steps				empty
core_question_and_answer
core_queue				empty
core_ratings				empty
core_rc_comments			"Updated the status of the report to Complete"
core_rc_index
core_rc_reports
core_reactions	Reactions similar to Facebook's Like, Angry, Laughing...
core_reputation_index
core_reputation_leaderboard_history
core_reputation_levels
core_rss_export
core_search_index	seems to cut out irrelevant words for content to make search more efficient	NA
core_search_index_item_map
core_search_index_tags
core_security_answers	Hashed set of answers.
core_security_questions
core_seo_meta				empty
core_sessions
core_share_links
core_sitemap
core_social_promote				empty
core_social_promote_content				empty
core_social_promote_sharers
core_soft_delete_log	NOT addressed in posts
core_spam_service_log				empty
core_statistics	Daily analytics?
core_store
core_streams
core_sys_conf_settings	settings, e.g. forums_topics_per_page	NOT imported
core_sys_cp_sessions				empty
core_sys_lang
core_sys_lang_words	Public facing terminology	Imported only for forum titles
core_sys_social_group_members				empty
core_sys_social_groups				empty
core_tags		Imported but uncertain – it seems to have worked.
core_tags_cache
core_tags_perms
core_tasks
core_tasks_log
core_theme_conflict
core_theme_content_history
core_theme_css
core_theme_resources
core_theme_settings_fields
core_theme_settings_values
core_theme_templates
core_themes
core_upgrade_history
core_validating
core_view_updates
core_voters
core_widget_areas
core_widget_trash
core_widgets
forums_answer_ratings		Plugin required
forums_archive_posts				empty
forums_archive_rules
forums_forums	The forums themselves	Imported. Position not imported. I password protected, not addressed. ....
forums_posts		probably mostly imported
forums_question_ratings
forums_rss_import				empty
forums_rss_imported				empty
forums_topic_mmod				empty
forums_topics		Mostly imported. Views not imported.
forums_view_method
masspm_messages

Acknowledgements

Built for Enhanced Athlete by Brian Henry, thanks to the contributors of the Invision v3 converter.