Transfer Forums

i was wondering if it was possible to upgrade from a free forum to a paid one like vB?


the reason i ask is because i want to develop a site and i want to include a forum. i want the log- in feature to be the same for the forum and the main site. for development purposes i want to start with a free forum like phpbb or something and then when im complete and i start getting traffic and an income from the site move to vB.

is this possible and which free forum would be best for this move (im new but i know what im doing in php & MySQL so that shouldnt be too much of a problem.)


PS. i wasnt sure if this would be the right section, it does have to do with content, but if it needs to be moved ok. sorry.

 

Yes, you can do it by using Impex. Its a vBulletin tool which helps you convert your database from most of the forums to vBulletin one. Check out vBulletin.com for more details.

 

but what if other things are using the database?

 

Doesn't matters, forum scripts normally use specific extension in front of their tables i.e. smf_ for smf forums and you can specify this during the transfer process. I have converted my phpbb based forum to vbulletin few months back and didnt need to change any ones password or anything. transfer went really smoothly.

 

Yes, It is possible. If you can't do it on your own, you can request a quote from vBulletin people, pay some money and get it done. And if you convert from free forum to IPB, I think they will do it for free.

I doubt if it's right approach. You have to understand that the 'bridge' to be written by you (for common login to your application and forum) is going to be different for each forum. When you write the bridge for free forum and then upgrade to a paid forum, you may need to rewrite the bridge for integration.

If you are aware of it and prepared to do it, there should not be a problem.

Try SMF or PhpBB - though I personally favour SMF.

 

so your saying that i shouldnt have anything other then vB connect to that database?

then how would i make them so if you went from the site to the forum you wouldnt have to log in again?
ive seen it done, i know it possible.

 

I think I confused you with my wordings.

What I am saying - Single login for site & forum is possible. But you have to write some code (bridge) to make that possible. And when you upgrade your free forum to vB, you may need to update your bridge as well to suit the vB code.

If you are a PHP programmer, that should not be difficult I guess.

 

ooh ok so your saying that all i would have to do i change the variables that i would use to connect to the database?

like if before it was

and then vB named the table "vB_username" instead of "username"


i would have to change it said:

?
is that what you were telling me?
(i problaby confused you now...)