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Import a single WP install with phpbb3 into multisite advice.

Hello,

I need to make the best changes to enable forward momentum. A discussion here would help me to work out my best way forward.

I have a multisite (blirrt.com.)

I have another multisite with a separate phpbb3 forum (writersdock.com)

I want to import writersdock.com into blirrt.com.

I want to convert writersdock.com back into a single site first.

I know that one blog site can be imported into another, but I’m not sure if I can get the forums to play nicely or not.

This is the ideal scenario for me:

writersdock.com is a site for writers. They write short stories and poetry utilising my phpbb3 forums.

The “front page” for writersdock.com is powered by WordPress. WordPress and phpbb3 are seperate cms’ with separate users. (This made it easy for me to keep the site software updated.)

I want to integrate the community into blirrt.com.

This would allow me to give my members separate blogs if they want them and offer them the chance to use premium themes.

Once the changes were established and my members moderately happy, I want to expand blirrt’s/writersdock’s remit: I want to offer other different kinds of blog/site. E-shops for instance.

In this instance, it would be important for me to be able to keep the sense of community for my writersdock writers. I would love for their blog posts to “feed” onto one page so that other members of writersdock could offer feedback. And some separate exclusive area for them to interact with each other not unlike our present phpbb3 forums.

Although I’ve used wordpress for a number of years, I have yet to get to grips with all of the options that it offers me.

For instance buddypress and bbpress and how they work and integrate with each other and whether they are a good fit for my plans.

Basically, I need informed advice on how I can go forward. Your input would be much appreciated.

Best regards,

Sonny.

Tue, 29 Oct 2013 2:16:59
  • Vinod Dalvi
    • WP Unicorn

    Hi @sonnymanou,

    I hope you are well today and thank you for your question.

    You can use forums plugin to implement forum in a multisite (blirrt.com.) however it does not allow you to import forum topics from other platforms out of the box. It will have to be a database to database import if at all possible.

    If you want to use BuddyPress, you can go with bbPress

    If you want something more fuller and complex then you could consider SimplePress.

    Both bbPress and Simple Press allow import from phpbb.

    http://codex.bbpress.org/import-forums/phpbb/

    http://codex.bbpress.org/import-forums/

    http://gconverter.com/phpbb-to-simplepress/

    In future if you want to integrate E-shops in this site then you can use MarketPress eCommerce plugin.

    Best Regards,

  • sonnymanou
    • Site Builder, Child of Zeus

    Thanks for your reply, Vinod.

    That’s interesting, I like the look of that forum. Is there definitely no way to import the data in? Is there anybody here who would know this difinitively?

    If the above wasn’t possible, and from what you’ve said, it doesn’t look likely, how about the phpbb3 users? Can I at least not inconvenience my users by importing them into WordPress somehow? If this was the case, then I would “archive” my phpbb3 forums, and push my users to use the new forums.

    I’ve been looking around and found on this site here: http://commons.gc.cuny.edu/ a “Recent Blog Posts” section on the index page. I like it. It would be great for my writers. However, if I were to offer other types of site from bliRRt – like the eshop – would there be a way of stopping posts/products from these other sites from appearing in this section?

    Regards,

    Sonny

  • Vinod Dalvi
    • WP Unicorn

    Hi @sonnymanou,

    As i have said earlier and now also confirmed it from others that currently there isn’t any straight forward option to import forums from phpbb3 into WPMU Dev forums plugin but as i have said, you can use bbPress or Simple Press that allow to import forums from phpbb.

    You can use Recent Global Posts Widget plugin to show recent posts from all sites across your entire network.

    Best Regards,

  • sonnymanou
    • Site Builder, Child of Zeus

    Thank you, Vinod.

    The original link to the forum that you supplied led me to a plugin that gave me the option to use bbpress. The plugin informed me that “Forum” will soon no longer be supported and that bbpress was the best way to go.

    So, I’ve been looking for a way to convert from phpbb3 to bbpress, and there doesn’t seem to be a reliable choice out there. However, I then stumbled upon this site: http://www.cms2cms.com.

    They claim to have an online content management system converter. Have you heard of them?

    Regards,

    Sonny