Let's convert IPB's bbcode into phpBB's bbcode.

[Bruttosozialprodukt]

This thread has a twin thread on autohotkey.com.
The thread on the autohotkey.com forum it will contain all IPB bbcodes that are supported there.
And the thread on the ahkscript.org site will contain all phpBB bbcodes that are supported there.

In the end we will see that there are quite a few codes that on IPB that are not supported on phpBB (yet). Now I'd like to discuss with you how we can convert form IPB to phpBB anyway. Maybe using work arounds (e.g. instead of a horizontal line we could use a bunch of underscores (____)) or maybe we can find plugins that are compatible with phpBB 3.1.6 that would allow using some IPB codes on phpBB. And we could also write our own plugins to do the job.

Code testing (phpBB forum):

Test 1 (bold)
Test 2 (italic)
Test 3 (underline)
Test 4 (quote):

this is a quote
test

Test 5 (code):

Code: Select all

MsgBox, some text
MsgBox, some more text

Test 6 (list)

• text
• more text

Test 7 (list numbered with a,b,c)

1. text
2. more text

Test 8 (list numbered with 1,2,3)

1. text
2. more text

Test 9 (image)

Test 10 (url)
Test 11 (color)
Test 12 (inline code)
Test 13 (center)
Test 14 (clyp)

Test 15 (docs):
MsgBox
Test 16 (font)
Test 17 (gist):

Test 18 (horizontal line):

---

Test 19 (indent):

text

more text

Test 20 (spoiler)

Spoiler

text

Test 21 (spoiler with name)

text

[spoiler3=Test 22 (on mouse spoiler)]text[/spoiler3]
Test 23 (strike through)
Test 24 (y2u.be short links)

Test 25 (youtube)


To get the source code of my post "quote" it.

[Bruttosozialprodukt]

Now let's see what happens if we use every possible IPB pbpbb code here and let's figure out how we can fix that:

Code testing (IPB forum):
Special BBCode:

[acronym="acronym text"]test 1 (acronym)[/acronym]
[background=#FF0000]test 2 (background color)[/background]
[blink]Test 3 (blink)[/blink] (is this supposed to do anything? am I using it wrong?)
Test 4 (inline code)
Test 5 (horizontal line):

---

Test 6 (media):
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6wuh0NRG1s[/media]
Test 7 (member):
[member=Bruttosozialprodukt]
Test 8 (page):
[page] (Any ideas how to use that one?)
[post=733500]Test 9 (post link)[/post]
Test 10 (spoiler):

Spoiler

Spoiler Text

[topic=149716]Test 11 (topic link)[/topic]
Test 12 (twitter):
[twitter]barackobama[/twitter]

Other BBCode:

[font='comic sans ms', cursive]Test 13 (font)[/font]
Test 14 (size)
Test 15 (color)
Test 16 (smileys):
B) :female: :male: :O :shy: :p :/ :S
Test 17 (my media):
I can't find a way to upload something to test this...
Test 18 (bold)
Test 19 (italic)
Test 20 (underline)
Test 20 (strike through)
Test[sub]21 (subscript)[/sub]
Test[sup]22 (superscript)[/sup]
Test 23 (bulleted list):

• text
• text2

Test 24 (numbered list):

1. text
2. more text

Test 25 (link)
Test 26 (image):
[img=http://autohotkey-dequeue.netdna-ssl.co ... go_ipb.png]
Test 27 (code):

Code: Select all

MsgBox, some text
MsgBox, some more text

Test 28 (quote):

A quote.
...more text.

Test 29 (increased indent):

text

more text

Test 30 (align left)
Test 31 (center)
[right]
Test 32 (align right)[/right]
[right] [/right]

[Bruttosozialprodukt]

Things that seem to be compatible without any modifications are:
inline code, spoiler, color, , , , , bold, italic, underline, bulleted list, numbered list, link, quote, increased indent, center

Things that can probably easily be fixed are:
horizontal line, media, member, post link, topic link, twitter, font, , :O, :p, :/, :S, strike through, image, code, align left

It will be a little bit more tricky with things like "size", as they behave differently, but share the same syntax:
On IPB it's: 1: 8px ... 2: 10px ... 3: 12px ... 4: 14px ... 5: 18px ... 6: 24px ... 7: 36px ... 8: 48px
And on phpBB it's: 1: 1% ... 2: 2% ...150: 150% ... etc

"My Media" with post attachments etc will also be very difficult. But it looks like that feature couldn't really be used on autohotkey.com.. so yeah let's hope for that.

An then there are the other really hard ones: acronym, text background color, blink(?), page(?), subscript, superscript, align right

And for the missing smileys we can easily add new ones to the phpBB forum: (B), :female:, :male:, :shy:

[tank]

It is possible to easily add new bbcode in the admin panel

[Bruttosozialprodukt]

And how does it work? Do you just create a new bbcode and then configure some css styles / html?

[lexikos]

Is the goal to merge the forum content, or convert IPB to a separate phpBB instance as an archive?

I personally wouldn't mind if some of the formatting (esp. blink) and emoticons was lost; in fact, I'd prefer it in some cases. What's important is that the content isn't corrupted, as it was with the conversion to IPB. For example, color tags littered throughout code blocks and list bullets that turned into [*:deadbeef].

[joedf]

The only advantage here would be to "merge" the forums, otherwise we simply lock it as an archive.
Also, im not sure... Necroposting is permitted here, right? or we not for that?

[jNizM]

I would say no to convert or merge the old stuff. You can't be sure that you are converting everything 100% right.

Just make it as archive (Read-Only) and create a new "ask for help for basic script user".

[just me]

There are lots of dead links (autohotkey.net) and many badly formatted code snippets in the old forum. The code box issues had been the main reason for me to move my code to Gists/GitHub. It's not good but acceptable for a locked archive. But why should they be merged into a new and active forum?

[lexikos]

I'm not in favour of merging; I was just thinking along the lines that if this content is going in its own phpBB instance, I don't care what bbcodes get added to that instance to facilitate the conversion. Otherwise I'd say just strip out bbcodes that can't be converted to what we have here - if we don't have it here already, it evidently isn't needed.

Leaving it in IPB is fine as long as there are no licensing issues. I've read that "You are entitled to run the last version you had access to indefinitely", but I suppose it wasn't licensed to us in the first place.

[faultycode]

Scripts also were actually corrupted during the conversion to IPB:
Sometimes html entities in scripts where translated to characters e.g. & to & - a good example is SKANs UnHTM http://www.autohotkey.com/board/topic/4 ... g-updated/
which apart from the color tags is now also a faulty script (it might run but produces incorrect results)
I think there are also scripts where the < char is "gone", so if a < b now reads if a or something like that. Even if you quote the post the < is not there so it is actually lost I think.

Won't another conversion introduce further problems?

Would a HTML copy of the forum and then strip the IPB heading / footer from the html pages an alternative? I believe some people did that in the past and ended up with 1+ GB worth of pages, might not be worth it. (HTML copies can be made with programs like WGET or HTTRACK)

[joedf]

Soo.. sticking to the original plan, then

[guest3456]

I personally wouldn't mind if some of the formatting (esp. blink) and emoticons was lost; in fact, I'd prefer it in some cases. What's important is that the content isn't corrupted, as it was with the conversion to IPB. For example, color tags littered throughout code blocks and list bullets that turned into [*:deadbeef].

agree 100%

[tank]

eventually it would be good to convert so they both look the same. Bruttosozialprodukt offered to take a crack at it. If it pans out then awesome. and honestly it costs us almost nothing to let him try. If you disagree please speak up.
Under no circumstances can we merge the content. there are other complications like in the mysql that will make that nearly impossible. Much of that will have to do with relationships that would inevitably be broken. I am unwilling to attempt a merge. the QA process on it alone would be an impossible task

[Bruttosozialprodukt]

Let me make some things clear here:
-Yes, this is about merging IPB with phpBB.
-It's not about things that broke during the first conversion to IPB. Back when this happened it was already too late. There is no way to reliably fix that. I mean seriously, how are you supposed to know if someone intended color tags in a code tag to be parsed or shown as source code? You can't.

Now let me explain why I think that we should definitely merge instead of archiving autohotkey.com:

If we would stick to the plan of making the IPB forum a read-only archive:
-Users that want to edit an archived thread will create the same thread again.
--This would be bad for obvious reasons.
----The old thread may contain valuable content in the posted answers
----Messy search results... E.g. duplicated results or the thread that happened to not contain what the user was looking for shows up and the other one doesn't.
-A lot of users won't care enough about their old threads to recreate them
--This would cause old projects to just get buried or not updated anymore.
--And it would cause a lot of search results to just show completely outdated code...
-If a user decides to ask a related question, he will create a new thread that you will likely never see again or only with a lot of searching afford.
-It simply looks dirty and makes it harder to navigate etc.

If we would convert the IPB posts and then merge:
-Well, everything I said above won't happen then.


Ideas for users/threads that were created on ahkscript.org and on autohotkey.com:
-Create a mechanism to allow users to merge their own threads. (mods should be allowed to merge any thread)
-Create a mechanism to allow users to merge their accounts.


@Tank if the offer still stands, I'd like to give it a try in a test environment.

[tank]

It does stand. there is alot going on with the server at the moment behind the scenes lets wait till after this sundays backup to proceed with a dev setup. I am all for making the data easier to maintain and accessible however....

So it sounds like any merging would be a purely manual initiative.The biggest problem would be user ID (from a db perspective these are not warm fuzzy words like tank) and i am certainly not user 47 on the old forum and the email accounts are not even the same. There is literal no reliable way to ensure a user in one forum is the same user in another. and there is no way to ensure that 2 different users are 2 different people. then there are issues with moving very useful threads by people who are no longer here. we wouldn't want to move a thread by Lazlo, Sean, Majkinator, philho etc and give folks the impression they are actively involved.
After such a long period over 2 months would anyone really still need to update a thread? How often would that actually come up?
I would wager the scenario you describe will only affect 4 or five people.

The fact is there is absolutely no safe way to undertake a merge. Heck because of data issues with the old DB that are not well published it was nearly impossible to upgrade phpBB2 to phpBB3 back in the day. and that wasn't anywhere near as complicated as a merge. I could see possibly creating an archive category in this board and copying the first and only first post if the scripts and functions to it with a link to the old original thread. deleting the usernames and putting in user text of the OP name but as a guest meaning no one but a MOD could edit it. But an actual Merge is just not feasible. converting it to PHPBB3 alone is something that i dare say may be impossible. but its safe to try. It is not safe to try a merge. there would be no way to ensure safety to user accounts not becoming corrupt or other bazaar artifacts.

If you manage to convert it then at the very least we can add an archive link to each forum board and do some sort of fancy search function for both. But i don't see how they ever occupy the same DB together. Even under the same software managing and moderating 2 boards is insane amount of effort. If they weren't so tangled i could see making a v 1.0 and a 1.1 board. but they are already so riddled with mixed script content that that doesn't really make sense. If it were converted i could even see making it so replies automatically mapped to the new board with some reference to the original thread even if it were a copy of the first post.

The point of archiving vs just trashing it completely is so that the content is preserved. the searches are not less complicated by a merge duplication occurs no matter what. the Past must always give way to the future. this forum will eventually give way to something better. but there are new approaches to everything. the old important posts become less relevant every day. Whereas I still pull content from Sean's threads with every project. But Sean was the only real support for those threads and he just isn't around. moving his threads would just cause an endless supply of unanswered questions. Same with others. entropy is the only constant in the universe. this is no different. Sean's threads are only one of a gazillion examples i can think of.

As painful as this will be, it is more painful to leave it as is. Even Polyethene broke his own stubbornness on the basis of this community needing to become re unified. I am doing my solid best to make that happen and everything i can to ease that transition.

One final point. Before presenting the idea of archiving i had a real serious in depth look at converting IPB to PHPBB3 and merging either 1 into the other. Heck i even took an archive of the old phpBB board before it was converted to IPB and tried to figure out a way. and that was without all the damage done to it first.

I am not saying YOU WILL FAIL. I am saying that i have as good or better MySQL skills as anyone i have ever known and i couldn't figure it out. I think you need to set yourself some realistic expectations. be willing to get close if you can and accept a full merge is almost certain to never be possible.

[Bruttosozialprodukt]

I have quite a bit of experience with mySQL and the database/table structure of phpBB. It's been a while, but as far as I remember, the structure was pretty straight forward.

And I never said we should automatically merge users. That would be pointless. My suggestion was to allow users to manually merge their accounts.
When importing IPB accounts to phpBB we would simply add a prefix like IPB_user_ in front of their name or something like that.
The ids will probably be auto-generated by the tables.

About the test environment, would it be possible for you to provide some kind of copy of the original boards? So that I can actually run realistic tests?

[tank]

the problem is not the complexity of phpbb mysql. there are some data issues encoding that have made things quite difficult
but your idea of prefixing usernames has some merit and if the posts and topic indexes were properly offset it could work except
it would break every single solitary link to old content
the test envirionment i was gonna set up was going to have data

[tank]

i and i want to hear the story about what your gonna do with ipb password hashes

[Bruttosozialprodukt]

I have multiple ideas for the password hashes:
idea 1: I'm wondering how it was done when the switch to phpBB happened in the first place, maybe they are compatible?
idea 2: password reset for all, IPB_user_ users, so that they can enter a new password after an email verification
idea 3: adjust the login script to handle IPB_user_ logins in a different way

Links shouldn't be a very big problem. It's just a bit tricky.
We basically would have to acquire a post/thread id for every post first and then parse the links and replace them accordingly.


Something else just came to my mind:
We should run queries to see how often things like the twitter-user code were used. If we only find 10 posts that actually used it, then there wouldn't be a need to convert that, or to add new bbcode tags for it. (But that obviously needs to run on the original posts/thread table.)

Edit:
What exactly did you mean by encoding? Is this about converting between html and bbCode? I don't think we have to worry about that at all, phpBB probably provides a function to do the conversion.