My migration experience with XenForo 1.5.x to IPS 4.2.x

[Optic]

So I recently migrated to IPS from XenForo and it went quite smooth.

For those considering moving to IPS 4.2.x from XenForo 1.5.x, I thought I would make a list of potential issues. For some of you these would be a non-issue, for some it would be a compromise and for others they may be showstoppers.

1. XenForo post ratings add-on (By Luke F) are not converted to IPS Reactions: this is of course expected as Post Ratings is a 3rd party add-on. This can be worked around by manually inserting the entries into your database after the conversion, and recounting IPS reaction points then rebuilding the Leaderboard. Details in this thread.
   
   
2. Edit history is not converted: the date/time stamps are preserved, but the name of the member isn't (will just say Guest). You will also lose your previous edit content history. After you convert you will need to re-enable this feature as the full edit history is disabled by default. I should also add that XenForo's Logging Options by default prunes edit history after 60 days.
   
   
3. IP address history is not converted: similarly, IP address history for members is not converted. They will all list as 127.0.0.1 until the member logs in again after the conversion. I should also add that XenForo's Logging Options by default auto-prune IP address history after 365 days.
   
   
4. Double lines in posts: XenForo uses line breaks when ENTER is inputted in posts. In IPS, they use <p> paragraph breaks. This results in a blank <p> paragaph if there is a double line break in a post after the conversion.
   
   
5. No BBCode editor: IPS does not have a BB Code editor, only the Visual Editor. Some BBCodes are still recognised (including spoiler) but you can't switch to plain text BBCode.
   
   
6. Profiles can't be set as private: in XenForo a member can set their profile so it isn't publicly visible except to followers. In IPS no such concept exists.
   
   
7. IP.Gallery has a 100 image upload cap per session: not a huge issue as this can be overcome with a simple core file edit.
   
   
8. IP.Gallery can't embed videos: not a huge issue as I'm using a different add-on for this, and using IP.Gallery solely for images. If you converted from Xenforo Media Gallery it will just import the thumbnail as an image, and embed the video into the video description. You can however upload video files directly but no processing will be done to it (unlike XenForo's FFmpeg's implementation of encoding it for HTML 5 compatibility)
   
   
9. IPS's Customize Friendly URLs not fully working: in XenForo you can use the Route Filter option to rename/adjust URL slugs, as long as it didn't create ambiguity. Very useful for renaming add-on URL slugs (Gallery and Showcase comes to mind) In IPS you can do similar but for some reason you can't rename the parent application slug. If you try to rename it, it just prepends the original name of the parent slug to your customisation. Have a ticket open for this but I suspect it's a deliberate limitation based on community feedback so far..

There are of course many other benefits the IPS suite brings to the table which I won't list here as you can easily see it on the IPS website.

This is course subject to change as IPS adjusts their XenForo to IPS converter in future.

 

[Mouth]

Thanks for sharing!

 

[doubt]

1. Edit history is not converted: the date/time stamps are preserved, but the name of the member isn't (will just say Guest). You will also lose your previous edit content history. After you convert you will need to re-enable this feature as the full edit history is disabled by default.
   

....

This is course subject to change as IPS adjusts their XenForo to IPS converter in future.

Can you see the posters IP addresses?
I can see only IP: 127.0.0.1

 

[zappaDPJ]

Edit history is not converted: the date/time stamps are preserved, but the name of the member isn't (will just say Guest). You will also lose your previous edit content history. After you convert you will need to re-enable this feature as the full edit history is disabled by default.

I'm required to retain that information on two of the forums I maintain and really wouldn't want to loose it on the rest so that's a show stopper as far as I'm concerned.

Profiles can't be set as private: in XenForo a member can set their profile so it isn't publicly visible except to followers. In IPS no such concept exists.

This is potentially another problem although I expect it could be addressed with an add-on.

 

[Optic]

Can you see the posters IP addresses?
I can see only IP: 127.0.0.1

Hi doubt yes you're right, IP address history isn't migrated either. I will add that to the list.

I actually thought about this at the time during my test import, then realised it was a non-issue for me as most of them had already been pruned recently on my board from XenForo's default "Logging Options"



But yes certainly for others that disabled the pruning options above and want to maintain that history, it would definitely be an issue.

 

[Ummagumma]

Thanks for the link to this and the info. Seems some things may be missing that are pretty essential, but can mostly try and live without initially. The profile for following/public only is an issue, due to our niche - members value privacy.
I wonder if they have multiple account detection and an extensive member list. member search page?
Can you do things such as member group promotions based on specific actions?
Blocking, is that a possibility to block other members?
There's probably loads more I need to ask, but am guessing that I need to drop them an email or ask on their forums.
Interesting thread though, and again thank you for the link.

 

[Optic]

Thanks Ummagumma

I would first check out their 4.3 blog posts:
https://invisioncommunity.com/news/product-updates/invision-community-43-r1055/

And then ask in Presales on IPS's forum, because 4.3 is now in beta and it does change quite a few things over 4.2. It also does address a couple of the things in my original post (the 100 image limit in Gallery for example)

But to answer your questions to the best of my knowledge:

I wonder if they have multiple account detection and an extensive member list. member search page?

You can see what devices members have used in the Admin CP, this is what it looks like in 4.3:
https://invisioncommunity.com/news/product-updates/43-admincp-member-profiles-r1072/

But there isn't a way to easily cross-reference this to detect alter ego accounts. There is no member list with pagination out of the box, you can only search by member name ..

Can you do things such as member group promotions based on specific actions?

Yes group promotion is pretty similar to XenForo:
https://invisioncommunity.com/news/product-updates/new-group-promotion-improvements-r1028/

Blocking, is that a possibility to block other members?

You can only ignore members which just hides their content - similar to XenForo. It also lets you prevent PMs from being received.

 

[Ummagumma]

Thanks Ummagumma

I would first check out their 4.3 blog posts:
https://invisioncommunity.com/news/product-updates/invision-community-43-r1055/

And then ask in Presales on IPS's forum, because 4.3 is now in beta and it does change quite a few things over 4.2. It also does address a couple of the things in my original post (the 100 image limit in Gallery for example)

But to answer your questions to the best of my knowledge:

You can see what devices members have used in the Admin CP, this is what it looks like in 4.3:
https://invisioncommunity.com/news/product-updates/43-admincp-member-profiles-r1072/

But there isn't a way to easily cross-reference this to detect alter ego accounts. There is no member list with pagination out of the box, you can only search by member name ..


Yes group promotion is pretty similar to XenForo:
https://invisioncommunity.com/news/product-updates/new-group-promotion-improvements-r1028/


You can only ignore members which just hides their content - similar to XenForo. It also lets you prevent PMs from being received.

Thank you for the detailed reply Optic ap[appreciate that. I may well start doing some more delving into it. I did run a demo last year, but found too many things that we're reliant upon, just missing. But I see more add-ons being created in their marketplace so it may well be a viable option for the future.

 

[Daniel]

an extensive member list.

I can highly recommand https://invisioncommunity.com/files/file/8035-member-lists-pro/ which is much more then an extensive member list

 

[Ummagumma]

I can highly recommand https://invisioncommunity.com/files/file/8035-member-lists-pro/ which is much more then an extensive member list

Very interesting. Thank you for sharing.. That's a good start!

 

[Alpha1]

Optic how has this move affected your ranking and traffic? Could you show us some statistics?
What things do you currently dislike most about IPS?
What are you currently most happy about?

 

[tony45]

Very interesting. Thank you for sharing.. That's a good start!

And check this out too. Both apps and coders are really good

https://invisioncommunity.com/files/file/8740-members-tab/

 

[Ummagumma]

And check this out too. Both apps and coders are really good

https://invisioncommunity.com/files/file/8740-members-tab/

Excellent, thank you.. All informative posts, appreciate it a lot.

 

[ibaker]

Hi Optic
I am currently playing around with the new IPS v4.3 and trying to migrate an XF v2 site but are having trouble trying to do the Smilies to Emoji. Did you have any issues with this?

Plus, with Luke's Ratings addon not available for XF v2 I went over to XON's ratings. How did you migrate Luke's ratings? I may be able to do something similar.

PS, I see you are in Perth...I am in Melbourne

 

[Optic]

Hi ibaker, greetings from Perth. I miss the Melbourne trams during my visit.

I haven't upgraded to IPS 4.3 yet, and my experience above was for converting from XenForo 1.5.

Are your XenForo 2 smilies already in emoji, and you're having issues with the IPS converter getting those across as emoji too? Probably best to raise a ticket with IPS for any XenForo > IPS converter issues. I ran into an issue with the converter and they were able to fix it up for me promptly.

Plus, with Luke's Ratings addon not available for XF v2 I went over to XON's ratings. How did you migrate Luke's ratings? I may be able to do something similar.

I posted my experience here:
https://theadminzone.com/threads/converting-xenforo-post-ratings-to-ips-reactions.145040/

Basically you'll just need to create a spreadsheet with columns containing the ID values of: your old XF rating IDs, your IPS reaction IDs, the old XF content ID (post that was reacted) and the new IPS content ID (post that was reacted) and finally a MD5 hash of the IPS content type and IPS ID (details in the link above) Of course to get the IPS values you would need to do the conversion (so try a test one first). Then bulk import into your database, then run a recount and rebuild the Leaderboard inside IPS.

 

[ibaker]

Thanks Optic, unfortunately that is all too hard for me especially the hash (which isn't used in the XON addon) and the different ID's. In XF v2 I installed Xon's post ratings addon which included a conversion of Luke's one. After it is converted it stores all the "Likes" as XF standard Likes in the XF table and then stores all the other ratings in another table:


I have a total of 8 ratings...the standard XF Like one (in the XF table) plus 7 more in the ratings addon table

 

[Optic]

Hi ibaker, thanks for the screenshot.

It looks like Xon's' add-on takes a different approach than Luke's Post Ratings add-on (and IPS Reactions). Just based off your screenshot it looks like Xon is keeping a total tally of each reaction type per post/row whereas in Post Ratings there was always one row per rating, with the tally done elsewhere (IPS does this too). Makes sense for his approach as you said he retains XF Likes in the default table.

So you would probably need to first move each of those columns into individual rows (ensuring they have the same post IDs of course).

the hash (which isn't used in the XON addon)

Actually the MD5 hash is on the IPS reactions table. Post Ratings didn't have this either so I had to generate them manually (I used a free online tool to do this via bulk copy and paste).

I may look at writing a high level guide with diagrams as working with the different tables can get confusing.

 

[MinerFan]

Optic - may I ask if your sidebar categorization is native IPS functionality or is that an add-on? I love the functionality of clicking a category and having an instant refresh of the main topic board. It really makes content exposure much simpler.

 

[Optic]

Hi MinerFan , yes certainly - that is a native IPS 4.2 feature called "Fluid Forum View"
https://invisioncommunity.com/news/product-updates/new-fluid-forum-view-r1026/

Indeed I feel it helps prevent that "dead category" feeling and helps expose topics better on the front page. But it may not be suitable if you have an extremely active community with many categories.

 

[Deleted member 3691]

Yep, that's a stock feature in Invision Community. We're always looking for new ways to increase content discovery and reduce complexity.