phpbb links to mybb

[Mackies]

Hello,

I'm looking to convert my phpbb3 forum over to mybb. I have already done some tests and it works fine, however one problem is we have changed the forum directory. On top of that, the mybb links are different to the phpbb ones.

What I would like to know is, how can I redirect any attempts at visiting the old location towards the new mybb forum and display the correct forum/post?

Previous structure
www.mysite.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=1843

New structure
www.mysite.com/

So I need to redirect any attempts to visit the /forums/ directory to the root directory and still bring up the correct page. I have seen some topics on doing this, but neither really answered both of my questions in 1.

I have not yet done the merge, so any info on editing files etc would be great.

I would appreciate any help you can give on this.

[Graham K]

Add the following to the end of your .htaccess file:

# Redirect from "/forums/" to "/"
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.mysite.com/forums
RewriteRule ^(.*) http://www.mysite.com/$1 [P]

Replace mysite.com with your own site of course.

[Mackies]

And that is all? Most of the threads I have seen indicate something needs to be edited within the Merge system itself before that can be done.

[Graham K]

There is more required for the PHPBB to MyBB part.

However for the "/forum/" to "/" part the .htaccess will help.

[Josh H.]

AFAIK, this is *not* all that needs to be done. That will not redirect viewtopic.php requests to showthread properly, let alone with the merged tid.

[Mackies]

Thank you for the responses. If there is anyone else who knows of any prior steps that need to be taken, I would appreciate that info!

[Jones H]

The problem is that the ids aren't the same and by default the old ids aren't saved after the merge. You would need to change the merge system to keep that ids and need to write a new plugin which is able to redirect an old id to the new one. Both is possible and planned for the 2.0 merge system but there aren't any tutorials for the current merge system.

[Mackies]

I appreciate the help. Out of curiosity, is there any rough ETA of when Merge 2.0 would be here, or how far off you think it is likely to be?

[Jones H]

No, we're concentrating on the core atm (which hasn't any ETA either) and the merge system will likely be started when the core is already pretty stable.

[WWu777]

I'm wondering the same thing as the OP. Do these instructions from the archive for redirecting phpbb forum links to mybb forum links still apply? It includes creating two files that redirect viewtopic.php and viewforum.php

http://community.mybb.com/thread-14341.html

Also, can't something be done in the htaccess file to make this redirect too? If so, how?

And what about direct links to specific posts, like this one for instance:

http://www.happierabroad.com/forum/viewt...05#p195005

The # part goes directly to a specific post in a thread.

Thanks.

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Also, I'm wondering, how is forum software like this free? Where does the funding come from? How do the programmers of mybb get paid? What's their incentive? Are there exceptions to that old adage "There's no such thing as a free lunch"?