ezConvert is a script written to facilitate the conversion of an ezBoard discussion board to the phpBB format. It allows posts and users to be copied from the remotely hosted ezBoard discussion boards to the popular local hosted phpBB software.
This script works differently to most other convertors for vBulletin, UBB, etc. because the database from ezBoard cannot be accessed. Therefore the script parses the HTML pages which are output by ezBoard and stores the parsed data in the phpBB database.
Re-open or delete all closed topics in ezBoard; the script does not convert closed topics. It does attempt to detect them but the detection has proved problematic. Additional problems can arise if a topic is closed and sticky - please avoid this! Hopefully, these annoying restrictions will be removed at some point.
Set the display style of your ezBoard forum to ezBoard Classic.
Since your webserver has a maximum execution time for php scripts it is not possible to convert the forum at once. Instead the script converts the forum step by step and little by little. In case of a large forum the script can be called thousands of times. In most cases the script reloads itself. If it doesn't reload you should follow the instructions at the bottom.
Once the forum has been converted succesfully, you may convert your other ezBoard forums. Just create a new phpbb forum, change the settings on the configuration page (you will need to submit the form using the button!), and click the link saying you are happy with these options.
The convertor converts only one discussion forum at a time. Therefore you need to edit the script and repeat the conversion for each ezBoard forum you want to convert.
Since the convertor cannot access the database from ezBoard it is impossible to fully convert user-specific data. Private messages are not converted at all. The convertor creates a user in phpBB for each user which is encountered. These users get a default password which is the same for all users, a default group membership, and a dummy email address of username@null.nul. After the conversion you should give your users new passwords and correct their email addresses.
Avatars, polls, rankings, etc. are not converted to keep the script simple. The postings are stripped from (most) html unless the strip_html option is unchecked. Post count is recalculated based on the number of posts migrated to the phpBB. On any board, users are very likely to have a lower post count after migration than on ezboard, due to deleted posts, posts removed by ezboard, and posts that weren't migrated for other reasons.
The script must be installed in the admin directory of phpBB. Make sure the script is installed in the correct location. Note: Do not install the script in the admin directory of a theme - install it in the main phpBB admin directory.
Common causes of these errors are:
If you encounter parsing problems please adjust the following output settings of your ezboard forum:
If this doesn't help you, ask for help at the forum mentioned above. Please give a link to the ezBoard forum you are trying to convert.
The original script was written by Rob Bellaart.
Chris Burke greatly improved the script.
Jamie Tatum also made significant improvements.
Alan Hazelden is the current maintainer of the script. His drastic rearrangement/rewrite would not have been possible without their hard work.
There might be a proper changelog at some point in the future if I (Alan) can work out what exactly it is that I've done.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or at your option) any later version.