I have found (and used, to much delight) a tool to convert my phpBB database to an SMF database. The results were amazing--I could literally give my users a new URL to use and the forum banter would not skip a beat.

From what little I've seen of SMF, I really like it. The feature set is much more complete, and the default theme is XHTML and CSS valid to boot. And the board is fast--very fast. I see little reason to switch back to phpBB.

However, my users are very familiar with phpBB. The entire lifespan of my forums were conducted on phpBB. A migration would likely not be very harsh at all, but I would like the option of reverting sometime within the next few months if certain problems arise.

Is there any way, then, to convert an SMF database to phpBB format? While I'm likely going to switch permanently to SMF, some degree of safety would be comfortable for me. Ironically, if I have the option of switching back to phpBB, I would move my users to SMF in a heartbeat. Anyone happen to know of any such thing?

Thanks very much in advance

By the way, don't sweat it if you don't find a solution. No SMF to phpBB converter will only delay my move slightly, but I'm on my way to SMF regardless.

There isnt a way back as of yet, there hasnt been a way for over a year, the phpBB developers dont seem to care. So moving bac as in converting isnt going to happen.

SMF is very easy to learn and a lot more logical than phpBB, what the best idea is, is maybe to switch for a week and if its truly horrible, just use the phpBB database and you will have only lost a weeks worth of posts, maybe harsh but I cant see any real reasons that a switch back would be needed, and you have me, and some others as youll see below to help you if its needed.

Waiting is up to you, but the move will still be as easy as ever.

I did the same switch (phpBB->SMF) a while ago (I gloated about ti on these forums as well) and I actually got some negative feedback as well. One of my users felt, although the categories and forum hieararchy were exactly the same, that the new board looked too complicated.

So I took some action, I removed and merged few forums and eliminated some categories. I also pointed out to him that in the front page, you could collapse the forums. This made the forum look simpler and he was a happy poster.

Instead of switching back to phpBB, I'd recommend alternating your theme. Just try to ape phpBB look as closely as possible. There are loads of phpBB button sets available from which you can easily find one suiting your colours. And if you're sticking yto your old phpBB colours, just use the buttoms from its theme.

The classic forum header with logo on left and forum name, description and box of text links with those small icons should be really easy to do. If not by doing it from scratch, copy & paste the code from the phpBB theme, it's open source . Just remember to alter it into valid XHTML.

The forumview is actually quite close the same and topicview would need only small adjustments. The posting views are quite different but given that they're very simple in both system and thus easy to get yused to, these probably don't need changes.

I wouldnt go copy and pasting phpBB code into SMF files, might cause a bit of a problem. There is a phpBB theme and a Hotmail one, there both easy to use.

Well yeah of course you'd need to be knowing what you're doing.

But if there already is a phpBB theme then no worries.

That's true--SMF doesn't really lack anything from phpBB, so there really isn't so much of a reason to switch back to phpBB. Also, I agree that a tentative move for the users to experiment might be good as well.

I didn't actually think of using different themes to simplify the look of the forums. I'll have to remember to include some instructions on choosing a theme in the forums so that users can choose a theme of their choice should the default not satisfy them.

I will probably try to move users over to the new forums soon. Thanks again for your input, and I look forward to using only SMF for the forums on my account.

Good im glad you like it, also have a great time with it and if you need help, ill be around as will most of the SMFers here I believe.

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