How to convert from other software on IPS Hosting

[Administrator]

Welcome to IPS Hosting, here is a quick guide that will outline the conversion process on our hosting.

1. First check to see if your current platform is supported by our converter application

2. Next turn your existing community offline, then prepare a mysqldump (backup) of your existing community's database. Then copy any images or attachments that are not stored in the database on your existing software. This is normally any attachments, smilies, user profile images etc.

3. Locate your IPS Cloud Hosting FTP information and upload the database and any files needed from the old community to your hosted account, it's best to create a new folder in your home directory named something like /oldsite etc for ease of locating these items later during the conversion process. For more information about using FTP, please see this video tutorial we made.

4. After the items are uploaded, please file a support ticket in our hosting department, stating you are converting from another community, and that you have followed this guide and uploaded your items.

5. We will then import your database to your existing database here on IPS Hosting, ensuring that it's using a table prefix. We will also provide you with this prefix as you will need it in the first step of the conversion process.

6. Now you can download and install the converter application to your hosted community. The process is the same as any app install; Download the file from the marketplace, then unzip this on your computer, then upload the contents of the "upload" folder to your "public_html" folder (default IPS install location) Then proceed to your admincp > manage applications > then on the right side you will see the converter app and an "install" link, select the "install link" to install the app.

7. Now you can begin your conversion. To do so, go to admincp > other apps > converters > start new conversion > select the software you are converting from and you will see a screen asking for your database details. Most of this information will be pre-filled, but not all. You can locate your current database information via FTP in the file of public_html/conf_global.php. You will also need to ensure you enter the prefix we provide to you in this step. This will tell the converter app to use your database here, but use the tables with the prefix that are from your old software.

8. At this point you will see a list of items that you will be converting, you will see some source rows and local row information, this is the data from your old community (source) and your IPS install (local)

9. It's very important that you start at the top of the list, and process each step in order, do not skip any steps or it will break the conversion and corrupt the data, if you need to re-run any of these steps, you must re-run each item below it also. (This is very important, and must be followed exactly.)

10. Once the conversion is done, you will be prompted to "finalize" the conversion. At this point the software will recount items, such as post counts, forum data and more. This must be completed or the forum data will be corrupt and show guest_usernames etc.

11. Once that has completed, as noted on the last step, you must set your forum permissions, to do this please go to your admincp > forums tab > then select the very top forum or category and select the drop down from the right hand side of the screen, then select permissions. Set each member group's permissions for that category or forum you are editing, then select "save and next". At that point you can manually edit each forum, and will also have the option at the top of the screen to copy permissions from another forum. This will speed up the permission process if you have many forums that need the same permissions.

12. At this time you can browse to the front end of your community and login, you should review your site for any issues from the conversion. If you see any issues that need attention, please reply to your existing support ticket with these items, ensure you provide an admincp username and password also so we can access the converted site.

13. Once the conversion is completed, you must reply to the conversion ticket in hosting and let us know you are finished, at this time we will ensure we remove the old database tables from your imported data, and the files on the /oldsite, this will ensure you are not using valuable disk space on your community and keep things clean.