The Great CoP Migration [WIP]

Why Migrate?
Forumotion imposes arbitrary limits on how we can run the forum such as:
- Limiting gallery/attachment/inbox storage space
- Converting mediafire links to adfly
- Theming limitations
- Imposed branding
- Reduced functionality compared to legit phpBB3 installs
- [Important] Doesn't support SSL, meaning all pages you view, and all text you input, is not encrypted
- [Important] Forumotion tries to lock you into their ecosystem by forbidding access to your forum's mysql database

By switching over to a new host, we can gain more freedom, security, and autonomy for our forum.

Here's our new URL, if you want to follow along with the progress - https://churchofproz.000webhostapp.com/index.php

When/how do we move?
The migration date is TBD. Kooay or I will put out an announcement, and from there on, everyone will make an account on the new forum.

What will happen to the old forum?
As of now, the plan is to leave it up as an archive.

UPDATES

2017-09-19
- Installed and tested MyAlerts
- Installed and tested MentionMe
- Favicon designed, generated, and uploaded

2017-09-18
- New host and URL secured - https://churchofproz.000webhostapp.com/index.php
- Created Migration thread
- Investigated 2 forum migration tools (none of the worked)
- MyBB installed
- Began MyBB Configuration
- Installed Diceroll plugin and prerequisite.
- Duplicated ProPad
- Started Themes/Plugins documentation on new forum


TO DO LIST
- Set up forum categories
- Set up forum theme
- Set up forum plugins
- more things to be added...

MyBB Settings/Optimizations

Disable 'Friendly Redirect'
Admin Panel > Configuration > Settings > General Configuration > Friendly Redirection Pages > Off
^^^ I got the name 'Friendly Redirect' from this thread, but the path listed there is wrong - https://community.mybb.com/thread-83472.html

Turn on Secure Cookie flag to prevent cookies from being sent unencrypted
Admin Panel > Configuration > Settings > Site Details > Secure Cookie Flag > Yes

Disable Thread Ratings
Admin Panel > Configuration > Settings > Forum Display Options > Use Thread Ratings? > No

Disallow Guests to view Calendar
Admin Panel > Configuration > Calendars > Calendar Permissions for Default Calendar > Guests > Uncheck "View"

Classic Thread Mode "Classic mode shows the author information to the left of the post, horizontal shows the author information above the post."
Admin Panel > Configuration > Show Thread Options > Display posts using the classic layout
^^^ from here - https://community.mybb.com/thread-104903.html



SEO Friendly URLs

https://docs.mybb.com/1.8/administration/configuring-search-engine-friendly-URLs/

In order to get SEO friendly URLs working on MyBB in 000webhost, you need to cut out the section about GZIP compression (probably because 000webhost's apache doesn't have that module enabled).

Options -MultiViews +FollowSymlinks -Indexes

#
# If mod_security is enabled, attempt to disable it.
# - Note, this will work on the majority of hosts but on
#   MediaTemple, it is known to cause random Internal Server
#   errors. For MediaTemple, please remove the block below
#

# Turn off mod_security filtering.
SecFilterEngine Off

# The below probably isn't needed, but better safe than sorry.
SecFilterScanPOST Off


#
# MyBB "search engine friendly" URL rewrites
# - Note, for these to work with MyBB please make sure you have
#   the setting enabled in the Admin CP and you have this file
#   named .htaccess
#

RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^forum-([0-9]+)\.html$ forumdisplay.php?fid=$1 [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^forum-([0-9]+)-page-([0-9]+)\.html$ forumdisplay.php?fid=$1&page=$2 [L,QSA]

RewriteRule ^thread-([0-9]+)\.html$ showthread.php?tid=$1 [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^thread-([0-9]+)-page-([0-9]+)\.html$ showthread.php?tid=$1&page=$2 [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^thread-([0-9]+)-lastpost\.html$ showthread.php?tid=$1&action=lastpost [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^thread-([0-9]+)-nextnewest\.html$ showthread.php?tid=$1&action=nextnewest [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^thread-([0-9]+)-nextoldest\.html$ showthread.php?tid=$1&action=nextoldest [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^thread-([0-9]+)-newpost\.html$ showthread.php?tid=$1&action=newpost [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^thread-([0-9]+)-post-([0-9]+)\.html$ showthread.php?tid=$1&pid=$2 [L,QSA]

RewriteRule ^post-([0-9]+)\.html$ showthread.php?pid=$1 [L,QSA]

RewriteRule ^announcement-([0-9]+)\.html$ announcements.php?aid=$1 [L,QSA]

RewriteRule ^user-([0-9]+)\.html$ member.php?action=profile&uid=$1 [L,QSA]

RewriteRule ^calendar-([0-9]+)\.html$ calendar.php?calendar=$1 [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^calendar-([0-9]+)-year-([0-9]+)-month-([0-9]+)\.html$ calendar.php?calendar=$1&year=$2&month=$3 [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^calendar-([0-9]+)-year-([0-9]+)-month-([0-9]+)-day-([0-9]+)\.html$ calendar.php?action=dayview&calendar=$1&year=$2&month=$3&day=$4 [L,QSA]
RewriteRule ^calendar-([0-9]+)-week-(n?[0-9]+)\.html$ calendar.php?action=weekview&calendar=$1&week=$2 [L,QSA]

RewriteRule ^event-([0-9]+)\.html$ calendar.php?action=event&eid=$1 [L,QSA]


SetEnv SEO_SUPPORT 1



#
Cut out the shit below this
# If Apache is compiled with built in mod_deflade/GZIP support
# then GZIP Javascript, CSS, HTML and XML so they're sent to
# the client faster.
#

AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css text/html application/xhtml+xml text/xml application/xml text/plain text/x-component application/javascript application/x-javascript application/rss+xml application/atom+xml application/json application/manifest+json application/x-web-app-manifest+json application/vnd.ms-fontobject application/font-sfnt application/font-woff application/font-woff2 image/svg+xml image/x-icon


# Note: You are able to choose a different name in the Admin CP. If you've done that you need to change it here too

Order Deny,Allow
Deny from all

Possible Themes

igame - https://community.mybb.com/mods.php?action=view&pid=357
1point8 - https://community.mybb.com/mods.php?action=view&pid=48
Duende - https://community.mybb.com/mods.php?action=view&pid=283
Carbon - https://community.mybb.com/mods.php?action=view&pid=230 <- broken when replying to an existing thread via full reply (not quick reply)


Theme Creation Guides:
https://community.mybb.com/thread-5933.html

Possible Plugins

Dice-rolling - https://community.mybb.com/mods.php?action=view&pid=955
Mentions - https://community.mybb.com/mods.php?action=view&pid=885
My Alerts - https://community.mybb.com/thread-171301.html
Google SEO - https://community.mybb.com/mods.php?action=view&pid=789



Prerequisite Plugins
https://community.mybb.com/mods.php?action=view&pid=573

TECHNICAL DETAILS:

New Hosting Specs:
https://www.000webhost.com/ <-- webhost
https://mybb.com/ <-- forum software

FTP File Manager:
http://www.filezillasecure.com/

Migration software (As of 2017-09-18, all have failed):
Forumotion to phpBB3 Python script - https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=861505
- This script failed because Forumotion has activated mandatory "SEO Friendly URLs", and doesn't let you turn them off - https://i.imgur.com/yH0A3K0.png
- This page can be found at path: Forumotion Admin Panel > General > Security
- In the tool's following file: "Forumotion > members_topics_posts_phpBB3.py", around line 501, the script tries to access a topic by appending the topic ID behind t, so that the final URL would be something like https://churchofproz.forumotion.net/t1503. However, since Forumotion has mandatory SEO Friendly URLs, the actual URL is https://churchofproz.forumotion.net/t1503-haxx-link-dump. This makes it impossible for the crawler to work, since it doesn't have a way to process the actual URLs.

Forumotion to phpBB3 php script - https://www.phpbb.com/community/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=2288966
- This script depends on httrack (http://www.httrack.com/), and imports the forumotion html into your new sql database. It had seemed to work, but when I tried to export the database from myphpadmin, there was nothing inside!

Sooo

a) You'd have to convince Wayne, you two are the kings of the kingdom.

b) How long would this migration take

a)
b)probably a couple weeks assuming we hold it and don't drop it.

Corenat Rovarnus wrote:a)
b)probably a couple weeks assuming we hold it and don't drop it.

idk, jojo memes

Considering adding these emoji sets as smileys:
EmojiOne - https://github.com/emojione/emojione/tree/2.2.7
^^^ https://www.emojione.com/emoji/v2
Twemoji - https://github.com/twitter/twemoji

But, if we were to do them as smiley's, it would require a lot of manual work because there's no 'import function.' There may or may not be a more automatic way to add them.

New favicon generated -

Code:

https://www.mediafire.com/folder/br374w3tqn6df/Favicon

Pixellated via Lunapic, pixel size = 10 - https://www168.lunapic.com/editor/?action=pixels

Resized and rendered in Photoshop
Converted to .ico via - http://convertico.com/

Backup blood grail favicons designed in - http://www.favicon.cc/


Clear browser cache and restart browser if it doesn't show up for you!

WORK ON THIS TOMORROW
Puts avatars onto forum lists and all other lists
https://community.mybb.com/mods.php?action=view&pid=74

MAY INTEGRATE WITH MENTIONME FOR PREVIEWS ON TAGGING
https://community.mybb.com/thread-189492.html
https://github.com/WhiteNeo/lastposter-avatar-mybb18x-series/issues/4
https://github.com/WhiteNeo/lastposter-avatar-mybb18x-series/blob/master/readme.md


Alternative plugin to the above (does less) - https://community.mybb.com/mods.php?action=download&pid=128

Thank you/like system? - https://community.mybb.com/mods.php?action=view&pid=360

Example color scheme - http://en.miui.com/thread-133552-1-1.html
^^^ https://imgur.com/a/5gUjt

Colormapped 1st example image from iOS Gold Theme - https://imgur.com/a/Or92M

nigerundayo

This forum has an example of side-by-side avatar and post panels - http://animemangaforum.com/thread-12913-post-79525.html#pid79525

I'll see if I can copy their layout



Themes for inspiration & to copy HTML and CSS from (taken from here https://community.mybb.com/forum-137.html):



http://forumauthority.com/ - cool wrap-around search bar thing
http://realforums.net/
http://sharree.com/Feed-Shares

http://ger07.de/ - for layering/depth and using images as title bars

http://forumforu.net/index.php - for cool title bars that seem to use some sort of CSS gradient. Also, cool font
.thead {
background-image: -o-linear-gradient(top, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.020) 0px, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.020) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.200) 51%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.200) 020%);
background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.020) 0px, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.020) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.200) 51%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.200) 020%);
background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.020) 0px, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.020) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.200) 51%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.200) 020%);
background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(top, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.020) 0px, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.020) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.200) 51%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.200) 020%);
background-image: linear-gradient(top, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.020) 0px, rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.020) 50%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.200) 51%, rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.200) 020%);
background-repeat: repeat-x;
border-bottom-width: 2px;
color: #f5f5f5;
border-bottom-width: 2px;
border-bottom-style: solid;
padding: 10px 12px;
}

https://post4vps.com/ - for layering and cool announcements box

http://forums.mybb-plugins.com/ - for flat design & drop shadow on title bars

https://war-lords.net/ - for functional and dark/edgy design

http://www.pokesun.com/ - for drop shadow on title text, also using both background color and background image in titlebars

https://eternal.is/ - for clean, dark, polished design

https://www.mybb-it.com/ - for flat design and the border only on the bottom, and using images to represent posts/views

http://mafiascene.net/ - for clean layout and top navigation bar

http://www.thegame-zone.com/ - for mouseover animations on nav bar, and good color scheme.

http://board.clansurreal.com/ - interesting rounded forum titlebars

Possible free vector icons for forum - http://fontawesome.io/icons/

Corenat Rovarnus wrote:nigerundayo

Partially resolved with classic mode:

Classic Thread Mode "Classic mode shows the author information to the left of the post, horizontal shows the author information above the post."
Admin Panel > Configuration > Show Thread Options > Display posts using the classic layout
^^^ from here - https://community.mybb.com/thread-104903.html

Still not sure how to get individual thread titles to show up

POSSIBLE EXTENSIONS TO RECREATE FORUMOTION PORTAL PAGE:

https://community.mybb.com/mods.php?action=view&pid=759

https://community.mybb.com/mods.php?action=view&pid=269
?? maybe add to portal page?

https://community.mybb.com/mods.php?action=view&pid=332

MyBB shortens links by default - https://imgur.com/aTBzlLO

Solution to link-shortening? - https://community.mybb.com/thread-205404.html

Update 2018-02-11

Tried modifying showthread.php (located in public_html), as recommended by the above link:
https://community.mybb.com/thread-205404.html

Code:


$parser_options = array(
    "allow_html" => $forum['allowhtml'],
    "allow_mycode" => $forum['allowmycode'],
    "allow_smilies" => $forum['allowsmilies'],
    "allow_imgcode" => $forum['allowimgcode'],
    "allow_videocode" => $forum['allowvideocode'],
    "filter_badwords" => 1,
    "shorten_urls" => ""
);


DOESN'T WORK. Browsing forums is OK, but opening a thread brings up a blank white page.

Update (SUCCESS)
It seems the common advice is to change class_parser.php:
https://community.mybb.com/thread-122841-post-887512.html#pid887512
http://mybbhacks.zingaburga.com/archive/index.php/thread-631.html

modified class_parser.php (in public_html > inc)

Code:

if($name == $url && (!isset($this->options['shorten_urls']) || !empty($this->options['shorten_urls'])))
 {
 $name = htmlspecialchars_decode($name);
 if(my_strlen($name) > 55)
 {
 // $name = my_substr($name , 0, 40).'...'.my_substr($name , -10);
                               // do not shorten URLS
 }
 $name = htmlspecialchars_uni($name);
 }

FYI: in October of 2017, 000webhost implemented a 1 hour sleep period for free websites (that website owners can set)
https://www.000webhost.com/forum/t/sleep-time-for-websites/90264