nodebb-plugin-import-punbb

a PUNBB forum exporter to import-ready files.

based on nodebb-plugin-import-ubb into this plugin to work along with nodebb-plugin-import.

works, but still young

What is this?

It's just an exporter of PUNBB, into files that nodebb-plugin-import can understand and import to NodeBB's database. So, it's not really a conventional nodebb-plugin, and you have to run it from the command line.

Why is it even a NodeBB plugin?

it doesn't really need to be, nor that you can use it within NodeBB it self, but, having this as a plugin have few benefits:

• a nodebb- namespace, since you can't really use it for anything else
• it can easily require NodeBB useful tools, currently, it uses its util.js for example.
• potentially, in the future, this plugin, nodebb-plugin-import-punbb can interact with nodebb-plugin-import for a better UX

Usage

cd NodeBB
npm install nodebb-plugin-import-punbb
cd node_modules/nodebb-plugin-import-punbb/bin
node export.js --storage="$HOME/Desktop/storage" --config="../export.config.json" --log="debug,info,warn" --flush

What does it export?

read carefully:

• ####Users:

  • _username YES.
  • _alternativeUsername YES. using 'realname', which nodebb-plugin-import will try to use if the username validation fails
  • _password NO. PUNBB uses MD5, NodeBB uses base64 I think, so can't do, but if you use nodebb-plugin-import it will generate random passwords and hand them to you so can email them.
  • _level (administrator and moderator) NO, but doable check the structure of PUNBB
  • _joindate YES, using 'registered'
  • _website YES. using 'url' if URL looks valid, it is exported, but it's not checked if 404s
  • _picture NO.
  • _reputation NO.
  • _profileviews NO.
  • _location YES. migrated as is, clear text
  • _signature YES. migrated as is (HTML -- read the Markdown note below)
  • _banned NO.

• ####Categories:

  • _name YES
  • _description YES

• ####Topics:

  • _cid (or its PUNBB category aka Forum id) YES (but if its parent Category is skipped, this topic gets skipped)
  • _uid (or its PUNBB user id) YES (but if its user is skipped, this topic gets skipped)
  • _title YES
  • _content (or the 'parent-post` content of this topic) YES (HTML - read the Markdown Note below)
  • _timestamp YES
  • _pinned NO
  • _viewcount YES

• ####Posts:

  • _pid (or its PUNBB post id)
  • _tid (or its PUNBB parent topic id) YES (but if its parent topic is skipped, this post gets skipped)
  • _uid (or its PUNBB user id) YES (but if its user is skipped, this post is skipped)
  • _content YES (HTML - read the Markdown Note below)
  • _timestamp YES

I exported, now what?

now use this nodebb-plugin-import to import your files into NodeBB's database

Versions tested on:

• PUNBB > 1.3.2

You configs are required

But you can override the log, storageDir and clearStorage ones with flags when using bin/export.js

{
	"log": "debug",
	"storageDir": "../storage",

	"clearStorage": false,

	"db": {
		"host": "localhost",
		"user": "punbb_user",
		"password": "password",
		"database": "punbb_test"
	},
	"tablePrefix": "punbb_"

}

Markdown note

read nodebb-plugin-import#markdown-note

It's an exporter, why does it have 'import' in its title

To keep the namespacing accurate, this exporter is designed to export data for nodebb-plugin-import only, also for a 1 time use, so why do you care.