The script ezboard.convert.php converts an EZBOARD discussion board to the phpbb format. It assists with the conversion from remotely hosted EZBOARD discussion boards to the popular local hosted PHPBB software.
This script works differently than 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 all closed topics in Ezboard; the script does not convert closed topics. It is also recommended to change sticky topics to regular topics.
Start the script from your browser and wait for instructions.
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 variables and re-run the script (use Refresh).
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. After the conversion you should give your users a new password.
Avatars, smileys, rankings, etc are not converted to keep the script simple. The postings are also stripped from (most) html.
Closed topics cannot be processed correctly. The script tries to find closed topics prior to the actual conversion. If these topics are not detected/re-opened then the script will abort. Use refresg to continue with the remaining topics.
A small deviation or modification in the HTML output of ezboard can also disrupt the parsing. In this case the script will show the message Tag XXXX not found after pos yyyy.
If you encounter parsing problems please adjust the following output settings of your ezboard forum:
If the script is not running anymore there should either be an instruction or an error message at the bottom of the page. If both of these are missing then the script has timed-out. Click Refresh to continue the conversion.
A time-out can result in a posting which is only partially converted. If possible you should ask your ISP to increase the maximum execution time of php scripts. Alternatively you may run the script from the commandprompt after tweaking the variable max_execution_time.
If your forum is small (only 1 page of topics) you have to change the variable $multiple_pages to "N" to prevent the script from looping indefinately. A small forum should be converted in minutes. A large forum however can take hours.
Most likely these postings could not be processed because they were closed or sticky. Partially converted postings can also occur because of time-outs. If the conversion has failed you can try a new conversion from scratch by creating a new phpbb forum.
The script strips almost all html from the body-text and insert page-breaks for each empty line. This probably yields the best results for most forums. You can prevent this stripping by changing the variable $strip_html to "N".
The script does not rebuild the search index. Click here for instructions about rebuilding the search index.
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.