Switch to English Guide
YaBB Quick Start Guide

Upgrading from YaBB 1.x

Converting YaBB 1.xThis section only applies to those converting YaBB 1.x data from an existing old forum to the YaBB 2 data format.
First you will need to install a completely new version of YaBB 2.7.

Running the Converter

  1. Before doing anything - in your YaBB 1 Gold forum, go to your Admin Center and run the forum maintenance utilities to make sure everything is up to date.
  2. If your YaBB 1 Gold - SP 1.x forum is located on the same server as your YaBB 2.7 installation:
    • Insert the path to your YaBB 1 Gold - SP 1.x forum and the Boards, Members, Messages, and Variables folders in the input fields on the Converter's start page - and go to point 4. (If you use the 'tab' key to move between text fields, The paths to the folders should automatically be filled in for you. If you have different folder names, edit to paths.)

    OR if your YaBB 1 Gold - SP 1.x forum is located on a different server than your YaBB 2.7 installation or if you don't know the path to your SP 1.x forum:
    • Copy all files from /Boards, /Members, /Messages, and /Variables from your OLD YaBB 1.x forum to the corresponding /Convert folders in your NEW YaBB 2.7 installation. (All the folders in './Convert/' should already be properly CHMODed to either 755 or 777 depending on your installation requirements.)
      • oldforum/cgi-bin/yabb/Boards/* (all files) copy to newforum/cgi-bin/yabb2/Convert/Boards/* (all files)
      • oldforum/cgi-bin/yabb/Members/* (all files) copy to newforum/cgi-bin/yabb2/Convert/Members/* (all files)
      • oldforum/cgi-bin/yabb/Messages/* (all files) copy to newforum/cgi-bin/yabb2/Convert/Messages/* (all files)
      • oldforum/cgi-bin/yabb/Variables/* (all files) copy to newforum/cgi-bin/yabb2/Convert/Variables/* (all files)
    • Copy yabb/Settings.pl from your OLD YaBB 1.x forum to the /Convert/Variables in your NEW YaBB 2.7 installation.
  3. Make sure you have a backup of your existing YaBB 1.x data in a safe place!
  4. Log into your new 2.7 installation and log into the Admin Center. Click on 'Go to Setup/Convert'. On the next screen choose 'Convert1x' to start the 1x Converter.
  5. You can now follow the on-screen instructions provided by the Converter.
    If your old installation is on the same server, put the server paths to your old YaBB installation into the appropriate text boxes. Otherwise use './Convert/' as the path to your old files. If you use the 'tab' key to move between the test fields, the converter should automatically fill in the paths to the folders holding your old data.
    Important: If your old forum was using a custom UTF-8 encoded language file, uncheck the 'Do you need to convert your files to UTF-8?' checkbox. Running the Language Encoding converter on UTF-8 encoded files will damage your data.
  6. Follow the on-screen instructions. If 'Do you need to convert your files to UTF-8?' was checked, you will be directed to proceed to 'Go to Convert Language' instead of logging into your new forum. Again, follow the on-screen instructions. (Converting the Language encoding requires a lot of space on your server. Make sure you have at least 3 times the space required for your old forum for the conversion to work.)
  7. After converting you should be ready to login using your old log in and password and test your new forum. Load YaBB.pl as shown in the previous setup stages (e.x. http://www.example.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl). Again, modify this URL to fit your specific website and YaBB installation location. (Note: for security reasons YaBB 2.7 only accepts User ID or e-mail as log in credentials. However, you can change this in the Admin Center.)
  8. Once you are satisfied that your old forum has been imported properly, you should delete the Converter backup files using the Admin Center 'Delete backup files' utility - this will also remove the setup and converter utility files. Note: this function only removes the files in the 'yabb2/Convert' folder. If the files you used for conversion were in your old installation, they will not be removed.
  9. You may want to keep the files in the './ConvertLang/' folders in the event some characters did not convert properly. See YaBB Codex for instructions on how to hand edit the wrongly encoded or missing characters.
  10. YaBB 2.7 has many new features and settings so be sure to go over each section of the Admin Center and customize the settings to your forum - also make sure to turn on the anti-spam features and create custom questions in Anti-spam Question.