As part of a refresh on this site, the support forums have been migrated over to bbPress. There are a handful of importers available for some of the major forum software packages, but none existed for the plugin Simple:Press forum. The Simple:press forum had been used as the support forums for the WordPress theme Techozoic Fluid and other general WordPress questions.
Although the forum worked great and had many nice features, it was just overkill for the simple needs the support forum had. It was closer to a full blown forum software, and less of a forum plugin. While bbPress started out as a standalone forum it has recently been turned into a WordPress plugin and it’s simplicity had always been a big plus.
Luckily after some searching Mark Barnes had already ran across this problem posted the solution in a form of a plugin. The source code for the plugin is below. While this worked in his and my case it might not work for everyone. It’s best to always have a complete backup before attempting a major conversion like this. After creating a php file from the code and uploading it to your plugins directory, activate the plugin (don’t worry it won’t do anything yet). After activation, visit http://your-site-link?bbpressimport=1 this will pull in all the forums, topics, and replies. If you have an existing bbPress install that you just want overwritten use http://your-site-link?bbpressimport=1&delete=1 (this will delete everything from your bbPress install, use with caution). After verifying that the forums and entries were created, you’ll need to use the recount function to correct all the stats for the bbPress install. This will be under your WordPress dashboard’s Tools -> Recount menu.
By John Pentony May 25, 2012 - 3:09 pm
I am trying to use this on a site with about 32000 total simple:press posts and replies. I have been able to get a couple of years of them in, however, it errror out before it is done. I have added time to php config in web host manager to enable it to do more.
Is there a way one can pick up where we left off and continue?
By Jeremy Clark May 31, 2012 - 11:46 am
You might have to pull the database down to a local install and bump the time and memory up very high and let it run then import the new database to your live site.
By Cubase June 14, 2012 - 9:22 pm
Hi! Thanks!! I was a little bit disapointed with the new simple-press V5 cause most of the features were now as plugins u had to pay for. I couldn’t fetch the sitemaps of the forum with the V5 of simple-press! I thougth importing to bbpress was going to be much more difficult, but it took me minutes!
Although I had to recall the script a few times so it could load all the topics, but it worked all right.
Thanks again!
By Kstraus32 July 8, 2012 - 11:05 pm
The people at Simple:press should be ashamed of themselves. I’m converting to bbPress and warning people away from Simple:Press.
By Jeremy Clark July 9, 2012 - 7:42 am
While it does have many, many features, sometimes more isn’t always better. It was just to much of a hassle to keep updated and running. Bbpress is much simpler and easy to use as well.
By ne January 26, 2013 - 1:50 pm
Simple:Press was actually quite amazing, and those guys put in so much time to put that software together, they should be commended. Where they went wrong was to take their strong support forums away from the public and make people pay to post in them. I realize they have to make money, but this was not the way to do it and I believe it has made many people want to switch over to another software like bbPress. If anyone is going to pay, it will probably be for a more hardcore standalone forum software, not a WP plugin.
By Jeremy Clark January 30, 2013 - 7:14 pm
I had already switched over before they moved over to the pay-for-support forums. While I totally agree with making money from all their hard work, locking down support forums is usually never the way. I’ve been extremely satisfied with bbPress so far.
By Becka September 14, 2012 - 7:43 pm
Hi, Does this only work if the working within the same website? I am creating a new site that is using bbpress and want to pull a forum from the old site over.
By Becka September 19, 2012 - 10:21 pm
ignore my comment I got that part figured out atleast
By Roman September 17, 2012 - 9:58 am
I didn’t succeed to migrate the DB as I am not strong enough in PHP.
Please write the migration routine in a few steps.
I have Simple:Press 4.4.4 installed and would like to migrate to the final bbPress plugin.
Thanks a lot in advance.
By Redhead Photography April 14, 2013 - 11:34 am
Nice post which the forum worked great and had many nice features, it was just overkill for the simple needs the support forum had. It was closer to a full blown forum software, and less of a forum plugin. While bb Press started out as a standalone forum it has recently been turned into a WordPress plugin and it’s simplicity had always been a big plus. Thanks a lot for posting this article.
By Delbert May 2, 2013 - 7:40 pm
It’s hard to come by experienced people for this subject, but you seem like you know what you’re talking about!
Thanks