nodebb-plugin-import-ubb

a UBB forum exporter to be required by nodebb-plugin-import.

What is this?

It's just an exporter of UBB Threads data, that provides an API that nodebb-plugin-import can use to exporter source forum data and import it to NodeBB's database. So, it's not really a conventional nodebb-plugin.

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

Usage within NodeJS only

// you don't have to do this, nodebb-plugin-import will require this plugin and use its api
// but if you want a run a test

var exporter = require('nodebb-plugin-import-ubb');

exporter.testrun({
    dbhost: '127.0.0.1',
    dbport: 3306,
    dbname: 'ubb',
    dbuser: 'user',
    dbpass: 'password',

    tablePrefix: 'ubbt_'
}, function(err, results) {

    /*
        results[0] > config
        results[1] > [usersMap, usersArray]
        results[2] > [categoriesMap, categoriesArray]
        results[3] > [topicsMap, topicsArray]
        results[4] > [postsMap, postsArray]
    */
});

What does it export?

read carefully:

• Users:

  • _username YES. UBB for some reason allows duplicate users with same emails? so the first ones by ID orders will be saved, the rest will be skipped. (UBB appends [username]_dup[Number] next to the dups.. so those will be skipped too if the email is already used)
  • _alternativeUsername YES. as the UBB.User.UserDisplayName, which nodebb-plugin-import will try to use if the username validation fails
  • _password NO. UBB 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) YES. Admins will stay Admins, and Moderators will stay Moderators, the catch here though is that each moderator is a moderator on ALL of the categories
  • _joindate YES, UBB uses Seconds, the exported will convert to Milliseconds
  • _website YES. if URL looks valid, it is exported, but it's not checked if 404s
  • _picture YES. if URL looks valid, it is exported, but it's not checked if 404s, if not valid, it's set to "" and NodeBB will generate a gravatar URl for the user
  • _reputation SORT-OF. assumed as the UBB.User.raking
  • _profileviews SORT-OF. assumed as the UBB.User.totalRanks I didn't find anything closer
  • _location YES. migrated as is, clear text
  • _signature YES. migrated as is (HTML -- read the Markdown note below)
  • _banned YES. it will stay banned, by username
  • Oh and UBB have a weird User with ID == 1, DONOTDELETE <= that's like the first user created, and somehow, in my UBB installation, it does own few topics and posts, this one will not be migrated, BUT nodebb-plugin-import will assigned these post to the to the NodeBB initial Admin created.

• Categories (AKA Forums per UBB Speak):

  • _name YES
  • _description YES

• Topics:

  • _cid (or its UBB category aka Forum id) YES (but if its parent Category is skipped, this topic gets skipped)
  • _uid (or its UBB 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, UBB uses Seconds, the exporter will convert to Milliseconds
  • _pinned YES (0 or 1) (I don't know how many you can pin in NodeBB)
  • _viewcount YES

• Posts:

  • _pid (or its UBB post id)
  • _tid (or its UBB parent topic id) YES (but if its parent topic is skipped, this post gets skipped)
  • _uid (or its UBB user id) YES (but if its user is skipped, this post is skipped)
  • _content YES (HTML - read the Markdown Note below)
  • _timestamp YES, UBB uses Seconds, the exporter will convert to Milliseconds

UBB Versions tested on:

• UBB 7.5.7

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.