Thanks to everyone on here who offered their assistance to my many questions.
Since a lot of help threads end in questions (probably because the answers were given by IM), I thought it might be helpful to post up how we were able to convert our 1.3.1 board to SE 1.5.4. Hope this helps the next SE newbie.
First, for anyone very unfamiliar with this type of stuff, you don't need to have PHP and mySQL installed on your personal computer to run YaBBSE if your webhost has both available and you're going to run your board from that host. Be sure that your plan with your webhost allows for access to both. Often, you have to pay a little extra to get SQL.
Be sure that your webhost has versions of PHP and SQL that are going to work. You need to have access to PHP 4.1 or later and SQL 3.22 or later.
The first thing you need to do is get a working SE board installed on your server. We couldn't get the converter to work with an installed 1.5.4 board. Don't know why, just wouldn't work. What we ended up doing was installing a 1.5.3 board, converting, and finally updating.
Download the YaBBSE 1.5.3 package and unzip it. If you don't have the ability to unzip it, you'll probably need to download a program like WinZip in order to pop it open. After you download and unzip the package, you'll find 3 files: install.php, readme, and something like yabbse153.ya.
Open the readme file and read it all the way through. The big thing you need to find out now is whether or not your server is running PHP in safe mode. One way to find out is to call your webhost. Another way to do it is to make a phpinfo file. In order to do this, open up Notepad or Wordpad and type in the following:
<?php
phpinfo();
?>
Save the file as phpinfo.php, and upload it to the same directory where your index.html file is located. Then type into your browser:
www.mysite.com/phpinfo.php. This will display information about the PHP version your webhost is running. Probably inside a table called PHP Core, you'll find an entry that looks something like safe_mode. Look under the local setting. If the setting is "on," you'll need to do the safe install on the read me file. If it's "off, " (like ours was) you can do the standard installation.
Before you begin uploading the SE package, you need to create a directory in your webspace to house the board files.
Don't put SE in the cgi-bin: it doesn't work well for some technical reason I couldn't hope to explain. Make a subdirectory called "yabbse" or "boards" in the directory where your index.html file is located. It'll probably be called "html" or "www." If you make a new directory in your root directory, there's a pretty good chance you're going to get a 404 error, so be sure to make your directory in the right place.
If your server is a Unix/Linux server, you need to chmod the new subdirectory (set its permissions). Chmod it to 777 or 755. (755 worked for us; 777 gave us a 500 internal server error).
Now it's finally time to upload....I strongly suggest you use an FTP program to do this, either WSFTP or CuteFTP. Upload install.php in
ASCII mode into your yabbse subdirectory. Upload yabsse153.ya (or whatever it's called) in
binary mode. If you upload in the wrong mode,
it won't work, plain and simple. (If you're using a web based file manager to do this (which is discouraged), it may ask if the file is an image file. Check "yes" for yabbse153.ya and "no" for install.php.)
Once you've uploaded your files, type
www.mysite.com/yabbse/install.php into your browser. The installation page should appear. If you get a 404 error, either you've made a typo in the address or you've put the subdirectory in the wrong place. If you get a 500 error, you probably need to change file permissions on your yabbse directory.
Follow the instructions on the installation screens. When it asks for paths, you probably should not put in anything that has "http://" or "www.mysite.com." What its probably looking for is something like "/home/net/html/mysite/yabbse/". Paths aren't always easy to discover. If you don't know what your path is, call your webhost. Also, be sure you know your user names and passwords--remember, they're case sensitive. If you get an error that says "access denied," you've either mispelled your user name or password, or have an incorrect user name or password.
At the end of the steps, a YaBBSE 1.5.3 board should be installed, although it may not run right away. If you're on a Unix server, you need to change a few file permissions. Make these changes:
yabbse 755
yabbse/attachments 777 if attachments are enabled, 755 if not enabled
yabbse/Sources 711
yabbse/Packages 755
yabbse/YaBBImages 711
yabbse/YaBBImages/avatars 755
yabbse/YaBBImages/english 711
yabbse/YaBBImages/german 711
yabbse/YaBBImages/any-other-subdir 711
yabbse/YaBBHelp 711
yabbse/YaBBHelp/any-subdir 711
yabbse/any-subdir-not-listed-above 711
All program files (.php files, .gif files, .whatever files) 664
After you change the permissions, set your browser to
http://www.mysite.com/yabbse/index.php. A generic, but operating SE 1.5.3 board should appear. If it works, delete the installation files (install.php and yabbse153.ya) from your server.
Now it's time to convert. Download the converter, unzip it, and upload it to your webhost into the same subdirectory where index.php is located. Set your browser to
http://www.mysite.com/yabbse/converter.php. The conversion program should appear.
The converter is now going to ask you some questions about where your Y1G data are located. Y1G is almost always located in the cgi-bin portion of your webspace. The questions that the converter asks will be about paths.
Be absolutely sure you're specifying the right path--if you don't specify the right path, it won't work. Also, the converter carries the path you type into the first blank throughout the Y1G information page, so if you screw up the path on the first question, that mistake will carry through. Be sure it's right. If it is, click continue.
The next page will ask you about your SE installation. Be sure to set the right path for your SE files. Next, type in the information for your SQL user name and password. Be sure they're correctly spelled and in the right case--it's case sensitive, so capitals could cause trouble. Click proceed.
The converter is now going to start compiling the conversion. If you get errors on the very next page, chances are you've set one or more of your paths incorrectly. Go back and be sure they're right. If everything goes ok, click proceed.
The next 2 or 3 pages will compile the database. Errors here are over my head, but, if you get them, check your SQL path. If you get "access denied" errors, your username and/or password is wrong. Get it fixed and try again.
Finally, you'll come to a page that says the conversion is complete (if you're lucky), and it'll ask if you want to convert your template and settings file.
Don't check either box. Don't know why, just wouldn't work for us. Cut and paste your Y1G template into your SE template. Set your browser to
http://www.mysite.com/yabbse/index.php and you should see a converted board there (minus template).
Chances are that everyone who didn't set a birthday on their Y1G profile will be listed as having a birthday(0) today. No big problem there. To fix the birthdays set to 0, go to phpMyAdmin or the mySQL tool that your webhost provides and run this query:
UPDATE yabbse_members SET birthdate='00-00-0000' WHERE birthdate='MM-DD-YYYY';
Set MM-DD-YYYY to the date you converted your board. This will knock out all of your (0) birthdays. If you used a table prefix other than the default prefix, you'll need to change "yabbse_" in the table name to whatever your prefix is.
You now need to begin your upgrades. First, upgrade to 1.5.4. Download the upgrade, which consists of 6 or so files. Upload them into the appropriate locations, overwriting the old files. Be sure to chmod the new files to 664, since FTP programs tend to chmod files to something else (usually 755 or 777).
Download the 1.5.5 upgrade, unzip it, and upload the files into the appropriate locations, overwriting the old files. Chmod the files appropriately.
Finally, there are patches for the ModifyMessages.php and Post.php files for 1.5.5. You can download them at these links:
Post.php Patch:
http://www.yabbse.org/1_5_5_post_patch.zip ModifyMessages.php Patch: A direct link is:
http://www.yabbse.org/1_5_5_b_patch.zipUnzip the files, and upload the files into the appropriate locations, overwriting the old files. Chmod the files appropriately.
That should do it. Hope this helps!
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