Migrating your community forum to Vanilla Forums

1. VanillaForums.com
1-866-845-0815
sales@vanillaforums.com
©2015 Vanilla Forums, Inc. All rights reserved. MIGRATION DATASHEET
Migrating Your Existing Community to Vanilla Forums
We’ve successfully migrated dozens of existing communities. We can make the
migration from your legacy platform to Vanilla an easy and stress-free experience.
Our Process
We take the time to plan your migration from beginning to end. We'll give you ample time for testing
and orientation and schedule the migration based on your current web traffic patterns to minimize the
impact to your community.
Migrate Everything
Most data formats can be easily imported into Vanilla. This includes passwords, images, emoticons,
uploaded files, private messages, banned users and more. We will also work with you to ensure that
your SEO ranking is maintained and that any key functionality is preserved.
Migration Process Detail
Data Transfer
What we need from you:
A complete export of your forum data.
Attachments, avatars, private messages, etc.
Your forum’s official email address (for notifications).
Sample URL redirects.
The legacy forum URL.
A login for an account on the legacy forum.
Test Import
1. Vanilla will import your data to your Vanilla account.
2. Vanilla will program its ‘porter’ software to work with your
specific data set. This helps automate the final migration and
reduces the risk of manual errors.
3. Staff and moderators can be invited to login once the test
import is complete to preview and test new functionality.
Migrate with confidence from
any of these forum platforms:
Lithium
GetSatisfaction
Jive
phpBB
bbPress
vBulletin
Invision Power (IPB)
Simple Press
Simple Machines (SMF)
ZenDesk
Pluck
Home-grown legacy
software
Don't see yours in this list?
Contact us and we'll work with you.
Vanilla will create a secure FTP site to receive the required data.

2. VanillaForums.com
1-866-845-0815
sales@vanillaforums.com
©2015 Vanilla Forums, Inc. All rights reserved. MIGRATION DATASHEET
Acceptance Testing of the Test Import
You are responsible for conducting acceptance testing
after the test import is complete. We recommend that
you verify that:
Final Migration
The final migration will be scheduled in advance. We will
do our best to accommodate your preferences. The steps
of the final migration are:
The content has been imported (Post, categories,
private messages, etc.)
The formatting looks right.
User permissions are properly set.
Avatars are matched to the right accounts.
URLs are redirecting to the correct addresses.
IMPORTANT NOTE
Any changes made will be overwritten
during the final migration.
The test import is done with real user
data. Some moderation actions may
trigger notification emails.
Vanilla can disable this upon request.
Legacy forum is put in read-only mode.
New DB dump created and copied to Vanilla’s FTP.
Data is transformed and loaded to Vanilla.
Acceptance testing is complete.
Forum domain DNS and links from your website the
forum are updated.
Final Migration Checklist
Forum content properly imported.
Users setup with correct permissions.
DNS and links updated.
301 redirects created.
Review errors in Google Webmaster
Tools.
Correct plugins are enabled.
Theme is correctly applied.
ThetransitiontoVanillawent
verysmoothlyandweareseeing
ourtrafficandparticipation
groweachday.Wordscannot
describethepositiveimpactthat
thisdecisionhashadonall
aspectsofourbusiness.
-Greg Watkins, CEO
I'mridiculouslyhappywithhow
themigrationwentandwiththe
relationshipwehavewith
Vanilla.[...]Ourmembership
appreciatethemodernandstable
discussionforum.
-Robert Khoo, President