At least I know it's possible to migrate (with some AI help and manual MySQL table transformation) from PHP-Fusion (Forums and Members) to SMF Forum CMS. This is still in the early stages of migration. There is still a lot of work ahead but I think I got a good handle on how it is all mapped.

[img]https://www.arosworld.org/infusions/forum/attachments/screenshot_2025-08-16_at_112325_am.png[/img]

I am right there with you on point 2. I couldn't agree more. That is why I want to try and see if I can combine the three without sacrificing the user base and the current forums. If it's not feasable, then I won't risk it.

Some thoughts from me:

1) I looked how Vanilla and Flarum look like - indeed they look&feel is more modern, they kind of resemble Github discusions feature. That's not a problem on it's own, but they just don't feel like "home". I guess my choice goes for oldschol forums with categories and threads (so +1 to SMF)
2) The key for me would be not to start from 0 again. I see steady dicline in activity on "AROS forums". Big part of that probably is that the 2010-2015 wave of "30-40 y.o. rediscovering childhood dream" is fizzling out, but I think startarting from scratch twice took its tolll too. Let's not do this 3rd time.
3) Forums software seems to be a shrinking category (pretty much like blogs). People migrated towards social networks so there is less need for such software. In effect this means that weak players will dieout first. IMHO it's better to bet on old imcumbent than new shiny thing - from the perspective of how long it will be maintained an how late will it die (so definatelly +1 for SMF, though I don't know if there is another forum software with more installs, but then point 2) kicks in)
4) If I remember correctly the only pain-point for me in AROS-EXEC 2.0 was weird handling of private messages. Though amiga.org is running on SMF and their handling of private messages is "normal". It would be ok for me to loose old private messages if better handling can be installed.

The most important thing is unifying the dbs, if it's possible.
The final software for the forum can be investigated with calm, since there's still time.

There will definitely be problems with the tables and IDs. That is the challenge in this task but I won't know if I don't try. Obviously I am going to try this offline and by trial and error, if I can manage to do it, then move forward. I don't think it is impossible, just tedious work which will require time and a lot of patience.

I am not sold on SMF yet. PHP-Fusion does have 2 more upgrades form the current version where this forum is on but for what I gather it's a one man show and the updates are mionr tweaks. Right now, I am focusing on cleaning accounts created by bots that have never been back since the initial creation and no posts in the forum.

I've no experience with those forums (I'm just an user, anyway), but from what you've reported I think that the best choice would be moving everything to SMF (and with a unique db for both forums. But I think that there will be problems with the ids for the tables, which likely clash).

I have been reading about the different options and the more I read, the more I think unifying everything into SMF (Simple Machine Forum) is the best way forward.

PHP-Fusion (Current arosworld.org) has not received any update in 4 years and the future is not clear. I need to move off of this CMS, there is no doubt about it. XOOPS, is the original CMS that was used on aros-exec.org but that too has not seen a stable release since 2023. Development is still ongoing with several beta releases in 2025 but the main module that would be used for forums (NEWBB) is not part of the CMS. It is an external module that also has stalled.

The new kids on the block I mentioned earlier are also not a good move forward. Vanilla forums is also stalled since 2023 and many are migrating off if. Flarum is a pain in the rear to setup and it comes plain jane with the need to depend on modules to extend functionalities. Plus, the UI is a bit hard to the eyes. I am not happy with any of the modern designs.

Then we have SMF. It's still maintained with security updates as recent as July 2025. It was already used for the aros-exec 2.0 version, so one less database I need to export to something else new. It's simple to work with, it is a dedicated FORUM CMS and not a CMS that depends on an external module to add the functionality.

I can extend functionalities of the core forum function with modules. It has a (in my opinion) a cleaner look and feel of forum categories and forum threads (see ae.arosworld.org). There are many themes that can help with modern styles (See amigalove.com) but I really liked the aros-exec 2.0 theme.

I am still interested to hear/read anyone else opinion and experience with anything different.

This fine for now but now I have 3 different CMS to manage. I am thinking of taking on a new challenge of consolidating all 3 of them into one. The reason is to keep all forum threads in one place and because software support from the 3 CMS (XOOPS, SMF, PHP-Fusion) is either outdated, unmaintained, or prone to security flaws.

SMF is still maintained and I have been considering it because there are converters that can help migrate data from XOOPS and PHP-Fusion (+/- manual tweaking here and there). However, SMF is still old school design and new platforms are available now that have better integration with other social systems. XOOPS is also still around but seems to be on the verge of being abandoned. PHP-Fusion hasn’t received an update in the past 4 years.

I want to look at all the possible options before making the massive jump. Here is a list I am looking but not all fit the bill.

[url]https://itsfoss.com/open-source-forum-software/ [/url]

Here are some basics to keep in mind:
[ulist=disc]It has to be PHP and MySQL based because that’s what my hosting is providing
It has to be somewhat modern looking but not so modern that you can’t tell it’s a forum
It has to be open source, still developed, no docker image.[/ulist]

I actually like Vanilla forums right now. Flarum and MyBB seem to be on the same level and modern looking.

Let me know what your experience is with Forum platforms.

Which one have you used and liked?
What other system have you used that is not part of the list in the link?
Share your experience...

Only some select accounts are able to login. Still working on things.

I can't yet login, but I can read again the forum posts (A LOT of interesting discussions). :-D

Great work!

Well, the forums are up!! [url]https://aros-exec.arosworld.org[/url].

As anonymous you can read and browse but cannot post. So much still needs to be done and fixed. Users are loaded but I turned off any registration and pass resets for now until I get a better handling of the forum, news, and other parts. It was a lot of work with MySQL table imports, tweaks, and other custom work but I think I got all of them loaded.

All of the avatars, images, and attachments were not available on the archive I received form 4pLaY. So, if you see posts with a broken attachment, those are gone. Nothing I can do about that.

As I mentioned, things are still wacky with dates, times, etc. It is by a long stretch not complete. Just be mindful when you ask for anything to be fixed, that's all.

No worries! I am not in a rush and I don't have a deadline.

I do appreciate any help in genereal.

Sorry mate but I am currently not in a position to dive deep(er) into this topic (perhaps next week). In that regards the/my timing is a bit unfortunate.

That's an idea but I am not an expert on docker. The problem is in trying to find all the correct components that were used on the original aros-exec. I only had the mysql dump of the database and some basic config files and that's it.

It's a work in progress. You can see from the screenshot some WIP. I have restored all the user accounts but no one login and reset as I have that part disabled. I am now attempting to merge the forum tables. Just takes time and many trial and errors but it's starting to shape up.

[quote name=amigamia post=8695]@amigamia - [quote name=magorium post=8691]@magorium - Did some investigation in order to verify my botched memory :-)

The "switch" as the wayback machine reports is that on sep 22nd 2018 the site at aros-exec.org was (still) xoops.

On oct 20th of 2018 the url was reported to have been moved to ae.amigalife and with the site also moved from xoops to smf.

Alas, I was unable to locate a xoop version number in the source-code of the main HTML (perhaps one of the js scripts does contain one though but I have not found it yet)

In case this does not work out then the other route would be, and that is in case it is possible, to access the SQL DB in case you happen to have the (admin) access to that. It should be possible to recall how xoops stored things in there though with plugins/customizations it could become a bit messy (but I honestly do not know for sure because I now almost next to nothing about xoops).[/quote]

Hi magorium,

Thank you for helping out. All that you mentioned is exactly what I am trying to do. So far, I restored the database from backup and sifting through the tables to understand what is needed for files.

I also have xoops files setup but I am having trouble with the modules. For example, I was able to find newbb (Forum) version 3.08 but it just refuses to install. I did manage to install version 5 (Final) of newbb. I'll post some screenshots when I am home to show you the errors I get on 3.08.

As for xoops I have tried 2.5.8 (First one that does not give me problems), 2.5.9 and now I am going to 2.5.10. I am matching the built-in modules (i.e. System) version between the aros-exec modules tables (the modules version is in there) and the new database.

So far no much of a success but I am getting closer. You can browse to [url]https://aros-exec.arosworld.org[/url]

I am trying to import the user table in and then I'll try the forum post.[/quote]
I'm not a sysadmin, so just an idea: can you try docker to create a container with the specific versions of the softwares which worked on the old AROS-Exec forum?

Thank you for having split off this topic @amigamia.

Yeah, there was a reason that 4play wanted out. It was no fun to maintain anymore. Note that he did remove spam accounts by the dozens but at a certain point it was nearly impossible to fight against it anymore.

Ofc, I do not have to tell ya but but the main factor is being able to match posts to threads and users to posts. The other interesting part might perhaps be the news-items.

I was unable to find many references to older versions of xoops (other than the dead horse argument to update your stuff in case of issues). But what was at least clear is that the version of xoops used seems to heavily depend on the version of php.

I can only imagine that becoming more complicated when plugins and other dependencies come into play.

As a note of warning: Be very careful with what you expose to the internets @amigamia because older versions of xoops are not very safe (in fact, easy hackable).

I was able to import the users table (1486 users). I guess 4pLaY never cleaned up spammers and bot accounts.

The good news is, I do have a backup/dump of the MySQL DB but the actual xoops files or images + avatars, etc.etc. I am not sure they are in there. I know I can still install xoops from the their website but I will have to see where the paths lead. More to come....

[quote]
I may be able to retrieve those. I inherited the old aros-exec backups and in the archive, I believe there may be content of the old xoops.
[/quote]

It was indeed xoops.

I do not know if it is something possible and/or worth pursuing though as I was able to scrape at least the messages as well before the forum was taken down but the original xoops website site allowed for invalid HTML (at least my data shows data not 100% conforming to standards) which makes it pretty difficult (at least for me) to convert those messages to something manageable.

No idea if setting up a xoops instance inside a vm would make it possible to (properly) export the contents for you though. I am not that familiar with xoops. If you managed to obtain a copy then I would assume that it would be possible and that the backup contain some actual contents.

These kind of things always boils down to time, effort and enthusiasm

Speaking of which, I do hope 4play is still alive and doing well.

4play, I hope you're doing well. On June 7, you posted in a discussion on EAB.