Importer / Converter for Flarum 2
Migrate an existing forum into Flarum 2 — from phpBB, vBulletin (3/4/5), XenForo, MyBB, SMF, Vanilla, NodeBB, Invision, Discourse, or Convoro. Everything is driven from the admin panel: pick a platform, connect to its database (or upload a dump), test it, then run the import in small batches with a live progress bar — so even a large forum won't time out.
Ported from the Convoro importer suite. Members keep their passwords where possible (bcrypt hashes are copied straight across; other formats are randomised so the member simply resets on first login). Post bodies are converted to Flarum's native rich-text format, so BBCode / HTML / Markdown comes across as real formatting — bold, italics, links, quotes, lists and code.
Runs on shared hosting
No queue worker and no SSH required. The import runs as a loop of small "step" requests straight from your browser, each processing one bounded batch and returning — so it can never hit a web timeout. Progress and the source→Flarum id-maps are persisted in the database, so if the tab is closed or the connection drops, reopen the page and it resumes exactly where it left off. If you do have a queue worker (e.g. fof/redis), the import is handed to it and runs fully in the background instead — either way it's safe.
The admin area
The whole tool lives on the extension's settings page.
1. The wizard
Pick a source platform, then either connect to a database (host, port, database name, username, password, and table prefix) or upload a database file (a mysqldump .sql/.sql.gz, or a SQLite file) for hosts that only hand you a dump. Nothing is written until you start.
2. Test the connection
Test connection validates the credentials, confirms it really is the platform you picked, then reports exactly what it found — here 21 Users, 4 Categories, 30 Topics, 371 Posts — so you know it will pull the right data before committing. Start import only lights up once the test passes.
3. Watch it run
Start import kicks off the batched run and shows a live progress bar with the current phase and running totals — categories, members, topics and posts — updating as it goes.
When it finishes you get a summary of everything imported, and can start another.
Supported sources
Platform | Notes |
|---|---|
phpBB 3.x | BBCode posts; bcrypt passwords copied across |
vBulletin 3 / 4 · vBulletin 5 / 6 | one option covers both — vB5's node schema is auto-detected |
XenForo 1.x / 2.x | BBCode posts; XF2 bcrypt passwords copied |
MyBB 1.8 · SMF 2.0 / 2.1 | BBCode posts |
Vanilla · NodeBB | Markdown / mixed formats; NodeBB reads its Redis store (needs the |
Invision Community (IP.Board) | HTML posts, quotes & mentions cleaned up |
Discourse | PostgreSQL source (needs |
Convoro | Convoro → Flarum; bcrypt passwords copied, so members keep their logins |
Categories are imported as tags (requires flarum/tags); if tags aren't installed, discussions and posts still import, just untagged.
How it works
Timeout-proof — the run is a resumable state machine; each request processes one small batch and returns, so memory stays flat and nothing runs long enough to time out. Works with or without a queue worker.
Resumable — progress, cursors and the source→Flarum id-maps live in the database, so a run survives a closed tab, a reload, or a dropped connection.
Faithful content — post bodies go source → HTML/Markdown → Flarum's formatter, landing in Flarum's native stored format so they render as proper rich text.
Relations preserved — members, tags, discussions, first/last-post pointers, comment counts and participant counts are all rebuilt.
Requirements & tips
Import into a fresh Flarum for the cleanest result.
A queue worker is optional — the import runs from the browser without one. If you have
fof/redis+ a worker, it runs in the background instead.There's also a CLI for very large migrations or scripting:
php flarum importer:run --source=phpbb \
--host=127.0.0.1 --database=my_old_forum --username=root --password=secret --prefix=phpbb_
# add --test to only check the connection and show counts