my phpbb2 forum is installed through the aplus.net control panel. how can i migrate it to the new phpbb3?

Answer by: George Kaloyanov, Aplus.Net Knowledge Base Support.

The PHPBB forum version 3 is available on the Aplus.Net shared hosting servers. You can use the Control Panel to migrate your PHPBB version 2 to version 3. Here is how:

Start by logging into the Aplus.Net Control Panel at http://cp.aplus.net using your Registration Number and Customer Password.
Select Web Hosting from the top navigation bar.
Next, select Hosted Domains and click on Manage Hosted Domains.
Click on the hosted domain you’d like to manage.
Select the Design tab.
Click the Forum (phpBB) icon.
Now, click the Migrate button.

Important: If your current PHPBB version is not 2.0.22, you will actually see an Upgrade button. Click on it to upgrade to PHPBB 2.0.22. Then, you will be able to use the Migrate button.

The migration of PHPBB v.2 to PHPBB v.3 will begin. It is a time consuming process and may take several minutes.

Please note the following changes that will be made to your database tables and web directories during the migration:

The new PHPBB v.3 is installed in the same database as PHPBB2. This database name remains the same.
The database tables for PHPBB v.2 will remain with the same prefix, e.g. phpbb_
The database tables for PHPBB v.3 will be created with prefix: phpbb3x_
The new PHPBB v.3 installation directory will again be phpbb (or phpbb/html, if installed as a subdomain). The old phpbb directory (or phpbb/html) that contained PHPBB v.2 will be renamed as follows: phpbb-v.2.0.22.1-2008-02-05-18-07-16 (or php/html-v.2.0.22.1-2008-02-05-18-07-16 respectively for subdomain installation) where you can see a timestamp of the migration.

The migration to PHPBB v.3 WILL include custom avatars and file uploads from your old PHPBB v.2. However, the migration will NOT include custom themes, smilies, language packs, plugins, add-ons, custom modifications, etc.

You will also have to re-index the forum in order to enable the Search option in PHPBB v.3. Login to the Administration Panel and go to Maintenance >> Search index (in the Database section).