Eduardo Silva

This is just a translation to English (and reduced version) from my original original post “Migrando do b2evolution 2.x para o WordPress” (Portuguese version)

I migrated my 2 blogs based on b2evolution 2.4.6 to WordPress 2.8.1 using this method. It should also work for version 2.4.7 (not tested, feedback appreciated), but I’m not sure if it will work for version 3!

After searching all over the Internet, I found this script at this topic on wordpress.org forum, and since the developer bodum said that he is not going to support this script, I made a backup at import-b2evolution-wp2.php.zip
Note that this script is designed to use an old version of wordpress (2.0.4) I strongly recommend to use this version and them upgrade to latest! I had some issues trying to migrate straight from b2evolution 2.4.6 to wordpress 2.8.1.

Important things to note before migrating:

- Post dates aren’t correctly migrated, the script will get the dates from the “last modified” field, you have 2 options: Fix the script by yourself or just fix the dates on the wordpress panel after the migration.
- Tags aren’t migrated at all.
- The link structure is a bit different on 2 blog engines, you can fix this using the Redirection plugin mentioned at the end of this post.
- I don’t take any responsibility for any data loss during this process!!!
- Make all your backups before starting the migration (database and b2evolution folder)

Migrating in 10 easy steps
1- Remove all the files from the b2evolution folder, cleaning space for your wordpress install.
2- Upload wordpress “2.0.4″ to the blog folder
3- Install WordPress on the same database used by b2evolution
4- Verify if wordpress was correctly installed and proceed to login using /wp-admin
5- Copy the file import-b2evolution-wp2.php to wp-admin/import-b2evolution-wp2.php
6- Access the import script using http://exemplo.com/wp-admin/import-b2evolution-wp2.php
7- The script will ask you database information, wich blog to import, and some more information (i had issues importing linkblog so I just skipped this)
8- Click on Submit and start praying. Now you should verify the output of the script and check if you see any import errors.
9- Access your fresh (and outdated) wordpress blog, verify if all posts and comments are there. If you see any invalid characters, don’t worry, it will be fixed during the upgrade process.
10- Now you should upgrade WordPress 2.0.4 to the latest version (2.8.1 atm), this is fair simple: Just remove all the files from your wordpress folder and upload the latest WordPress version to this folder. Then you should access http://exemplo.com/wp-admin/upgrade.php (After creating the new configuration file, run the upgrade script again to upgrade your database structure).

That’s it, b2evolution 2.4.6 migrated to WordPress 2.8.1

To fix any broken links you can use the “Redirection plugin” avilable at Urbangiraffe and wordpress.org
The good thing about this plugin, is that it doesn’t use .htaccess and you dont really need to full understand mod_rewrite from apache. This plugin also keeps a log of all the 404 errors helping you to trackdown broken links.

If you need any help during the migration process, post on the comments field and I will try to help you.