This is the process in which we upgraded our forum from Agora to Kunena, and the issues we encountered.

As always, the first thing we did was install everything on our development server. Next, we followed the directions given by Kunena to perform the conversion from Agora to Kunena which included installing an older version (1.5.14) because the latest (1.6.3) was not compatible with the converter. That's where our first issue showed up. We could not get Kunena 1.5.14 to install. We searched Google for some answers, but found none. Somedays you win and find exactly what you need, other days you give up only to try again later.

Later came and we found a post that said to download Kunena 1.5.13 instead. We had a little trouble finding it (mostly because our frustration level was high and we didn't read the directions thoroughly) but once we did and installed it, everything fell right into place. Next, we installed the Kunena Converter and ran the process to migrate Agora. Worked like a charm. The last step was to upgrade the Kunena installed version of 1.5.13 to the latest (1.6.3) That went well too!

We were all set, until our next issue reared its ugly head... every topic we tried to view would turn into a redirect loop error. Again, we searched Google for days and found no relief. We had all but given up, until we found the strength to go on, about a month later. We began with debugging our htaccess file that had been modified for security reasons (that is an entirely different subject we might blog about too) When that didn’t give us favorable results, back to Google we went. It turned out that for some unknown reason, we had to rename our alias to the Forum menu item from ‘forum’ to ‘support’. That was it. We solved the redirect loop error.

That was pretty much it, we were ready to golive, until we spotted duplicate posts in the forum. This might be a normal issue when you migrate from one forum to another, but for us, it was just that last nail in the coffin. Ok, not that bad, we spent about 30 minutes going through every topic and deleting the duplicate posts. Thankfully, there was only one duplicate for each topic in each forum category.

All-in-all, the entire process took us about 2 months. The actual migration on our live site, after working out all the issues took about an hour. So, not bad. If you are using Agora and are looking to use Kunena, I highly recommend it. I just hope you learn from us, and get it working sooner. Don’t give up, it will be worth it.

Summary:

• Step One: Back up you site (We prefer to use Akeeba)
• Step Two: Download and install Kuneana 1.5.13
• Step Three: Download and install Kunena Converters
• Step Four: Run the Kunena Converter
• Step Five: Download and install Kunena 1.6.3
• Step Six: Check your topics for duplicate posts and delete them (if any)