Rebuilding a phpBB 2 forum from its files

A client had the files of an old phpBB 2 forum and no working installation. The job was either to get the forum back on a current version, or to get the data out of it.

The objective

The client had the phpBB files for a forum that no longer ran. phpBB 2 hasn't been supported for years and won't run on current PHP, so reloading the files as they were wasn't an option.

They were open on the outcome: either recreate the forum on phpBB 3, or just recover the data that was inside it. Which one is achievable depends on what the files and database actually hold, and that isn't knowable until you look.

What I did

I went through what was there to establish what could be recovered before quoting on it.

I brought the old data into a form phpBB 3 could take and rebuilt the forum on a supported version.

Then I updated the board again on two later contracts as new versions came out.

The result

The forum came back on a current version rather than being written off. The client hired me four more times afterwards.