Migrate from
Events Manager
to HappenBoard
HappenBoard Free copies your events, locations, categories and bookings from Events Manager, with a dry run first. Tickets, prices and redirects stay in your hands.
How to migrate from Events Manager to HappenBoard
1
Back up, then install HappenBoard
A migration has no undo, so back up your site first. Events Manager can stay active or be deactivated: HappenBoard reads its tables straight from the database.
2
Preview with a dry run
In HappenBoard → Settings → Migration, choose Events Manager and click Preview (dry run). You see what would be created, skipped or failed, and nothing is written.
3
Migrate for real
Click Migrate for real and leave the tab open while events are copied 50 at a time. If the run stops early, Continue picks up where it left off. On a server, run wp happenboard migrate em.
4
Check, then switch your pages
Open the warnings to see the series that lost part of their dates and the bookings left out. Put HappenBoard blocks on your pages, then use Run again later: only new events come across.
What gets imported
| Events Manager |  | |
|---|---|---|
| EventsTitle, description, status, start and end, all-day setting, featured image and categories. Drafts stay drafts. The excerpt is not copied. | Events |  |
| VenuesEach location becomes a venue with its name, address, town, country and map coordinates. State and postcode are not copied. | Locations | As venues |
| CategoriesName, slug and description, still attached to their events. Parent and child levels are not kept. | Event categories | |
| AttendeesEach booking becomes an attendee with its name, email and spaces, on its own date in a series. Approved bookings come in as Going, those awaiting approval or payment on the Waitlist, rejected or cancelled ones as Cancelled. Nobody gets an email. | Bookings | |
| Recurring eventsEvents Manager 7 rules, for Recurring Events and Repeating Events: daily, weekly on chosen days, monthly on a given weekday such as the last Friday, yearly, ending after a number of dates or on a date. Each date keeps its length, even over several days. | Recurring events | Events Manager 7 |
| Excluded datesSingle dates under Unavailable Dates become skipped dates, matched on their hours as in Events Manager. Unavailable dates that repeat and extra Event Dates blocks are left out, and the result names each series concerned. | Unavailable Dates | Single dates |
| Older seriesSeries on a site still running Events Manager 6 or older, and series built from hand-picked dates, come in on their first date only. Update to Events Manager 7 first: it turns older series into Repeating Events, which come across as series. | Events Manager 6 and older | First date only |
| OrganizersEvents come in without an organizer, and the event owner is not kept as author. Add organizers in HappenBoard and link them to your events. | Event owner | Not copied |
| Tickets and pricesTicket types, prices and payments have nowhere to go in HappenBoard Free. With Pro, you create your ticket types again. | Tickets | Not copied |
| Attributes and tagsEvent attributes and tags are not copied. | Attributes, tags | Not copied |
| Addresses and authorsImported events get new addresses built from their titles, with no redirects from the old ones. The original publish date is not kept. | URLs, author, date | Not kept |
Need help?
What stays the same
Your old data, untouched
HappenBoard only reads the tables of Events Manager. Nothing in them is changed or deleted, so you can compare both before you switch.
Drafts stay drafts
Each event keeps its title, description and status, so nothing goes live by surprise.
The same clock times
Times are read in your site’s time zone: an event that started at 19:00 still starts at 19:00.
The same images
Featured images are reused from your media library, not uploaded a second time.
Locations become venues
Each event stays linked to its location, now a venue with its address, town, country and map coordinates.
Booking status kept
Approved bookings become Going, those awaiting approval or payment go to the Waitlist, rejected and cancelled ones are Cancelled, with their number of spaces.
Good to know
Repeat rules come from Events Manager 7 and later, so update Events Manager before you migrate: it turns older series into Repeating Events. A series built from hand-picked dates comes in on its first date: check those events after the run and add their other dates by hand.
HappenBoard in numbers
21
server-rendered blocks
11
ready-made patterns
5
built-in importers
4
calendar views
8
Site Editor templates
You ask.
We answer.
We’re featured in
Does Events Manager need to stay active?
No. HappenBoard reads its tables straight from the database, so you can deactivate it before you migrate. Do not delete it with an option that wipes its data: that is where HappenBoard finds your events.
Will my old event URLs redirect to the new ones?
No. Imported events get new addresses built from their titles, and HappenBoard creates no redirects. Add redirects for your most visited events with your SEO or redirection plugin. The original publish date is not kept either.
What happens to my bookings?
Each booking becomes an attendee of its event, with the name, email and number of spaces, and in a series it goes on the date it was made for. Approved bookings are Going, and so are pending ones when your bookings need no approval in Events Manager. Bookings awaiting your approval or a payment, and waitlist entries, go to the Waitlist. Rejected or cancelled bookings and expired waitlist places are Cancelled. A booking for a date the imported series lacks is not imported and is listed in the warnings. Nobody gets an email, and tickets and prices are not imported.
Can I run the migration with WP-CLI?
Yes. Run wp happenboard migrate em –dry-run to preview, then wp happenboard migrate em. The command works through your events 100 at a time and ends with the number created, skipped and failed for each type, plus a warning for each series or booking to check.
Do I need HappenBoard Pro to migrate?
No, the migration is part of HappenBoard Free. Pro adds paid tickets, which you set up again after the move if you sold tickets with Events Manager.
Works with
Turn your calendar into a box office
Sell tickets, take payments and check people in at the door.
Not the right fit? Your money back within 14 days.
Already on another events plugin?
Preview first, then import, even with the old plugin deactivated. Repeat rules from The Events Calendar, Events Manager 7 and Sugar Calendar come across, and you can export your events to CSV at any time.