Have you ever used phpMyAdmin?

you should.

You will see a drop down listing the different databases you have in your installation.

One of them will be 'Joomla' something. make a note of it.

when you are installing SMF, it will have a space for you to put in the name of the database where SMF will create it's tables.

" It also refers to standard smf prefix."

When multiple applications are installed and use the same database, there is the risk that they may choose the same file names, so to try to prevent that, the applications use a prefix to go in front of the names of ALL their tables, so even if one application uses a "members" table, the database will have it as application_members

The smf application by default, prefixes its tables with "smf_"
Technically you could prefix the tables with anything, but some applications and add-ons take shortcuts and assume that the prefix is SMF so it is best to use smf

Now, if you did not install it that way in the begining, it is best to go into phpMyAdmin and delete (DROP) all the SMF tables and reinstall, so you have an installation that is consistent with the installation described in the documentation.


- hope this long winded explanation is somewhat helpful:D

Ooops forgot all about this thread..sorry!
For others reading, what you can do is backup SMF from one database
then RESTORE it in the other


if the prefix is different (coming from the old) I'd simply edit with notepad and do a find and replace to change the prefix then restore into the other database.

Having the application use multiple databases kinda asks for trouble. (at this time anyway)