Integration with external DB and Session management

Of course it uses WP user database. That's the main idea - you already have users database, and miniBB could also use it, if you turn everything on correctly.

I have an existing site and users and login that I would like to integrate with miniBB. I have been reading the manual and am still confused a little. It sounds as though I can keep user names and passwords in my DB and the rest of the User information for miniBB in the miniBB users table. I'm not clear on how I define that link. Also my users passwords currently have no encryption, it sounds like I need to change that, is that correct? On my create account page do I need to include one of the minibb php files to create information in the miniBB users table as well? Finally on login do I need to set some cookie so the users will be automatically logged into miniBB as well as my site?

Chris W

The main idea - you have only ONE table for users. You are keeping in it all necessary data for running at your site, and add necessary data for running minibb. minibb takes username/password from this table, and you need to rewrite miniBB's default authorization algorithm a bit, so it handles it properly.

Read this article - it covers almost everything you need to do:
http://www.minibb.com/synchronizing_minibb.html

Hello, I'm trying to integrate the forum with my website, and I have to check if the user is logged in, but from the main website.

its like this:
mysite.com <--- where i want to check if the user is logged in.
forums.mysite.com <--- where the forum/forum files is.

Ive tried setting a session called $_SESSION['user'] in the forum, but it dont seem to work when i try getting the value from mysite.com

any ideas?

Your server can be configured the way it accepts sessions only from main domain (no subdomains). Try to create script like this:

<?php
session_start();
$_SESSION['test']='aaa';
?>

place it into forums folder and run from forums.mysite.com.

Then place this script into the root folder:

<?php
session_start();
echo $_SESSION['test'];
?>

and run it. If you get 'aaa' output, your session variables can be read from any domain zone. If you don't see anything - then your session will work only within the zone it was set on.

I am trying to integrate the userDB of WordPress and miniBB right now, and I had followed all the synchronization instructions provided by the miniBB author. I installed WordPress first, and then minibb. As for their options, I have set it so that only registered members can post minibb message and comment on blogs. It seemed to work nicely except for a few problems.


My problems are these:
1)
If a user signed up to be a member through the miniBB registration process, he/she will not have the power to login through WordPress. Even though WordPress recognize the member as one of its user (the user is listed in the WordPress admin CP), it would not automatically set this user to have the privilege to access the WordPress control panel, nor commenting on the post with a nickname.

Now, I went through the mySQL database, and found that WordPress actually generates this "privilege" for the user only if the user registers through the WordPress login (under the wp_usermeta).

In my point of view, it's pretty useless to combine the two database, if the users of the mini bulletin board have no privilege to post a comment on the WordPress blog. So, can some kind guru help me out on this? Otherwise, I can only ask my user to register through WordPress.

2) I can post on the miniBB forum usually when I am not logged in (in other words, I can post when I filled out the Name and Password section that is located right before the posting box, and press the "Sign in/Post message" button.) However, I have trouble posting on my miniBB once I am logged in (both as a regular member and an admin). I don't know why that is and I would really appreciate it if someone can tell me how to fix this.

well... when I say it's pretty useless to combine the 2 databases, i mean if you have unlimited databases.

If a user signed up to be a member through the miniBB registration process
You need to completely disable this process in miniBB. Use WordPress' default if its database is the main.

Difficult to say what point 2 is about. I'll check when I'm back from vacation where I'm now...

Thanks Paul.

I think I solved the first problem now that I figured out how to let users post comments on blog (with their user name displayed) without giving them the blog CP access. And so I only let users to sign in/register/sign out through the miniBB door.

Now I am still stuck on the second problem... which is a big issue that I must face. Hope you get back soon :-)

This is for problem number 2 mentioned above, and I hope this is relevant. Since the only difference between allowing me to post and not is this submission of password along with my posting, I began by looking for the difference of the code in the two different conditions. I am not good at coding in general, but I noticed that the only difference after calling $loginLogout:

user_logged_in.html have no username and password input, while user_login_form.html have input of both username and password input.

Now the submission form (form.js) seemed to require the username and password in order to be actually submitted... After the form submission, everything else is the same in code since they use the same main_post_area and main_post_form. So, can it be a bug in the code that there are required form fields that are being left out accidentally on user_logged_in.html during the development process??

But the strange thing is... nobody else seemed to have the same kind of problem (I did a google search)... Is it just me?

Take back what I said earlier about the form... I just realized that I can't even delete post after I sign in. I can lock and unlock topics, and move topics, and all the stuff on the admin panel... but I cannot delete the post individually. :-(

Pay attention at browser's status bar when you click on the "Delete" link. Probably, you are getting some JavaScript problem when trying to delete (this operation should bring JS pop-up window with warning). If you have JS error somewhere on the page before, of course Delete won't work.

I'm developing some content which users will be required to log in to access, and want to leverage the minibb registration form and users table since I'm using it for the forum section anyway.

What's the easiest way to check if a visitor to the non-forum section of my site is logged?

I'm familiar with PHP but just taking the covers off minibb.

Thanks for any help!
Mark

wilkinsmd

What's the easiest way to check if a visitor to the non-forum section of my site is logged?

Do you mean if he's logged on forums?

In bb_functions.php we have a function called user_logged_in(). Study index.php of how it runs this function, and you can do the same in your script.

wilkinsmd

What's the easiest way to check if a visitor to the non-forum section of my site is logged?

Do you mean if he's logged on forums?

Yes thanks, meant to say logged in!

Thanks for the pointer.
Mark