cookie problems for multi domains

[SkuZZy]

I'm running into problems with cookies. I have 3 domains pointing to my forums and when I leave the cookie path blank, it doesn't let you logout. But if I put the cookie path on just one of the domain names, then obviously, it wont let you stay logged in on the other 2 domain names. The three domains are:

http://battleforums.com

http://battlenetwork.com

http://vbulletin.net

... so what do I put for the cookie path? can I just put ".com" would that work?

Thanks for the help,
SkuZZy

[Wayne Luke]

No... If you want to properly handle cookies, you will have to redirect everyone to one domain regardless of their entry point. There was a hack for this posted on vBulletin.org, I believe. It consists of one line you put into your global.php file.

The solution has also been posted in a similar thread on SitePointForums.com.

[SkuZZy]

Originally posted by Wayne Luke
No... If you want to properly handle cookies, you will have to redirect everyone to one domain regardless of their entry point. There was a hack for this posted on vBulletin.org, I believe. It consists of one line you put into your global.php file.

The solution has also been posted in a similar thread on SitePointForums.com.

So, is it possible to use multiple domains or not?

- SkuZZy

[Wayne Luke]

In the Admin Options? NO. Cookies do not work like that. You will need to redirect your additional domains to a single location using htaccess, or some other means if you want to use a single cookie only.

[George L]

Re: cookie problems for multi domains

Originally posted by SkuZZy
I'm running into problems with cookies. I have 3 domains pointing to my forums and when I leave the cookie path blank, it doesn't let you logout. But if I put the cookie path on just one of the domain names, then obviously, it wont let you stay logged in on the other 2 domain names. The three domains are:

http://battleforums.com

http://battlenetwork.com

http://vbulletin.net

... so what do I put for the cookie path? can I just put ".com" would that work?

Thanks for the help,
SkuZZy

which domain is the real domain for the forums ? choose 1 domain and you can in headerinclude template at very bottom add

<base href"=thatchosendomain.com">

while leaving all cookie domain blank and path as /

of course the user then would need to login into the chosendomain and browse using chosen domain

[SkuZZy]

I fixed this so all domains names point to http://www.battleforums.com now. I'm still running into cookie problems though and I don't know why. I have the cookie domain set at:

.battleforums.com

but it won't let me or any of my other users logout... I was told earlier this is a problem with IE, but logout works fine for me on other forums, including vbulletin.com and I just upgraded to IE 6.0 SP1 too... any suggestions on what could be causing these logout problems?

Thanks,
SkuZZy

[Steve Machol]

If you have changed the cookie domain then your users will need to delete the cookies for your domains (possibly manually) in order to get things working right again.

[kippesp]

Be sure to delete the correct cookies. This would include those cookies of the form "mydomain.com" and "www.mydomain.com."

We had the same issue after implementing similar redirects.

[MartynJ]

A similar problem...

I'd like to have two sites, one is a conventional website (but in PHP where users can vote/submit reviews etc) which is linked to a vB forum on another domain. It would be nice if a user could log in at either the forums or the website, and then be logged in via cookies at the other (though I suppose this requires the users to have cookies enabled) Is there any way of doing that?

EDIT: I mean, something like .NET passport, it seems universal in that you log in one place and all the different passport sites know you.

[poi@nwdnb]

Originally posted by MartynJ
I'd like to have two sites, one is a conventional website (but in PHP where users can vote/submit reviews etc) which is linked to a vB forum on another domain. It would be nice if a user could log in at either the forums or the website, and then be logged in via cookies at the other (though I suppose this requires the users to have cookies enabled) Is there any way of doing that?

EDIT: I mean, something like .NET passport, it seems universal in that you log in one place and all the different passport sites know you.

This is exactly what i am trying to do. Alas, the main site runs with ASP, so i am basically just trying to find out the names of the cookies and so on.

I will set up the ASP login forms to just submit to the vBulletin PHP scripts, so all the ASP scripts will need to do is check for the "isloggedin" and so on cookies.

I just dont know what these cookies are. Can anyone help me?

Ah yes, also, my domains are the same. Well, theres forum.mydomain.co.uk and the main site on *.mydomain.co.uk .

[poi@nwdnb]

Well i solved this, i have got ASP to read the vBulletin cookies.

I'm now having this problem with the users not being able to log out, since i have changed my cookie domain! (to .mydomain.co.uk)

And if i set back to the original cookie domain (blank, which is the same as .forum.mydomain.co.uk i assume), then i cannot access these cookies from the main site..

I guess i'm going to have to get the users to delete all their cookies .. ?

[Steve Machol]

Yes, you'll need your users to delete their cookies.

[poi@nwdnb]

I think i found a workaround.

I am trying to get users to delete "forum.nwdnb.co.uk" cookies, so they can use the new Cookie Domain cookies of just "nwdnb.co.uk".

I have updated my Cookie Domain setting to ".nwdnb.co.uk".
I have put in my phpinclude file, setcookie() functions with blank values (for the purpose of deleting cookies) for each of the cookies that vBulletin stores (bbuserid etc), but with the cookiedomain parameter to this setcookie() function as the OLD "forum.nwdnb.co.uk" domain.

I think this has the effect, of removing all the old forum.nwdnb.co.uk cookies, and then the plain "nwdnb.co.uk" cookies seem to be created with no problems (user doesnt even seem to have to log back in??)

I dont know if this is a bad method of doing things, and i suspect it will only work in specific cases like mine where you are trying to remove a subdomain reference in the cookies.

I'm no expert but it seems to work. Any comments?

[poi@nwdnb]

Anyone? I Hope i'm not doing any damage