Domain Alias question

[robbrus]

We are in the process of setting up some domain alias(s) that we can use for marketing the forum, but can not seem to get it to work properly.

I have parked a dummy domain on our main domain and it navigates to our index page perfectly. The forum pulls up and the URL keeps the domain alias. When we go to login though then we have various issues.

Most of the time, after I select login (after filling out the credentials) then it acts like it is logging in, but it brings me right back to the same page and the notation in the navbar does not indicate logged in.

However, if I choose today's post link and select any internal thread that shows up, it takes me there and shows me logged in (fine, that seems to work and it still retains the domain alias).

However, certain links seem to trigger it to "redirect" away from the alias domain and to the host domain. I am almost positive that in each instance it is due to a script that contains the "bburl" placeholder. So the first question is, can we safely set the option for "bburl' to blank without major adverse affects to functionality (based upon original design and without hacks - that way you can answer from a base perspective )

The other question is, what is the best way to setup cookies for the multiple domains so they should remain invisible to the user but continue to perform their function for the site (basically tracking user preferences).

Note that the forum and ALL content will be the exact same between the domain alias(s) and the host domain so there should be no license issues. We just want various domain names that all point back to our main forum so we can market those specific names to more targeted consumer groups.

NOTE: we have a test environment setup with version 3.6.8 and are working out a migration plan for an upgrade from 3.0.1 - we do have several hacks in place, some we will dump, some need modification, some will be replaced. We also need to revisit almost all of the templates
That is why we have the test environment so we can work all of that out and then the upgrade can run much smoother, but that will take some time and we would like to get this working in the current install and then the upgrade later on.

THANKS IN ADVANCE.

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[ChrisLM2001]

Had that problem when I used anything but the default cookie domain. Switched it back to /, and with the only the .domain.com cookie option, and it corrected itself fine (no kidding about that login warning).

[robbrus]

Had that problem when I used anything but the default cookie domain. Switched it back to /, and with the only the .domain.com cookie option, and it corrected itself fine (no kidding about that login warning).

Thanks for the response ......

By it (as in "swithced it back to /,")are you referring to the "bburl" value in the admin panel?

So that value would be "/" only. We already have the domain cookie option set to ".domain.com"

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[robbrus]

OK, changed the bburl value to "/" and everything seems to working fine. I can now visit the majority of the forum as a guest and 90% of the links retain the domain alias in the URL. The few spot check links that do not show as hard links. So that portion seemed to have worked.

The only issue now is actually logging in ????

Does this have to do with cookies?

Any ideas (and/or solutions would be appreciated).

Thanks in advance.