Site Integration

[JeffHowden]

We have an existing website coded in ColdFusion and MSSQL. We want to integrate the registration and login of the existing website and vBulletin into one. We need the capability when a user registers or logs in on the website, we want them to automatically be signed up or logged in to the vBulletin forum. Likewise, when they logout of the website, we need to be able to log them out of both the website and the forums. The forums will not be accessible to non-logged-in users. Users must not be forced to login to the website and the forums separately. We will be turning off registration, login, and logout functionality to the forum directly so that users are required to use the existing registration and login forms on the website itself.

We can not replace our current user system with vBulletin's like is so often suggested whenever this sort of issue is brought up. Further, there have been thousands of dollars of investment made into the current system and absolutely zero chance (or desire) of rewriting it in PHP.

Are there existing webservice interfaces for registering new vBulletin users, logging users in (that return a sessionid or something), logging users out, etc.? If so, I believe I can complete an integration of this sort without too much trouble. However, from searching the forums here and at vBulletin.org, I've not found much in the way of helpful information.

[Steve Machol]

Integrating vBulletin with a non-vB member system would require a rather extensive modification of the code. Of course, we cannot provide official support for code modifications. What most people do is modify their current system to use the vB member system.

Either way the place for help with this would be over at the mod site: http://www.vbulletin.org

Once you register you can post in the Pre-Sales forum there.

[JeffHowden]

Can someone that has something more useful to say than an obviously copy-n-paste response weigh in on this please? I mean, did you even read my post? I specifically mentioned that migrating to using vBulletin's user system is out of the question. Not only is it in another database (which causes problems for all the other things we're doing that must properly joined to the user), but the vBulletin install is likely to be installed on a completely separate server (perhaps even geographical separated from the website servers).

No offense to you Steve, but if vBulletin would invest the minimal hours necessary to expose some simple aspects of the user system like registration, login, and logout via webservice calls then integration questions like this would be so much easier. There's certainly no reason why it should require "extensive code changes" as you suggest. Additionally, those who are currently using PHP would even benefit from having certain vBulletin functionality exposed via webservice calls.

For the record, I am not looking to replace the user system in vBulletin with what I have in my DB. I'm perfectly fine with allowing vBulletin to run with little to no code modifications whatsoever. Instead, I'm looking to disable things like registration, login, logout, etc. within vBulletin so I can handle those from my end. I'm ok with having parellel user systems between my current system and vBulletin. All I need vBulletin to provide is the ability to register, login, and logout users via webservice calls.

[jakWEB]

Well it is possible, but it takes a bit of time, check my signature!

Cheers
Jérôme

[JeffHowden]

Well it is possible, but it takes a bit of time, check my signature!

Cheers
Jérôme

You have no signature...

[Steve Machol]

Can someone that has something more useful to say than an obviously copy-n-paste response weigh in on this please? I mean, did you even read my post?

Yes, I read your post. Did you read mine?

Integrating vBulletin with a non-vB member system would require a rather extensive modification of the code. Of course, we cannot provide official support for code modifications.

Sorry if that was not clear.

There's certainly no reason why it should require "extensive code changes" as you suggest.

And I guess I also have to apologize for attempting to answer this honestly for you. Whether it 'should' or not, the fact is that what you want to do will require extensive modifications of the code. It will also make if very difficult for you to upgrade every time a new version is released.

I'm sorry my honest answer was not what you wanted to hear. I certainly meant no offense.

[JeffHowden]

Is my clarification more helpful in describing what I'm looking for?

I do not want to modify code for vBulletin at all, if I can avoid it.

My apologies for coming across strong. It's been a rough day finding nothing about this in the vBulletin forums except the basically copy-n-paste response you gave me.

[Steve Machol]

Instead, I'm looking to disable things like registration, login, logout, etc. within vBulletin so I can handle those from my end. I'm ok with having parellel user systems between my current system and vBulletin. All I need vBulletin to provide is the ability to register, login, and logout users via webservice calls.

As far as I can tell this still requires extensive modification of the vB code.

As for 'copy-n-paste' answers, I will use them when the answer matches the question. I could waste a lot of time writing up something new or changing the wording to something else, but wouldn't that be a waste of time when the answer is essentially the same? That is not a good use of the time I have to help cusomers and answer questions the best I can.

[JeffHowden]

So, what you're basically telling me is that the only way to make this work is as follows?

• disable user registration in vBulletin
• disable/hide/remove all login forms
• disable/hide/remove all logout links
• update all user profile management links away from vBulletin profile bits to the existing website profile bits (or remove the link completely)
• anything else in vBulletin that's accessible by the regular user that I haven't considered because I don't know vBulletin that well that could come back to bite me
• manually keep the user tables in both databases sync'ed by way of SQL queries from the website to handle inserts (new registrations)and updates (profile updates) which will require reverse engineering things like encryption/hasing algorhythms
• to effect an auto-login to vBulletin when a user logs into my site, I must reverse engineer the mechanism by which vBulletin generates the login cookies and their values
• manually remove those cookies (with no effective way of actually killing the session in memory) to log the user out of vBulletin when they log out of the website

Is that about it? Are those the "extensive modifications" you're referring to or by "extensive modifications" are you referring to a bunch of other things entirely?

[Steve Machol]

If that's what will work for you, then fine. I can only go by what I understood you asked, and I answered base on that. Nothing you have posted changes my assessment.

I did not mean to get into an argument over this or generate your obvious anger at me for my a sincere effort to answer your question. I will stay out of this now since I clearly have rubbed you the wrong way, which was not my intent at all.

[Thanster]

We have an existing website coded in ColdFusion and MSSQL. We want to integrate the registration and login of the existing website and vBulletin into one. We need the capability when a user registers or logs in on the website, we want them to automatically be signed up or logged in to the vBulletin forum. Likewise, when they logout of the website, we need to be able to log them out of both the website and the forums. The forums will not be accessible to non-logged-in users. Users must not be forced to login to the website and the forums separately. We will be turning off registration, login, and logout functionality to the forum directly so that users are required to use the existing registration and login forms on the website itself.

We can not replace our current user system with vBulletin's like is so often suggested whenever this sort of issue is brought up. Further, there have been thousands of dollars of investment made into the current system and absolutely zero chance (or desire) of rewriting it in PHP.

Are there existing webservice interfaces for registering new vBulletin users, logging users in (that return a sessionid or something), logging users out, etc.? If so, I believe I can complete an integration of this sort without too much trouble. However, from searching the forums here and at vBulletin.org, I've not found much in the way of helpful information.

Jeff,

I'm in the exact same boat as you. I've been tasked with updating our forums system for our 500k+ membership non-profit organization. It needs to integrate with our SSO (Single sign-on) system already in place. Let me know if you figure anything out.

- Nat

[Mike Anime]

You have no signature...

yes he does.


you might have the option to see sigs turned off.


here is his sig. as he didnt reply to you i decided to try and help you. so i put his sig in quotes

Kitesspots around the world ->http://www.kitesurfmaniac.com
Australia Travel Guide ->http://www.next89.com

and here is how i saw his full reply

Well it is possible, but it takes a bit of time, check my signature!

Cheers
Jérôme
__________________
Kitesspots around the world -> http://www.kitesurfmaniac.com
Australia Travel Guide -> http://www.next89.com

[grenma]

If that's what will work for you, then fine. I can only go by what I understood you asked, and I answered base on that. Nothing you have posted changes my assessment.

I did not mean to get into an argument over this or generate your obvious anger at me for my a sincere effort to answer your question. I will stay out of this now since I clearly have rubbed you the wrong way, which was not my intent at all.

I think that I understand and share JeffHowden's frustration. The reality is that a growing number of sites are using blogging and bb programs as plugin modules that are integrated into a larger community site. As such, single sign on is a must have. I have spent days emailing support and scouring the web trying to find a clear, concise explanation of how to support SSO or at least auto-registration and -login with VBulletin. All I have seen from the VB support team is boilerplate about "extensive modifications required" and "not part of our support". VBulletin is supposed to be a robust extendable industry leader - there must be dozens of sites that have addressed this problem and even published modules, but they are very difficult to locate. Can anyone offer any constructive advice as to where to find information on implementing this feature?

[Wayne Luke]

vBulletin does not handle external authentication at this time. This requires some custom programming on your part and a Bridge between your software and vBulletin. vBulletin does include tools and APIs built into the software that allow you to synchronize your existing user records with the ones that vBulletin requires and would allow you to simulate a single sign-on procedure. To do this you would use vBulletin's Data Managers.

The data managers are able to handle all the structures and variable types within vBulletin. This is the most efficient way to handle synchronization because of the way that vBulletin handles logins and cookie based authentication for each user. It will also allow you to use vBulletin's session handling techniques since they are different than standard PHP sessions at this time.

You can read about the Data Managers in our online documentation at:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/data_managers

You can also see the entire vBulletin API at:
http://members.vbulletin.com/api/

Here is a tutorial on how to create a new user automatically:
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=82836&highlight=Create+New+User

In that thread is are examples that you can use as a basis to handle logins within vBulletin transparently. There is other information available for including external files and classes in vBulletin available at www.vbulletin.org as well.

[grenma]

vBulletin does not handle external authentication at this time. This requires some custom programming on your part and a Bridge between your software and vBulletin. vBulletin does include tools and APIs built into the software that allow you to synchronize your existing user records with the ones that vBulletin requires and would allow you to simulate a single sign-on procedure. To do this you would use vBulletin's Data Managers.

The data managers are able to handle all the structures and variable types within vBulletin. This is the most efficient way to handle synchronization because of the way that vBulletin handles logins and cookie based authentication for each user. It will also allow you to use vBulletin's session handling techniques since they are different than standard PHP sessions at this time.

You can read about the Data Managers in our online documentation at:
http://www.vbulletin.com/docs/html/data_managers

You can also see the entire vBulletin API at:
http://members.vbulletin.com/api/

Here is a tutorial on how to create a new user automatically:
http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showthread.php?t=82836&highlight=Create+New+User

In that thread is are examples that you can use as a basis to handle logins within vBulletin transparently. There is other information available for including external files and classes in vBulletin available at www.vbulletin.org as well.

I'm sorry, but don't you find it a little ironic to reply to a comment about a canned response with yet another copy and paste of the same response I've just commented on and have already seen several times in these forums?