Using phpBB2 users as main site users

[Dragonsi]

Hi all,

I am currently developing www.reggaewales.com for a client and have a question to ask all you php whizzes...

The site has a phpBB2 forum which uses a MySQL database provided by my hosting company. My question is -

Is there a way of linking the forum database to the members login area? That is, if people register for membership, they will then appear as a user on the forums - or the other way around, they register with the forums and then automatically become members and thus logon to the members area with the same username/password.

The members area has no login yet - as I wish to link the 2 together before creating the code.

[php~pro]

Its an easy job. Simple php sessions and queries, but why bother. Just google phpbb hacks or similar. There are loads of hacks for this readily done.

[ronniethedodger]

PHPhacks can be somewhat dubious, and not a good place to go for scripts in general. People are too quick to throw that name out there. The thing is that they will publish any and all hacks known to man, and some of those do not take proper security precautions or just plain poorly written.

With that said ... here is a blank page template from phpBB.com to get you started. Here is a snippet of code to add to that to check user authentication. The only thing you need to worry about is setting the $phpbb_root_path variable correctly in order to use the functions of phpbb.

Most hacks deal with the phpBB system and not with external systems. It is good that you do not have another User authentication set up, phpBB's can be used.

What I suggest is looking into "portal" solutions for phpBB. There are a couple published at phpBB.com already which should give you the tools necessary to effect the changes.

Another mod for phpBB is called the phpBB FetchAll Mod (listed in SourceForge) -- this is probably the better choice that I could recommend, it will give you a library of functions to interact with the phpBB system itself.

You wouldn't know it by looking at it, but my site is totally run by phpBB in the backend (no there is no forum there ... hehehe). Even the Blogger blog is integrated into it. I will be using the User Authentication here in the future for a project I will be adding in hopefully not too long from now.

I am using some parts of phpBB FetchAll and some home-grown coding of my own.

[php~pro]

Whilst I wasnt intetionally refering to the phpbbhacks site I merely indicated the term for search purpose.

With regards this

Another mod for phpBB is called the phpBB FetchAll Mod (listed in SourceForge) -- this is probably the better choice that I could recommend, it will give you a library of functions to interact with the phpBB system itself.

This hack is available at phpbbhacks no less. Along with every other hack site. With regards forum hacks, many I have seen have surely been coded by very competant coders.

[ronniethedodger]

Originally Posted by php~pro

Whilst I wasnt intetionally refering to the phpbbhacks site I merely indicated the term for search purpose.

Sorry, my bad. I just saw the two words and missed the googling part of it. Still, I do see that site bantied around like it is the end-all place to pick up your hacks from. I am pretty much against the site on the whole, unless you know what to look for and how to use it.

Most people asking for advice or help in looking for scripts for phpBB usually do not know what to look for, otherwise they would not be asking. I try to steer them in the right direction off the bat, and I definitely do not tell them to just go google it. No offense, but this is forum where people come for advice -- outside of the SEO part of this board, 98% of the questions can be answered with "just google it". Correct?

The same thing applies to any scripting language problem. I often see people just say -- hey look it up at HotScripts.com (or a similar place) like that is going to answer their question. This is bad advice for the novice in my opinion, and there are a lot of dangerous scripts out there. There is a popular directory script in circulation on thousands of sites that has a backdoor to your admin area for the author to have access to it. This script is at HotScripts and every other script directory -- and it can be found by just googling it.

BTW I just now googled phpbb hacks and noticed that my test server shows up for that term. Does that make me an expert? Not in the least, but googling it seems to think so.

[php~pro]

Hi Ronnie

No offense taken. Everyone has an opinion and is free to voice it. The world would be dull if we were all clones.

Personally Im not a hacks or open source person period. These two entity are partially responsible for gimps creating tacky sites in their multitudes, and forcing prices down to a minimum. The average coder, as noted in easywebdevs post in another forum, must be skilled and conversant with many applications, several languages and codeing logic.

Prices are so low presently its realy not worth any fresh talent entering the market. I earn the same now as what I did 4 yrs ago, yet interest and inflation rise. Im personally turning to back on the net within the next 18 months, subject to passing my finals, to make a career in C programming. I just cant wait to get out of the internet. Many are predicting a rise in prices, but the polls seem to suggest that online spending is down, and with diminishing online transactions its hardly likely anyone will invest further. Luckily I'm secure as I work in the commercial internet/intranet sector, but its not enough. The web has fast become an electronic playground for kids, thieves, browser hijackers, and pop ups. Another four reasons not to log on.

[Dragonsi]

Thanks both, I do agree, as a novice to phpBB - it can be quite 'scary' to start crawling through hundreds of scripts, not really knowing what I'm looking for.

While I did find some useful material under the googled search term, it didn't provide what I was researching for without plenty of looking.

I like the advice you have given Ron (as I always do) and I will follow it up. Php does confuse me slightly, but only because it is still quite a new language to me (HTML, Pascal and many others were confusing at first). Since the site is already live, I have to be careful not to corrupt the database but I do want to integrate this feature, if only to make both the visitor's life and the admin team's email processing easier. It obviously makes sense to have an automated members system rather than the manual email system that is present at the moment.

After all, my client only wants to collect email and mobile phone numbers for their marketing database.

I'll have a go and let you know how I get on...