Want to integrate phpBB, but can't lose data!!!

[jpwillms]

Hi there,

  I want to integrate Coppermine and phpBB, but my coppermine app is packed with users and groups and I don't want to lose these by bridging. How else can I do it? I am no stranger to php, so don't worry about stating very technical details.

Thank you so much,

Any help is appretiated.

Jordan

[Joachim Müller]

there's no convertor script available to convert the users and groups from coppermine to another bbs app, so you will have to do this manually by creating the users in phpbb as well, and manually create reference between the user's albums in coppermine and the corresponding phpbb users (using a database tool like phpMyAdmin). Depending on the numbers of users that already exist this might be a task that is quite labor-intensive (or even impossible) to perform. Sorry I can't give you a better advice.

Joachim

[jpwillms]

> and manually create reference between the user's albums in coppermine and the corresponding phpbb users (using a database tool like phpMyAdmin).

Hey, this is great news! Thanks for the quick reply!

We only have 5 users, since only admins at this point can post images. However, there are TONNES of images.

I'm a little confused by the process here.

Issues:

- Creating users in phpBB.... done easily enough. Is there a difference between how coppermine and phpBB store their passwords? Are they just md5 hashes, straight text?

- What exactly do you mean by 'create reference between the user's albums in coppermine and the corresponding phpbb users' ?

- How exactly does the bridge work? Does copermine automatically create users in phpBB with every signup? (Kind of like a database trigger)? When someone clicks 'forum' in coppermine, does coppermine just forward the authentication information to phpBB? How does it all work.

I am no stranger to php, and I don't mind doing a bunch of coding.

Thank you kindly!

Jordan

there's no convertor script available to convert the users and groups from coppermine to another bbs app, so you will have to do this manually by creating the users in phpbb as well, and manually create reference between the user's albums in coppermine and the corresponding phpbb users (using a database tool like phpMyAdmin). Depending on the numbers of users that already exist this might be a task that is quite labor-intensive (or even impossible) to perform. Sorry I can't give you a better advice.

[kegobeer]

We aren't experts in phpbb, the best info on phpbb passwords is found on their website.  It may be easier to create the users in your phpbb usertable with a standard temp password, email them the temp password, then have them then create their own passwords.

The bridge merely tells Coppermine to stop using the default usertable and instead use the bbs usertable instead.  A user is logged in to both apps - the login link in Coppermine sends the user to the bbs login page.  Same goes for the logout link.  You'll have to add a link to the forum in your Coppermine theme, and a link to Coppermine in your bbs theme.

Coppermine is able to bridge with several bbs apps.  Visit my site and you'll see an example of Coppermine and SMF bridged together.  I created a custom Coppermine theme to match my SMF forum.

[jpwillms]

Allright.

Easy enough. One more question I hope you'll be able to answer.

In copermine, when you click a username link, it displays their profile. With the bridge though, what is the behaviour here? Since coppermine no longer users its own user db, what happens here? Doesn't the code need to be modded to send the user to the phpBB user profile page?

Thanks graciously!

..jordan

[kegobeer]

All links that should display bbs information intead of Coppermine info are automatically changed via the bridge file.

[jpwillms]

You rock.

That you soooo much for all your help!

Also, on a side not, would people recommend phpBB or SMF (personal assesements please). Our requirements are quite simple, but file attachments would be nice and avatars would be a neat feature to include as well. Subscriptions to threads are also very important.

Thank you again!

Jordan

[kegobeer]

There's no choice - SMF all the way.

[jpwillms]

Has anyone had any experience bridging coppermine and SMF (or phpBB) using *different* databases?

It is essential to our application that it be in different databases. I don't mind diving down into the code, but I'm wondering if anyone can give me some starting advice if they've developed something similar?

Thank you.

Jordan

[jpwillms]

Or.....

here is another possible way I could do it.

I need several instances of coppermine (on different sites) that all use the same member base (through smf or php).

Could I just have different db prefixes for each coppermine instance in the same database, and a single forum shared by all (and the same userbase...?) in the same database? That way, EVERYTHING would be in the same database. This is fine, but I am concerned about the fact that the DB would be getting quite bloated.

Any thoughts?

jordan

[Joachim Müller]

it's possible to have different Coppermine installs and bridge them all with one instance of your BBS (although you'll run into troubles when you try to add a link to your galleries on the BBS page - which one will you use. In most cases, one coppermine install will be enough, post what exactly you want to accomplish with different coppermine installs, we may be able to show you a workaround.
Yes, we have some experience bridging SMF and Coppermine: this board and our demo page are bridged as well. Haven't tested, but it shouldn't be too hard to get coppermine and SMF working, using different databases (although you won't be able to accomplish this for different domains though. What's the point of different databases? Where exactly lies the problem/issue?

Joachim

[jpwillms]

I guess being in the same DB doesn't matter. For some reason, I just though it might get bloated and that would be a bad thing.

New: I've succesfully (sort of) bridged SMF and coppermine. Was quite simple, although I'm getting a few oddities:

1)

When a user tries to logout, they get forwarded to smf as expected, but recieve this message:

Session verification failed. Please try logging out and back in again, and then try again.

Clicking on the logout link in SMF works though, just not the bridge logout.

2) When someone logs in, after they are authenticated, they get spit into SMF. I would like the default behaviour to be that after login they go back to the main coppermine page. Also, after user registration, I would also like the same behaviour. Anyone have any suggestions on how to do this?

For the record, I am using SMF 1.0 RC2 and Coppermine Photo Gallery 1.3.2.

Thank again for all your help and your swift replies! If only some other open source projects had this kind of support!

jordan

[Joachim Müller]

1)  When a user tries to logout, they get forwarded to smf as expected, but recieve this message:

Session verification failed. Please try logging out and back in again, and then try again.

Clicking on the logout link in SMF works though, just not the bridge logout.

Known issue, being discussed here: http://forum.coppermine-gallery.net/index.php?topic=9934.0

2) When someone logs in, after they are authenticated, they get spit into SMF. I would like the default behaviour to be that after login they go back to the main coppermine page. Also, after user registration, I would also like the same behaviour. Anyone have any suggestions on how to do this?

Some BBS apps support redirection after login, others don't (mostly for security reasons). SMF doesn't. As a workaround, add a link back to the gallery on your SMF navigation.

Joachim

[jpwillms]

I'm confused.

I visisted that thread, and saw a whole lot of mention about smf_api.php..... so I grabbed it from CVS, but.... there are no instructions on how to use it!

Seems like phpBB is starting to look like a better choice!

[Joachim Müller]

phpbb sucks (when compared to smf) - keep using smf (it's much better, trust me). The thread I posted is meant for developers in the first place, if you can't comprehend what to do you'll have to wait for Jack to come up with an improved smf bridge. In the meantime, I recommend you just comment out the logout button from your coppermine theme...

Joachim