Newbie Bridging Problem

[Digger_UK]

Hi All

I am not a hard core script bunny, so please bear with my relative lack of knowledge...

I have been running a PHPBB3 BB for a while now which is great... for a while people have asked for a gallery and I came across Coppermine.

So... played with it in a stand alone environment and all is great - linked through from my BB and it worked I then saw I could bridge it which will be much better as I would like to have one set of usernames/passwords to make it look slicker for the end users.

This is where the fun starts (or not as the case may be)!

In my hosted hierarchy, the BB resides at website/KFB/phpbb3 and coppermine resides at website/KFB/coppermine

I have checked in PHPBB3 and it says that my PHPBB3 cookie is called 'phpbb3_ugo7m'

So in the bridge wizard I have entered;

URL of the bridge app: website/KFB/phpbb3
Relative path to your bridge app's config file: ../phpbb3/
Cookie Prefix: phpbb3_ugo7m

One query is that for URL of the bridge app, the help balloon says "Make sure to add a trailing slash - the URL must be http://www.yourdomain.tld/forum/ and not just http://www.yourdomain.tld/forum"... but if I enter website/KFB/phpbb3/ it errors saying "There mustn't be a trailing slash in the field URL of the bridge app." So I have to remove the trailing / to get further.

Once all set up and activated it seems OK - from the Coppermine menu if I click on users it links over to the PHPBB3 BB and lists the users, etc... but when I click on the link to get to the coppermine gallery from the forum it just loops back to the forums login screen.

Any ideas on what I am doing wrong?

I have created a Test user with extremely limited access to let you guys play...

URL: www.kentfirebrigade.co.uk
Username: Test-User
Password: Test#123

You will only see one forum called "Photo Gallery" and then a single post with a link to the gallery.

Interestingly enough just now when I tested the Test-User login, when I left the forum to redirect me it took me straight to the gallery, but then the second time I tried it took me to the forum - so now I am very confused. It seems to let me in sometimes and not others :S

BTW - I did clear cookies from IE... just incase?

Any help greatly received.

All seems OK

[Αndré]

One query is that for URL of the bridge app, the help balloon says "Make sure to add a trailing slash - the URL must be http://www.yourdomain.tld/forum/ and not just http://www.yourdomain.tld/forum"... but if I enter website/KFB/phpbb3/ it errors saying "There mustn't be a trailing slash in the field URL of the bridge app." So I have to remove the trailing / to get further.

That has been reported before, but it seems that the docs haven't been adjusted. I'll check that soon.


I just logged in with the test user account successfully and got redirected to Coppermine. I also visited the forum again to follow the link to Coppermine, no boot loop. Tested with Firefox 21.

[Digger_UK]

Hi Andre

Thanks... I have been using IE10, but have stumbled across something interesting which may be a key to the problem -

When I log in to my forum as administrator and then follow link to gallery it works... however if I then click the logo on top left of gallery to go back to forum, then log in using Test-User I get stuck in a loop - if I log in as admin and then go to gallery it works. If however I click "Log Out As admin" button on gallery to get back to forum and then login as Test-User it works OK. Equally if I am logged in to gallery as Test-User and just click the logo to get back to forum, if I then login to forum as admin and try to go to gallery it goes back into the loop, until I go back to gallery and logout as test user.

Does this make sense?

I will create a Test-User2 account with password Test#123 so you can see what I mean (hopefully).

[Αndré]

It seems that there is missing at least one step:

When I log in to my forum as administrator and then follow link to gallery it works... however if I then click the logo on top left of gallery to go back to forum, then log in using Test-User I get stuck in a loop

I assume you logged out as admin (with the link of phpBB?), before you logged in as a different user? Please provide a step-by-step guide. Unfortunately Test-User2 doesn't work (yet):

You have specified an incorrect username. Please check your username and try again.

[Digger_UK]

Hi Again

OK... Test-User2 (password Test#1234) is now live...

WOW - I just tried using FireFox and all works seamlessly... the problem is in IE;

I can re-create the problem and it makes sense what's happening - I just don't know how to fix it;

Using Internet Explorer;

1. Log in to BB using Test-User/Test#123
2. Go to post with link to gallery and click - all works OK
3. DONT log out of gallery - just click on logo in top left corner... this takes you back to the forum home page and asks you to login again.
4. login to BB using Test-User2/Test#1234
5. This time it gets stuck in a loop and asks you to login again, etc.

The only way to get free is to go to the real URL of the gallery;

http://moonpix.co.uk/KFB/coppermine/

Click the "Log Out Test-User" button... then re-login as Test-User2 and it works unless you go to step 3 above again!

The fact that it works in FF shows its a bug in the way IE deals with the bridging - if you are logged into forum as one user and go to gallery it lets you in OK, if you go back to the BB and login as another user it doesn't send that information to the gallery and when you try to get into the gallery it sends you back to the login screen and when you login as the second  different user again, it tries to direct you to the gallery where it rejects your credentials and sends you back to login again... etc.

Does this make sense to you?

It is fantastic in FF, but I know most of my users use IE

Any ideas?

[Αndré]

I know most of my users use IE

But I guess most of your users have just 1 account, so that issue shouldn't occur to them? I don't know if we can fix something at all, as it seems that IE simply forgets that you're already logged in at phpBB. I don't have access to IE10, but there's obviously something wrong with its cookies. Maybe you can check if it occurs for IE10 / IE in general or just for the IE on your machine.

[Digger_UK]

OK - just tried with IE9 and it does the same.

With IE when you switch from Gallery to PHPBB it takes you back to the login screen where you have to login each time - which is annoying.... with FF it remembers your login details and you can jump between the two without having to keep entering your login details, which looks so much better.

Its a shame that this appears to be a Cookie/IE issue which is a shame as IE is used by most - but nonetheless its a great gallery and I will keep playing with it to get it integrated as best as I can

I might have a look at stings in IE to see if theres anyway to tidy the process up - maybe some tick box which needs to be ticked/unticked.

I'll keep popping back here in case anyone has any thoughts but anyway thanks for your help... much appreciated.

[Digger_UK]

BTW - should have said I tried it with IE9 on my work PC... so does look like IE rather than my PC causing the issue :S

[phill104]

No information get "Sent" to the gallery. All that happens is that CPG uses the authentication of the bridged app which in this case is PHPbb.

I will try bridging when I get home and see what results I am getting.

[Digger_UK]

Thanks Phill

Strange that it works so well in FF and not IE.

I'm leaving for home now, so will take a look back later.

Thanks

[Digger_UK]

I couldn't leave work without another look and I think I have cracked it...

I have got it all working properly in IE by going into Options > Privacy > Advanced

This takes you to the Advanced Privacy Settings and by default cookies are handled automatically. I have ticked the box saying "override automatic cookie handling" and this enables you to change "First-party cookies" and "Third-Party cookies". The default on both these settings is "Accept" which I have not changed.

And voila - it seems to be working correctly... not sure what you guys think about this change - but it looks like its worked for me and this might be helpful to other IE users?!?!?

I haven't played with it properly yet - this was just an idea... so I'll play more tonight and see how it goes and come back.

[Digger_UK]

OK - played some more and it appears that as long as the website address is added to "safe sites" in IE settings (or Cookies are set to allow all - as posted above) all works OK.

I have tried it in IOS and Firefox and they seem OK - its just an IE issue.

Thanks for helping and hopefully the above will help someone else.

[Alungatu]

I have a problem ...

My forum (phpbb3) is on subdomain with no redirect .. so is forum.site.com and isnt redirected to site.com/forum .. I've tryed to bridge (coppermine is also subdomain foto.site.com but is with redirect to site.com/foto) .. but I cant bridge.

    ../forum/config.php doesn't exist. Correct the value you entered for Relative path to your bridge app's config file

I tried ../forum/, ./forum/, /forum/, ./forum.site.com/, and dont work .. solutions?

[Alungatu]

I succeded to bridge.. but when I click Login it redirect me to phpbb, then login .. but doesnt redirect me back to coppermine ... why?