Hi,
Has anybody figured a way to integrate authentication with a forum tool like phpBB? I know Auth plugin is for this job, I'd be glad if somebody wants to share their implementation with me/us. Is it possible to make someone log in to one (mw or the forum) and automatically be logged in to the other?
Another question would be which forum s/w is better? I would prefer if the forum is directly integrated or at least would look similar to Monobook. Has anyone found a good solution?
Thanks.
Muzaffer
I went with vBB and wrote an MW authenticator by extending AuthPlugin. AuthPlugin works as advertised, and you can do it if you are familiar with the security part of your forum's database schema. I was able to create the following features:
1) AuthPlugin validates vBB username/password combos and creates them in MW if they don't exist 2) AuthPlugin integrates into vBB "5 strikes and you're locked out for 15 minutes" security feature 3) AuthPlugin gets the user's vBB email address and assigns it to their MW account 4) MW rejects users if they are in vBB "Banned" groups, or custom "WikiBanned" groups.
I did have one tiny problem that might or might not happen to you... for odd reasons that nobody was ever able to figure, on my MW 1.4.3 I had to edit one line of MW code to get it to work. This is not specific to your forum or external authenticator... it seemed to be something in my environment that nobody else could reproduce. If you get it to a point where usernames/passwords validate in AuthPlugin but you still can't get logged in, consider trying this:
amend line 264 of SpecialUserlogin.php from this: $u =& $this->initUser( $u ); to this: $u = $this->initUser( $u );
I blame it on PHP4's shoddy implementation of OO and references.
Good luck.
-----Original Message----- From: mediawiki-l-bounces@Wikimedia.org [mailto:mediawiki-l-bounces@Wikimedia.org]On Behalf Of Muzaffer Ozakca Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2005 12:27 AM To: MediaWiki announcements and site admin list Subject: [Mediawiki-l] forums/phpBB again...
Hi,
Has anybody figured a way to integrate authentication with a forum tool like phpBB? I know Auth plugin is for this job, I'd be glad if somebody wants to share their implementation with me/us. Is it possible to make someone log in to one (mw or the forum) and automatically be logged in to the other?
Another question would be which forum s/w is better? I would prefer if the forum is directly integrated or at least would look similar to Monobook. Has anyone found a good solution?
Thanks.
Muzaffer _______________________________________________ MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l@Wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
Thanks for sharing. So, in your approach when a user logs into vBB, are they automatically logged in to MW, too? It is usually easier to change login procedures to change tables against which users are authenticated but I'm yet to find a flexible solution to make people log into MW and be logged in to others at the same time.
Well, I guess there's no universal solution to this if we consider that most successful open source software are feature bloats. I find MW especially written well and flexible. I guess, open source should go into integratibility rather than aiming at being feature rich monsters.
Just thoughts...
Muzaffer
Carlton B wrote:
I went with vBB and wrote an MW authenticator by extending AuthPlugin. AuthPlugin works as advertised, and you can do it if you are familiar with the security part of your forum's database schema. I was able to create the following features:
- AuthPlugin validates vBB username/password combos and creates them in MW
if they don't exist 2) AuthPlugin integrates into vBB "5 strikes and you're locked out for 15 minutes" security feature 3) AuthPlugin gets the user's vBB email address and assigns it to their MW account 4) MW rejects users if they are in vBB "Banned" groups, or custom "WikiBanned" groups.
I did have one tiny problem that might or might not happen to you... for odd reasons that nobody was ever able to figure, on my MW 1.4.3 I had to edit one line of MW code to get it to work. This is not specific to your forum or external authenticator... it seemed to be something in my environment that nobody else could reproduce. If you get it to a point where usernames/passwords validate in AuthPlugin but you still can't get logged in, consider trying this:
amend line 264 of SpecialUserlogin.php from this: $u =& $this->initUser( $u ); to this: $u = $this->initUser( $u );
I blame it on PHP4's shoddy implementation of OO and references.
Good luck.
-----Original Message----- From: mediawiki-l-bounces@Wikimedia.org [mailto:mediawiki-l-bounces@Wikimedia.org]On Behalf Of Muzaffer Ozakca Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2005 12:27 AM To: MediaWiki announcements and site admin list Subject: [Mediawiki-l] forums/phpBB again...
Hi,
Has anybody figured a way to integrate authentication with a forum tool like phpBB? I know Auth plugin is for this job, I'd be glad if somebody wants to share their implementation with me/us. Is it possible to make someone log in to one (mw or the forum) and automatically be logged in to the other?
Another question would be which forum s/w is better? I would prefer if the forum is directly integrated or at least would look similar to Monobook. Has anyone found a good solution?
Thanks.
Muzaffer _______________________________________________ MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l@Wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l@Wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
Actually, in my system, users are not concurrently logged on. In a web-based system, there really is no such state as "logged on." You enter your username and password, and you receive an authentication cookie and session for that site. As long as you have the authenticated cookie or session, you can access the site without entering your password again. Theoretically you could have vBB honor the MW auth cookie, or vice versa, but this would involve changing large amounts of the MW distribution for a questionable amount of benefit.
I think it's better just to let MW check passwords off of the vBB database, and then let MW set up its own cookies if the passwords check out OK. True, the user must log into each site individually, but the password is the same between sites.
-----Original Message----- From: mediawiki-l-bounces@Wikimedia.org [mailto:mediawiki-l-bounces@Wikimedia.org]On Behalf Of Muzaffer Ozakca Sent: Saturday, May 28, 2005 5:40 AM To: MediaWiki announcements and site admin list Subject: Re: [Mediawiki-l] forums/phpBB again...
Thanks for sharing. So, in your approach when a user logs into vBB, are they automatically logged in to MW, too? It is usually easier to change login procedures to change tables against which users are authenticated but I'm yet to find a flexible solution to make people log into MW and be logged in to others at the same time.
Well, I guess there's no universal solution to this if we consider that most successful open source software are feature bloats. I find MW especially written well and flexible. I guess, open source should go into integratibility rather than aiming at being feature rich monsters.
Just thoughts...
Muzaffer
Carlton B wrote:
I went with vBB and wrote an MW authenticator by extending AuthPlugin. AuthPlugin works as advertised, and you can do it if you are
familiar with
the security part of your forum's database schema. I was able
to create the
following features:
- AuthPlugin validates vBB username/password combos and
creates them in MW
if they don't exist 2) AuthPlugin integrates into vBB "5 strikes and you're locked
out for 15
minutes" security feature 3) AuthPlugin gets the user's vBB email address and assigns it
to their MW
account 4) MW rejects users if they are in vBB "Banned" groups, or custom "WikiBanned" groups.
I did have one tiny problem that might or might not happen to
you... for odd
reasons that nobody was ever able to figure, on my MW 1.4.3 I
had to edit
one line of MW code to get it to work. This is not specific to
your forum
or external authenticator... it seemed to be something in my environment that nobody else could reproduce. If you get it to a point where usernames/passwords validate in AuthPlugin but you still can't
get logged
in, consider trying this:
amend line 264 of SpecialUserlogin.php from this: $u =& $this->initUser( $u ); to this: $u = $this->initUser( $u );
I blame it on PHP4's shoddy implementation of OO and references.
Good luck.
-----Original Message----- From: mediawiki-l-bounces@Wikimedia.org [mailto:mediawiki-l-bounces@Wikimedia.org]On Behalf Of Muzaffer Ozakca Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2005 12:27 AM To: MediaWiki announcements and site admin list Subject: [Mediawiki-l] forums/phpBB again...
Hi,
Has anybody figured a way to integrate authentication with a forum tool like phpBB? I know Auth plugin is for this job, I'd be glad if somebody wants to share their implementation with me/us. Is it possible to make someone log in to one (mw or the forum) and automatically be logged in to the other?
Another question would be which forum s/w is better? I would prefer if the forum is directly integrated or at least would look similar to Monobook. Has anyone found a good solution?
Thanks.
Muzaffer _______________________________________________ MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l@Wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l@Wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
MediaWiki-l mailing list MediaWiki-l@Wikimedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
mediawiki-l@lists.wikimedia.org