I tried researching this topic here a couple of months ago and I got the impression that very few here use Joomla to build their sites. So I thought I'd explore this a bit and find out if there is a way to seamlessly integrate UBB Threads into Joomla.

Ideally, I'd like to see UBB Threads so integrated such that when users login into my home page, which is Joomla-created, that users have automatic access to the discussion board. So instead of having multiple logins, they only have one.

I'd appreciate any help in this area. Perhaps this could be a done with support credits?

Not many do use joomla, it's been in 1.5beta forever Now that it's golden it might be a good time to look at it again. There was an integration done for mambo/joomla a few years back for the threads 6.5 series, but that won't work at all now.

I remember seeing an integration (I think it's called jfusion or something) that integrates other forums, might be easier to add-on to that one.

OK. This might not be a popular question, but if I find another board that would integrate seamlessly with Joomla, a solution that uses PHP & MYSQL, would it be possible to import/export my UBB Threads into another board that's also based in PHP and MYSQL?

That would be a question better asked for the people that make the product you're looking to go to, wouldn't it?

David, yes but I'd like to know if UBB Threads is such a type that it can export it's contents to a PHP/mysql based board. I'm not a UBB Threads expert and so I don't know it's capabilities.

Hi Harry,

Threads is a php/MySql based forum. So the answer, I suppose, is yes.

Harry, leaving threads would be up to their importer; our data is kept logically in a database, all they'd have to do is convert it.

As for an integration; it is possible however you'd have to do several things:
1. install both products
2. hijack the registration routine of jamoola, have it also populate the UBB.threads database.
3. hijack the login routine of jamoola, have it also set the UBB.threads cookie upon login.
4. hijack the logout routine of jamoola, have it also unset the UBB.threads cookie.
5. insert a link to your threads install within the menu system of your jamoola install.

I'm looking into creating a new Joomla 1.5/UBB.threads bridge.

Since Joomla has a plugin system with event dispatches on everything necessary (login/logout/storing users/etc) it should be a breeze.

I'm guessing the JFusion component could be used as well, but it seems to be a lot more work.

I just need to read up on how UBB.threads cookie handling works nowadays. Hopefully I can copy the code from my old bridges.

The admin panel loginas where the admin can log in as a member should give you the information you need about what cookie to write.

Short update on this. I have a plugin working that allows users to log in via Joomla 1.5.2 standard login procedure and automatically get logged in to UBB.threads 7.0.2. Logging out works as well.

I'll hopefully get my license updated during the week and make sure it works with 7.3 as well. And I'll also have to code synchronization of the user tables, to make sure user data is updated in UBB.threads when updated in Joomla.

Not sure how I'll make sure user editing in UBB.threads updates the Joomla user database as well though.

Gardner,
I'd be very interested in this bridge. Please update us as soon as this is made available. Thanks so much for your contribution.

Thanks Gardener if you want some testing done with it as well I have a test site with 7.3-b5 if you want me to try it out.

Dunny

Sounds great - thanks for the information Gardener.

Let us know when you have some code to share.

I have a new site that I've not setup yet with Joomla - I was going to maybe look at doing this but no since in recreating the wheel.

Likewise, I have a site with Joomla that is just about at the stage where it needs a forum.

I've been looking at the simple machines bridge - but on viewing other sites that use it....

Lets just say I'd rather stick to threads.

Just a little update. I've now added Who's Online updates for all Joomla pages. There's also authentication in place for all Joomla pages, so the Joomla user will get automatically logged out if the threads user isn't valid. User can't log in if they, or their IP, is banned either.

Mostly though, I've just done a lot of refactoring and code cleanups so that I'll have a better overview of what's happening.

Now on to deleting users in UBB.threads when they are deleted in Joomla.

Edit: Damn, that was a lot of code for deleting a user. Don't want to replicate all that. Hmm... Need to think a bit about this.

Thanks Gardener - sounds good

Great work Gardener. Hopefully soon I'll be able to get an API done for many of the functions (like deleting users), that will help for things such as this.

woot on the thought of UBB.API

:woot:

Sounds fantastic with an API, that would make a lot of stuff so much easier.

I'm almost finished with creating a user in UBB.threads when registering in Joomla. Just need to add the user to the correct default groups. I'll either need to read the UBB.threads config file, which means I'll need to add a config for the path to UBB.threads. Or I need to add a config variable for the plugin to enter the default user groups. The later is a bit kludgy though, but easier.

I'll probably not handle user deletion at all. I'm guessing it won't happen that often, and the admin can delete from both systems by hand when needed. Maybe I'll have a reminder email sent out when a Joomla user is deleted to remind admins to delete the user in UBB.threads as well.

If anyone want to try the plugin I'll package it up and send it out.

I just got GTA4 though, and my motorcycle just got fixed and the weather is fantastic, so I will quite probably not do much coding in the next few days.

nice weather over here as well

Glad to see you are able to post again as well

Look forward to seeing the plugin etc.

send it to me and i can polish it up with user deletion / sync'ing, if you want..



my email addy is in my profile

of course, only send it, if you want.. i'm just offering to have a looksee and maybe some tweakage, if you'd like.

:off topic: on the XBox360 or PS3? I have it on the XBox360

I posted from work, not sure if I can post from home yet, but it'll be obious soon enough.

Sirdude: I'll wrap it up and send it over to you then. Team work is great!

I do have old code for UBB.threads 6.4/5 and Joomla 1.0 for syncing users as well. If I can find that and I'll send it over too.

It's on the PS3.

Managed to get posting working again. Firefox had stopped sending the referer.

i won't need the old code..

i already have a mini-api [7.3] (add new user, modify user params, del user, get user group perms) that i've used on a couple of sites, so i would just possibly augment where you haven't finished off..

ty for all you're doing!

Sounds great. I've emailed you the current version of the code. Just add your code in the appropriate methods in the class and it should start working directly. Please feel free to release it if you want.

How's the integration coming along? I'm currently upgrading my Mambo 4.0 to Joomla 1.5 and UBB.threads from 6.1.1 to 7.3. So I will be needing it soon.

I'll probably open the site before though, and only let users register in UBB.threads for the time being.

I would say that all registrations should be on threads anyway rather than within Joomla - that way any other scripts such as photopost all run around a central place.

The way it works is that both user tables are kept in sync. When you log in, you will be just be logged in to both systems.

Users needs to be in the Joomla tables as well. Otherwise a lot of the extensions for Joomla would probably break. And there is also a bunch of extra access control levels and stuff like that.

I am also interested in the Joomla 1.5 and UBBthreads integration/bridge. Would you mind sharing the code? I would be happy to contribute some dineros to help pay for subscription renewal to UBBthreads if need be.

I've already upgraded threads, but haven't had time or energy to upgrade Joomla yet.

I sent the code to Sirdude and haven't done anything since then. Not sure if he's done anything yet, but I can post my version on UBBDev after the weekend.

code you sent was a corrupted .zip and i never went any further..

Huh? I even got an email where you commented on the way Joomla login integration worked. So you must have seen the code.

yah, i saw one of the files and it was jibberishy.. but to have gone further wasn't in the cards..

but from what i saw, it looked perty nice

it just wasn't a whole file. at the end, the ascii got jumbled

OK, weird. I'll repost it tonight when I get home.

Update Actually, I just checked the zip file in my outbox and it seems perfectly fine. I'm attaching it here now.

must be some different charset, cuz this zip has same issues for me..

actually, to be honest, it's not the ZIP.. but the unzipped file that has some special chars in it and that's what gets jumbled (for me).

i did the dos to unix dealio, just incase and it still looks strange

It's saved as UTF8, created on a Mac and I'm reading it on a Vista machine right now. It should already have unix newlines as well. Can't see that there should be any strange characters in it either, just plain US-ASCII.

Just unzipped on a FreeBSD machine and it works perfectly fine there as well.

I can see that there are a couple of unecessary carriage returns in it though. I've changed those, so here's a new version of the file.

sd, try this one; created with winrar so it should work a little better than the vista or mac zip programs

The first one was created with unix zip for what it's worth, and the second one with winrar.

Ahh... A lot of the corrupted zips I come across where created with the zip utility built into XP/Vista

Okay I've converted them to the Windows format for text files and placed in a ZIP file. Should now open correctly even with NOTEPAD on Windows platform.

RICK Please change the upload settings to allow RAR files.

rar, tar, gz, tgz, tar.gz pls

now THAT looks like what i was lookin for

the posted zip you had before the rar worked... and all text was good on my XP using 7zip to extract and notepad++ to view...

Wish I knew how to code worth a crap other than just cut and Paste!

but the files were completely viewable...

Notepad++ supports the correct conversion when run on Windows automatically. UltraEdit asks if you want to do the conversion.

How to Transfer Text Files Between Linux, Macintosh, and Microsoft Windows Operating Systems

Converting text files between Windows and UNIX


Tofrodos is a text file conversion utility that converts ASCII files

I still haven't got around to upgrade my site to Joomla 1.5 yet. Will try to get it done some time this week maybe and then I can start working on this again.

I'll be away at a festival from Friday morning to Sunday, and I'm still playing GTA, so don't expect any miracles though. =P

Bugger... I just realized this week we have the biggest release of the year. Which means that at minimum I won't get much else done in my spare time. If everything breaks down, I won't get any sleep at all. And that is followed by a festival where I want to see just about everything...

So I won't be able to do anything this week, and chances are I will be quite trashed next week...

But I'll post if there's any news from my direction.

So... does Threads work on Joomla lol... just ran through these pages... I think it does... curious as to what my options are on a new project of mine - thanks.

PS: If Threads does work with Joomla, does that mean I have the same features etc that I am used to with Threads? I've had a new site built for me and they've included a forum called Fireboard but I want Threads in there

I don't think a bridge works YET; but is being worked on...

How about anything with OpenId, Gizmo?

heard of a request, and i commented that it was a great idea