Multiple forums, one user authentication

[Lance]

I was thinking about running several instances of SimpleMachine forum SMF but I would like all of the users to be authenticated from the same database. If JohnDoe was a user on one forum, he would also use that same name for another forum.

Obviously, SMF allows for nesting, so the obvious thing would be to nest all forums, but I'm not 100% certain that would complete my objective. I want every forum section to have their own subdomain. In essence, to me it sounds like I would have a central user database that all forums authenticated with, and seperate databases for each forum.

Anyway, I'm obviously very confused at this point, so if anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear 'em.

Thanks.

EDIT:
Updated SMF for correctness
Removed the word Obviously as it was redundant

[Oldiesmann]

There are two ways you could do this:

1. Edit Sources/Register.php and have it insert the same information into the members table for all the forums (ie copy and paste the query and change the database prefix each time). This is the easiest way to do it, although if the user changes their information on one forum system, it would only apply to that system.

2. Go through each file and hardcode the database prefix for the members table, allowing you to use the same members table for each forum system. While this is a tedious process, it is a bit better because for the most part if a member were to modify their profile on one forum it would be modified on the others as well (there are some things that are theme-specific options so unless you'd be using the same themes for every forum as well, some things would have to be changed for each forum or you'd have to modify a ton more stuff to have it change it to make the changes for each of your other forums as well).

[[Unknown]]

#2 isn't that tedious if you have a file search/replace tool .

Should be done for members, instant_messages, im_recipients, banned, membergroups, permissions, calendar_holidays, log_banned, log_karma, smileys (probably?), and themes for best results.

By the by, just a pet peeve, but:
http://unknown.network32.net/tutorial.simple-machines

-[Unknown]

[Lance]

[Unknown], so you think the second method will work?

2. Go through each file and hardcode the database prefix for the members table, allowing you to use the same members table for each forum system. While this is a tedious process, it is a bit better because for the most part if a member were to modify their profile on one forum it would be modified on the others as well (there are some things that are theme-specific options so unless you'd be using the same themes for every forum as well, some things would have to be changed for each forum or you'd have to modify a ton more stuff to have it change it to make the changes for each of your other forums as well).

#2 isn't that tedious if you have a file search/replace tool .

Should be done for members, instant_messages, im_recipients, banned, membergroups, permissions, calendar_holidays, log_banned, log_karma, smileys (probably?), and themes for best results.

The desired effect will be that I can have a single logon for all forums. I don't really want to keep the same themes, I'd rather them be separate per forum so that every forum could have an original theme, based on the subject, if one was created or needed. I guess I could just force a theme on a user per forum, that would probably work.

Err, I think this is outgrowing my wildest imagination.. in other words, beyond the scope of my limited abilities. I was also thinking it would be a good feature to utilize the same files, that can be the same. I imagine there are a lot of files that are not modified and would be duplicates, and could possibly be stored in a root level area. This would help with caching, performance, and storage. Again, I think I'm over complicating this. The forum is a breeze to setup, doesn't take up a lot of space, and I most likely will never have the traffic that I want.

I'll look into Oldiesmann's suggestion. Thank you for taking the time to reply, both of you.

[MrLeN]

Never fear!

MrLeN is here!

LOL

http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=48904.new#new

I'm taking the case.

Now, all I want is the usernames and passwords. The rest of the site should be as is. I realise that I will also need to hardcode the registration prefixes. ..aaaand, um.. yeah, permissions definitely I don't wanna have to do them all over and over again.. and um, log_banned yes, and log_karma yes, and hmm..

Instant messages? Do I want that? I guess so. Don't see why not. If a user logs into any of my sites, I guess I'd like them to get a message, even if it was sent from another site. Ok, messages are in.

Calendar holidays? Nope. I have forums for different regions of the world. Smileys and themes nope.

Ok, so I need:

members
instant_messages
im_recipients
banned
Edit: Actually, don't need membergroups
permissions
log_banned
log_karma

Can you think of anything else? If I only want the usernames and passwords to be affected?

Also, what should I S&R it with? (ie:)

Search for: {$db_prefix}instant_messages

And replace with: MyMasterForumPrefix_instant_messages ?

is that right?

MrLeN

[[Unknown]]

Please don't bump very old topics.

There are other topics about this.  Search for "share database".

-[Unknown]