Two forums, One register, One cookie

[isara]

I have two SMF forums on two domains and would like for members to not have to register or login twice. I know there is a way to share a members list, but the problem is the forums are on two different databases and two different servers. I've read that it's not possible so I'd like to brainstorm a little to find a solution.

Questions:

- When registering, can a mod register script on both sites post data to a file on each domain and then that data gets passed to their respective databases. Therefore, simultaneously registering on two sites at the same time?

- Can the cookies for each site be customized so that they both contain the exact same information. So when a visitor logs in to thisforum.com they don't have to login again when visiting thatforum.com ?

Let me know if you have any ideas on how this could be done. Thanks!
pk

[greyknight17]

I can't say that it's impossible to do this, but if it is, it will require someone with a better understanding on how to link the two together. You might be better off posting this in the coding discussion board instead.

Is there any reason why you can not have both of these databases on one server? It will make things more simpler to manager on your end.

[isara]

Thanks for the reply, greyknight17.

I don't want to have the two forums on the same server because I use shared hosting and if one site goes down then they'll both go down. One of my sites is a web portal and it sometimes exceeds it's CPU quota. If I had another forum on that same server then it would be twice the stress.

I'll ask around some coding forums and see if they know a way to do it. Thanks!

[lordtron]

I do know this. That this would make your loading times slower. Cause of course you would be accessing 2 databases, plus you would have to access 2 SSI.php files do to if you log into one, you want them to automatically log into the other website and logout as well.

So if you already have enough stress on 1, your going to have just about the same or more on the other one.

[Rumbaar]

You run into a lot of issues trying this.  One is you'll have to disable registering for one of the sites, which defeats the purpose.  As if you didn't and two people registered on the two sites at the same times there would be a conflict with the member ID as each separate forum tries to sync the new member details.  This is the just a first step in a long list of issues.

Now the same cookies details wouldn't work either, unless you did keep all details the same member ID etc.  Then they couldn't change the various cookie related settings for one forum without it affecting the other one or causing conflicts.  ie themes, layout, display, etc.

Then you also run into issues Lordtron has outlined.  To save load you've have to schedule it and then once again you get timing and conflict issues.