Can two SMF installs be bridged?

[SaberMonk]

Greetings everyone. I'm working on a project at my university and am in dire need of help from you experts! My problem is, I need to set up two seperate SMF installations, but still have them both bridge with Mamob/Coppermine. At the moment, I have Mambo, Coppermine, and one SMF setup, bridged, and functioning perfectly. I'm running Mambo 4.5.2, Coppermine 1.4.2, and SMF 1.1, all on the same database. Is it possible to set up two SMFs and have them feed off of one user base? If you have any suggestions, please speak as plainly as possible. My PHP knowledge is almost as low as that of any random squirrel.
Thanks in advance.

[Wolfenrook]

Have you thought of creating a board within your current SMF with child boards for the other forum that you wish to set up?  It seems a bit pointless running 2 seperate forums with the same member list, when it is a simple task to make a board on your existing forum with child boards for the topics that you wish to discuss.

Ade

[SaberMonk]

Well, that's what I said. But the project directors insist on a seperate forum.  The site is part of a research project involving terminally ill patients and their families and how community relates to quality of life. The director wants a seperate board to make it as clear as possible that board A is public (all participants see it) and board B is private (contains individual forums sorted by group). I suggested just putting a large notice at the top...but he thinks two forums is better. I said we could do it before I thought about HOW I would do it, so here I am.

[Wolfenrook]

Ahhh right, ok.  Have you seen this thread at all http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?topic=57736.0 as this seems to be along a similar topic, Mambo and Joomla been basicly the same CMS/Portal and all.  I found this thread as well which may be of interest to you http://www.simplemachines.org/community/index.php?PHPSESSID=48ae232b328ff54b6c5ddee56d315c25&topic=16190.msg134750.  Good luck!

Ade

[SaberMonk]

Ah, didn't notice that. Yes, I think that will do exactly what I need it to do.
I have another question you people might be able to help me with also. The project director wants to add a 'login counter' to SMF. It alread tracks number of posts, time logged in, etc, so I'm sure this is possible; I merely lack the php skill to code it. Anyone have a suggestion as to how I would go about tracking the total number of times a person logs in?