Wordpress 3 + SMF 2.0 RC3 bridge

[Tomassen]

Has anybody any idea?
I want user, registration/authorization integration

[Masterd]

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-smf-bridge/

[Tomassen]

Doesn't work

[Masterd]

Did you try to ask this in Wordpress community?

[Tomassen]

yes. no answer

[Ken.]

Generally speaking the  SMF-WP integrations or bridges that have been attempted over the past several years have all suffered the same fate. They either don't work, or go in the wrong direction for the memberbase syncing, or require a new and empty install of SMF.

It has been said that conflicts in the license's and copyrights between SMF and WP are a part of the problem, but in any case, so far there has not been a bridge that will attach the two in such a way that will let you apply your SMF memberbase to WP in any meaningful way.

[dzinerfusion]

Just tried to use it, but it doesnt seem to work. Oh well, I think it is still fine that they are not intergrated, as one is for blogging,one is for a forum.

[JohnR]

Generally speaking the  SMF-WP integrations or bridges that have been attempted over the past several years have all suffered the same fate. They either don't work, or go in the wrong direction for the memberbase syncing, or require a new and empty install of SMF.

Hi - I may have to tackle this soon for my own needs. I was wondering if you could clarify what you think the right approach is?

JohnR

[Ken.]

Generally speaking the  SMF-WP integrations or bridges that have been attempted over the past several years have all suffered the same fate. They either don't work, or go in the wrong direction for the memberbase syncing, or require a new and empty install of SMF.

Hi - I may have to tackle this soon for my own needs. I was wondering if you could clarify what you think the right approach is?

JohnR

If a website owner already has an operational SMF forum, with members and content, they would need a bridge that addresses the memberbase issue from that perspective.

In other words, bridge the memberbase of the SMF install to WordPress.
Example... my SMF forum (Our FamilyForum.org) has content and members, but while my WP has some content, it only has one member (me) so bridging the WP memberbase to SMF serves no purpose at all, but bridging the FamilyForum members to WP would give them membership access to WP through their FamilyForum login as soon as the bridge is activated.

One very good example of this approach is the SMF-Coppermine bridge. The coppermine gallery bridge will fully integrate your SMF memberbase into CPG so that they will then have full access to the cpg through their SMF login. (depending on you permissions settings)
I don't know closely the SMF/cpg bridge could be followed for building one for SMF/WP, but it is exactly what would work best to bridge SMF/WP.

[Amandil]

Ok, brand-spanking new, here. I'm a writer, not a techie. But this beast is my idea so I'm all over it...with no clue how to go about it. Picture a monkey humping a football and that pretty much tells the tale. 

I want to bridge WP with my site (from SMF to WP) full integration isn't necessary at this point, but members do need access through their smf login. Wordpress is installed on my server under domain_name.com/articles (it is set and ready to launch as soon as I can tie it to my SMF.)

I see here in your post the first thing close to straight answer I have seen to date. (and that has everything to do with my own ignorance, I'm sure) Victory is in sight...how is copper mine used to make such a bridge as you mention? And the warning about using same the same database in which SMF is... whats the story there?

[Ken.]

Hi Amandil, welcome to SMF. 


The mention of the Coppermine bridge was only for the purpose of giving an example.
cpg (Coppermine) is a full featured stand-alone gallery that can be linked to your SMF memberbase using a bridge that's available on the cpg site.

So... while it may be possible to use the cpg bridge as a pattern, or guide for building an SMF/WordPress bridge as related to the bridge features, it's not going to be very useful for the actual code work involved. Please note that I'm not a coder, so someone who is a coder would have a better answer for that part of the discussion.

"And the warning about using same the same database in which SMF is... whats the story there?" If this question is about an install of cpg you should get those answers from the cpg docs, you should be able to find any answers you need there on in the cpg forums.

[Kindred]

I should also note that official sanction or development of a bridge is problematic because WordPress uses the GPL...

[compa]

I'd still like to see some sort of integration (not neccesarily bridging but interfacing at least would be nice)

I'm not sure why most of the bridging attempts fail due to GPL license issues, coppermine is GPL too?

[Kindred]

we did not develop the coppermine bridge... they did; so they granted themselves an exception.

the short of it is: GPL is one of the worst licenses out there because it is viral and assumes/forces every other script which shares with it to be GPL as well. (it is more complicated than that, but that is the 30 second explanation)

[compa]

I'm aware of the discrepancies/dangers in GPL but I was wondering why the bridge to SMF would be a license issue as wordpress is GPL too, right?
So the wondering on my part was where the issue occured (if both external projects/products are GPL why does one have a license issue and the other not)

[Kindred]

The SMF License is not compatible with GPL.
*ALL* instances where a GPL software shared data structures with a non-GPL software are problematic, unless a specific excpetion has been granted.

Since Coppermine OWNS their own copyright, they can grant exceptions to the restrictions imposed by GPL.
No one else can (legally) build a bridge for smf/coppermine unless they are also granted a specific exception.

Such is the problem with the smf/joomla bridge....  because Joomla does not actually own the code copyright (it's shared amongst ALL contributors and thus, requires EVERY contributor to sign off on an exception) they can not grant the exception.

I don't know how WordPress is copyrighted/owned...   but unless the owners of the WordPress Copyright officially and specifically grant smf an exception, we can not distribute a bridge.

[SN95Forums]

Darn I really want to integrate my WP site with SMF, there are no good forums for WP........no way we can make this happen?

[freebird]

Yesterday I banged my head on a few walls working with a wordpress mod that linked smf logins to my wordpress.  I have 1.1.12 and it is wordpress 3.  I went to the wordpress download plugin section and searched smf.  There was the top one I used the WPSMF plugin which states isn't compatable for .11 yet so I wasn't optimistic.  It gave wordpress an area to put which user ID to link to wordpress login.  I used user name which wasn't recommended but it gave me better results.  It definately did something though because only I was allowed to see the blog but I couldn't give a member permission to see the blog.  Instead of the blog a user got a login page and then a page that said they needed admin privledge.  Once I changed the linked users to user ID it broke my blog and I had to alter php to get back in to disable the plugin.  There was a conflict with an already declared is_admin from smf.  the same declaration needed to be there in about 7 wordpress php pages.  Anway I got it back to normal and couldnt install the plugin again due to the security.php in my smf declaring the is_admin.  It sounds like it isn't a problem getting users but once you have to start checking against admin priveleges there is something missing in the plugin.  Thanks for hearing I'm not sure if that helps or gives hope at all haha.

[tazgal]

WordPress has a forum called Mingle Forum by cartpauj.com.  I don't know what it's written in.

[Kindred]

wow...   good for that author...   

but that has to be the ugliest forum I have seen (but then again I don't like WordPress to begin with - I use LifeType for my blogs)