Connecting SMF to my own application?

[YMMD]

Hi everybody.

First I'd like to thank all the people who spend their time for such a great purpose by developing this software. You've really done a great job and I appreciate your work!

B2T: I am developing an application in PHP which will have it's own user registration, but I would like to provide a well established forum with it. My application and the forum should share the same authentication. While looking up if SMF suits my needs I also found the SSI interface which seems to provide the basis to implement this. Nevertheless I have got some questions left - maybe you are able to answer them:

• How will the bridge between the two applications work? Will there be two separate accounts which are connected in a certain way to each other *OR* will SMF call a hook in order to check if the user is authenticated in the other application?
• 
  What will happen if the user changes his password manually? Won't his accounts be out of sync then?
• 
  Will there be a possibility to use the avatar of my application in SMF? (And can I deactivate the avatar section in SMF's user settings along with this?)

That's all for now Maybe you can help me to find out if SMF provides all features for this and if I can use it. Thank you very much in advance for any kind of help! ♥

Kind regards,
Sebastian

[Kindred]

actually, form the way you describe your bridge, I think the API would be better suited.... (see the sticky threads in this board)

[YMMD]

Thank you for the quick reply! Andre Nickatina's API seems to fit all my needs. I'm giving it a try and will inform you as soon as I got news.