As far as SMF goes, it's new. so there's 2 ways to go about it. either integrate it as a module or just a bridge file between the 2..

a majority of people want it integrated as a module.. sharing profiles etc etc.. the other majority are happy with a bridge. but unlike a bridge for example with coppermine and ipb, or coppermine with xoops, coppermine doesn't have profile features etc etc. it bridges so the main work is done by the forum or xoops.

now bridging a forum, would mean having 2 profiles.. unless something is coded into the bridge to allow you to disable the profile of 1 or the other so that when members want to see a users profile it's redirected to whichever is chosen.. (i can see a few problems occuring there as some code may need to be hacked to achieve it) there's other issues too tho. but from my understanding, it's a lot more complicated to bridge/integrate a forum to a CMS than it is for something like coppermine..

if you're not bothered about all those niddly bits then fine, but there are people who maybe want that more integration.. and i definitely see it being done, but then a few months down the line.. someone will always inevitably demand a better integration.. it always does.

(take XOOPS in 2003, many, many users and regulars requested new features for XOOPS and other modules etc.. the devs worked extremely hard to add those features where possible.. great :) but then in 2004 & 2005 more users come along and complain about those very features that so many of us asked for)

what i'm saying is, you can't please everyone all the time.. but what you must do if you want it doing, is to decide exactly how and what you want it to be doing as far as bridging and integration..

but i'm also like mith on this, what is so amazing and what features does it have that the other forums don't have?

granted, x-ipb has it's problems with XOOPS upgrades.. but they were always released soon enough after XOOPS updated.. sometimes a core update for x-ipb was released the same day as the XOOPS update.. i know this because i actually did the core updates for the last versions from 2.0.7 upwards.. so a complaint about having to wait is not substantial to me as the wait was never that long..

this latest update to XOOPS 2.2 has seen a longer period, and will take a lot longer to release an update due to the many changes of xoops.. x-ipb needs a lot of work done on many files to get it to work as b4.. then an upgrade script will probly need to be written too.

i do have x-ipb 1.4 working with 2.2 to an extent. but i can't get it to wrap inside XOOPS at mo, so basically it only looks like a standalone. and both profiles aren't shared.. but they do switch fine if u want 1 or the other. but unfortunately it's from a fresh install and not from an update.. i s'pose you could do the upgrade but you would have lost all your x-ipb profile info during the XOOPS upgrade, so they would have to be re added (as i say it isn't sharing profile info yet)

My 2 cents wise.

A bridge would simply register the user, login the user, and fill in the required user fields. This would be done always from the main site. The apps themselves would be standalone.

The thing is XOOPS is missing a couple high powered modules, like php-collab and sugarcms. And since we've touched the subject before that making modules out of them is very difficult to do, and then upkeep, it is more sensible to actually leave the development of these apps to their respective communitites and just be able to easily integrate them in your main CMS choice.

This simple ability to bridge would make XOOPS the only viable open source solution for corporate intranets and extranets.

All IMHO of course.

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What needs to be done to achieve this ability?

an ability to sync userids, (user tables) and group tables and permissions. and sharing of session cookies etc.

with coppermine bridge for ipb, and others.. coppermine always uses the forums info.. so any existing members of the gallery would be invalid and if they aren't a member of the forum they would have to register.

if your forum has many users and posts, and your XOOPS has many users & posts, that could get quite complicated as the uid's would be totally out of sync etc, which is y coppermine uses the forum users and disregards its own user/groups tables.. but a bridge for a forum & XOOPS would need synchronization for definite either way u look at it..

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Did you forget about our API?

I'm not even going to bother commenting on why so many people want SMF over IPB, phpBB and newBB/CBB because that has nothing to do with integrating XOOPS and SMF. The simple fact that people want it should be enough to at least look into the option. I am going to continue to monitor this topic, and the project, and hopefully someone will get things done, even if you don't want any part of it.

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Admittedly, I didn't spot that.

That changes the situation somewhat, but still leaves one major question: How do we synchronise user accounts? I don't see API functions for creating, updating and deleting users.

Provided we know the username and password of a SMF user, I can think of a couple of ways to accomplish this bridge with XOOPS 2.2.

Anyone interested in dedicating themselves to developing this bridge, I'd be happy to share this with.

Sorry Mith, as you know I am absolutely no programmer. If I would I'd gladly in helping out on bridgebuild developing.
Just wanted to say it is great to see this SMF-bridge-build looks promising. Always had my hopes on that one day there would be somebody who was willing ans able to do so.

The reason why I prefer SMF over the momentary XOOPS forum(s) is load speedtime.
Although the developing of CBB has done some good, still the loading time is taking to long. At least I encouter these problems on every xoopsforum, although I have cable connection.Btw I encouter this also on other connection at friends houses. (I've mentioned this issue several times on this forum)
Also the possibility to use a simplified SMF (no use of images, but with same poss. ) atracks me.
Second the SMF has some feature which NewBB and CBB stil lack. I.e. merge / splitt replies/topics.

Grtz., Shine

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The API will define a variable called $smf_user_info, which you can then use to get SMF's user information. As far as creating, updating and deleting users, I've been taking a good look at SMF 1.1 lately (currently in beta), and there are numerous checks throughout the files to call various integration functions that can be defined in the settings table, as well as an optional SMF_INTEGRATION_SETTINGS constant that can contain any additional integration-related settings needed that will be added to SMF's settings array ($modSettings):

SMF_INTEGRATION_SETTINGS (constant, not in the table)
integrate_buffer (output buffer from integration) [Subs.php, line 2444]
integrate_pre_include - name of a file to include prior to integration [Load.php, line 175]

Functions:
integrate_activate(username) [ManageMembers.php, Profile.php, Register.php] - activates the user account in the CMS/portal
integrate_change_email(username, new email) [Profile.php, Register.php] - changes the email address in the CMS/portal
integrate_delete_member(user ID) [Subs-Members.php] - deletes the member in the CMS/portal
integrate_exit(whether or not to show the footer) [Subs.php] - sends output to the portal and ends execution
integrate_login(username, hashed password [if set], session length in minutes) [LogInOut.php] - logs the user in
integrate_logout(username) - logs the user out
integrate_redirect(location, whether or not to send a refresh header) [Subs.php] - redirect user to someplace in portal/CMS following posting of form data
integrate_register(username, registration variables, theme variables)
integrate_reset_pass(username, username [for password salt], new password [unhashed]) [Profile.php]
integrate_validate_login(username, hashed password [if set], session length in minutes) [LogInOut.php] - validates the current login (makes sure everything is correct)
integrate_verify_password(username, current (un-hashed) password, false) [Profile.php] - verifys that the password entered is correct (not sure what the third parameter is for...)
integrate_verify_user - makes sure the user is who they actually say they are

There aren't any functions to actually update the user in the CMS/portal, but this could be added pretty easily if needed.

adding and updating users would be essential, I think.

With these additions and changes in mind, I think it would be futile to begin integrating with SMF before this 1.1 is released as one would have to re-do a lot of stuff from 1.0

Good to see that it is going in the right direction. Keep up the good work.

Yes let's keep it going in the right direction. I've suddenly seen a change in Mith which is always welcome and shows his wisdom. Kudos and my hat's off to you Mith... otherwise you're dedicating too much time to make posts about "how you're not going to waste your time" and prefer to waste your time by telling us all that lol.


Hope you also waste your time along with all of us who are willing to contribute even if a single dollar, or beta testing, or in what any of our skills (or lack of them) might be.