vBulletin bridge

Published: 23/06/2010 21:32:00

Full vBulletin integration, including User system and Comment system. If activated - vBulletin will take over full management of users and comments.

Description

vBulletin® integration plug-in provide you full vBulletin integration, including User system and Comment system.

This is an easy solution to integrating vBulletin forum software with your Vivvo system. If activated, vBulletin will take over full management of users and comments. A single registration works for the site as well as for the forums. It means that users are registered on the both systems at the same time, and when they log-in, they're logged to both systems at the same time.

vBulletin is a professional forum solution and this plug-in has capability of smoothly integration vBulletin into Vivvo CMS software.

Requirements

Vivvo v4.5
vBulletin v3.7.x or v3.8.x or v4.0.x

Both scripts have to be installed on the same domain.

Pre-installation Steps

Prior to installing the plug-in itself, you should make one modification to vB original code if you want to be redirected to your website after you log-out. Open the file VBULLETIN_ROOT/includes/functions_login.php and find this code (around line 409):

($hook = vBulletinHook::fetch_hook('logout_process')) ? eval($hook) : false;

then below just paste this code:

if (isset($_REQUEST['logout_url']) && $_REQUEST['logout_url'] != ''){
header('Location: ' . $_REQUEST['logout_url']);
}

In case your forum is installed in Vivvo's subdirectory, it is necessary to place .htaccess into this folder in order to make forum functional.

.htaccess content:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine Off
</IfModule>

After you have completed all pre-installation steps, you can install the plug-in.

Vivvo vB integration will work with non-English characters only if forums HTML Character Set is UTF-8. You can this character set in your vBulletin admin control panel -> Languages & Phrases -> Language Manager -> Edit Settings

How to Install?

To install vBulletin® integration plug-in you need to click on the install icon on the right side of the plug-ins name.

This will take you to the page with the following fields. Just fill-in the values of corresponding parameters:

vB url - You should enter the full URL address of your website, http://www.example.com/forum (http:// prefix and slash are mandatory)
vB File System root - In this box you should placed a local path on your server where vBulletin® is installed

If you are unsure about the path you should do the following:

open index.php file located in your forums' folder
put the following line right after <?php tag
```
echo dirname(__FILE__);
```
save the file and reupload to your server
open forums' index page in your browser, the path should be displayed on the top of page

When you got your forums path you should revert all changes to index.php file.

Do not go any further in the installation until you have both url and root added. After you enter these required fields, press the Next button to proceed with the installation.

On the next step, all you need to do is add some parameters in the form shown bellow:

vBulletin user ID - The option is used for ArticleBot to generate comments thread for respective articles
vBulletin forum ID - This indicates forum that will store auto-generated threads

Example:

After you have created a Forum that will store threads from your Vivvo site open it in your favorite browser and look at the URL.

As you may see, in our case, forums ID is 18.

The similar way you can get user ID. Just click on the username that will act like a bot (thread creator) and look at the URL:

Next, you will be informed that the plug-in was successfully installed and configured. Also the important notice will appear:

"From this point on, vBulletin® will manage User Management and Comment Management of the system. After this step you will be logged out and you must login into Vivvo using your vBulletin® administrator credentials."

Choosing the finish task will log you out and provide you to administration log-in page. Now you should log-in using vBulletin administrator account. If you enter the correct credentials you'll be logged in to both systems.

Post-installation

After the vBulletin bridge installation, it is necessary to set 'Enable Vivvo comments' option in Vivvo administration - Preferences - Modules to 'No'

Now you should include vBulletin template for comments in your article template instead of current Vivvo comments template. Open /xhtml/article/default.tpl file and instead of this code line (around line 47):

<vte:include file="{VIVVO_TEMPLATE_DIR}box/comments.tpl" />

place the following:

<vte:include file="{VIVVO_TEMPLATE_DIR}box/vb_comments.tpl" />

If you have customized your template, you will need to use vb_login.tpl instead of using Vivvo login.tpl file. The log-in box is usualy placed inside the header template. So, you should just use this:

{VIVVO_TEMPLATE_DIR}box/vb_login.tpl

instead of using:

{VIVVO_TEMPLATE_DIR}box/login.tpl

In case that you used {VIVVO_PROXY_URL}login.html, than just replace this code:

<vte:if test="!{CURRENT_USER}">
   <a href="{VIVVO_PROXY_URL}login.html">Register &#8226; Sign In</a>
   <vte:else>
      <vte:value select="{CURRENT_USER.get_name}" /> &#8226; 
      <strong><a href="{VIVVO_URL}index.php?action=login&amp;cmd=logout"><vte:value select="{LNG_USER_LOGOUT}" /></a> | <a href="{VIVVO_PROXY_URL}usercp.html"><vte:value select="{LNG_EDIT_PERSONAL_INFORMATION}" /></a></strong>
   </vte:else>
</vte:if>

with this:

<vte:if test="!{CURRENT_USER}">
   <a href="{VIVVO_PLUGIN_VB_USER_URL}register.php">Register &#8226; Sign In</a>
   <vte:else>
      <vte:value select="{CURRENT_USER.get_name}" /> &#8226; 
      <strong><a href="{VIVVO_PLUGIN_VB_USER_URL}login.php?do=logout&logouthash={CURRENT_USER.get_login_hash}&logout_url={VIVVO_URL}"><vte:value select="{LNG_USER_LOGOUT}" /></a></strong>
   </vte:else>
</vte:if>

After the deinstallation return the Vivvo comment template (comments.tpl instead of vb_comments.tpl) and set 'Enable Vivvo comments' option in Vivvo administration - Preferences - Modules to 'Yes'

Actions

After vBulletin bridge installation Vivvo will inherit forums users and usergroups. You should set them Vivvo permissions in Users section in Vivvo administration panel as explained in Add/edit usergroup chapter of this User manual.

Users need to log in via Log-in form using vBulletin username and password. If the user credentials are right, they will pass validation and will be logged to both systems.

Learn how to pull the latest comments from your vB forum to your Vivvo site via RSS feed. You'll find instructions for creating Latest comments box on this page: http://www.vivvo.net/resources/articles/tutorials/vb-latest-posts.html

Was this helpful?

Share on:

Digg