The vBulletin integration into the phpFoX package has been an enjoyable experience. VB has a great layout that I have come familiar with over the last few years when I had small projects to modify VB forums for clients. With the soon to be released version 1.5 of the phpFoX package I decided to move forward to build an integration system for phpFoX and VB. Our plan initially was to wait for the v2 release and have a VB, phpBB and IPB integration packages available for clients. Though after the popular usage of VB I have seen with the release of our version 1.1 that came with the integration that was created by Drew thought it would be a great idea to bring in a new integration with version 1.5.

The core of the integration that came with version 1.1 did function to the point where it would work but it did have some flaws that I have addressed with this version. The major flaw was the session of a user. Which is the biggest issue that comes up when integrating 2 packages in general. The great plus about version 1.5 is that it comes with a built in plug-in system. Which makes it much easier to integrate other products in general and no need to touch the actual phpfox core source code. It will make things easier to upgrade in the future and it also covers the main functions we need to use like login, signup, update accounts, ban users etc…

For my official testing ground I am using the phpfox forums which is currently still under works while we are testing the integration package and some other plug-ins that will come with the release of v1.5.

When a user would log into a phpfox site it would connect via the plug-in system to the VB login function to log the user into VB as well. So now the user is logged into both the phpfox site and the VB forum. Now the biggest issue I had to face was that since a VB session will get lost earlier because the cookies don’t last as long as a phpfox cookie. Or for example if a user uses the “Remember Me” function that comes with the phpfox package and they close their browser, then come back the next day they will still be logged into phpfox but not into the VB forum. So a solution was to create a safe auto login on the fly if you were to visit the VB forum and were logged into the phpfox site that it would redirect you to a script called “doredirect.php”. This is a temporary name and if you do see that page it will simply explain what is going on and you will have to click on a link to get back to the forums. Once the stable release is out this will be an auto redirect so a user will never know they were even there. This solution is still being tested so if you do have issues with the login system please let me know.

Once the session issue was fixed the other small things fell into place nicely. Common tasks that were part of the last VB integration are now included as well:

* Users can edit their account and it will update both phpfox and VB.
* Use phpfox core CSS design with the option to change themes
* Threads will include the users profile image and headline from the phpfox site
* Main index page will have the count settings connected to the phpfox database
* Uses phpfox lost password routine - Script will update both VB and phpfox passwords.
* Change password routine updates both VB and phpfox passwords

Some new functions have been added:

* User session system to auto login users
* Ban users direct from the phpfox Admin Cp.
* Admins can delete a users account from the phpfox Admin cp.
* Users can cancel their accounts (Optional)
* Update phpfox points count when creating a new thread
* Use current themes logo
* Automated account creation if VB user database is not synced.

If you have any ideas in mind I would be more than happy to hear them so we can add it into the package.

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