Apart from skinning and header an footer. The main problem is

I have my own registration page as the forums are a tiny part of the website. Can I

1. Use my own registration page and copy user records over at signup ?
2. Use my own login page and automatically log the user into the forum ?
3. Remove Login/Logout/Signup menus ?

It's all is possible. But: check the synchronization guide at first. It's not that simple as you may imagine.

So answering your questions in detail:

Copying is a sign of a really bad lame programming. Your system should use only one members table. miniBB then could use such table as described in the Guide above.

It more depends on your own script, how it sets cookies. miniBB could then read such cookie and verify the user based on your members table, and then log user in or not. In general, this based is the same practice as used above. So it's possible.

Removing is the most easy part, just modify miniBB templates. To remove the Sign up, set

in setup_options.php

Paul,

thanks. I have looked at over 40 forums, this is the most organised solution. Since its my own software, setting the cookie to whatever your stuff needs is not a problem. Since I am using session variable for my stuff, using cookie for yours will make it separate and tidy.

I will have a go this weekend.

Thanks

You can also set up miniBB to use sessions. I think the explanatory guide I've mentioned above is based exactly on sessions :) Sessions also use cookies btw.