I read with interest the "synchronizing with existing membership" document as I have an existing website I'm integrating with.

miniBB Forum Integration into 3rd party membership / login authorization system

A suggestion in order to make this simplier which I hope you'd consider,

In order to remove the need to modify the bb_cookie.php file, could you ship the session changes as bb_session.php

and include a new global variable within setup_options.php, such as $auto_using_session=TRUE.

If this is set use the bb_session.php for authentication and also hide the standard user login boxes.

Jon

Thanks for suggestions, but:

- bb_cookie.php is included in the primary root files, respectively index.php and bb_admin.php. Instead of modifying these files, for keeping easy upgrades possibility, you just should modify bb_cookie.php and do not upgrade it in the future versions. We won't change anything in this case, since it's the best method of implementation for our case. We did a lot of synchronizations, just emulating website's authorization with miniBB functions. It's the best way to fully synchronize miniBB.

- sessions could be fully emulated modifying bb_cookie.php file.

I suppose you didn't get the idea in full. The idea is not to substitute your own files. That would be difficult, as everybody has its own variables, methods of authorization etc. The idea is to emulate your main website's authorization with miniBB functions (since exactly those functions are used in miniBB to authorize user).

For example, if your website sets a session with the certain variables, there is a script which checks for them some how. The same script is miniBB - you should use its own functions to read your website's session and parse it's variables. All functions are described in the article.

I see, plus I see the other session recommendation you turned down is easy to sort if I modify the bb_cookie.php, therefore making this not a part of minibb is most likely a good idea..

"The other session recommendation"? Turned down? Making this not a part of minibb?

I don't understand what did you try to say, sorry. The idea is exactly about you keep the original structure of miniBB in all aspects, just emulate your website's principles to work with miniBB. The practice shows it's the best and most suitable method.

We are giving our recommendations regarding the most suitable professional approach.

It's up to you if you do your own modifications. It's open source and nobody from us will care what you do with it, anyway.

But we won't implement your recommendation as the default approach, because for us it doesn't look professional.