Some XenForo integration questions

[dknife]

I run a niche tabletop gaming site which started off with my own engine and authentication systems. I then added SMF forum systems later integrated into my website running them on the same database but with separate user tables.

I achieved this through SMF because it provides both an SSI plugin system allowing you to achieve common functions for retrieving forum data in your own site and also allowing a custom function in the authentication procedure to use your own. I effectively disabled the SMF login and registration systems completely and use my own authentication checks to login the users to the forum. With this I'm able to integrate functions from my site into the forum profiles and posts as well, as the user tables are linked.

I'm currently in the planning stages of a new version, a complete re-design to HTML5/CSS3 core, (hopefully) responsive design, tablet friendly etc. and I've been looking at XenForo for some time and decided I want to try and use this system for my new site version.

So now that I've rambled on about my current setup, I'm wondering what XenForo has for site integration.

• Is there any kind of SSI for doing authentication so I could drop my own built-in system and use yours instead to link everything to the forum user accounts instead of my own.
  OR
• Do you allow a authentication function to be added to the authentication procedures in XenForo to duplicate what I'm doing now?
• Is there any kind of SSI for pulling information from XenForo like latest unread posts, pm notifications etc?

Ultimately I'll be expanding my system beyond the single gaming site to a network of sites with subdomains but a single forum to cater for them all so a centralized authentication system is imperative.

 

[Jeremy]

Is your website written in PHP? If so, it is quite easy to set up the XenForo framework and have access to the files to fetch data and such. As for users, they would need duplicated into XenForo's database if you want seamless forum <-> site integration as it relies heavily on its user database.

 

[dknife]

Sorry yes that's rather pertinent information. It's all PHP + MySQL. I currently duplicate into the SMF forum upon user registration on the main site. I don't want a large disconnect between the main site and the forum though. For instance, if you look at my site and go to to the forum (it's in my profile here), you'll notice the menu at the top is the same as the site. I integrated almost exactly the same code into the SMF code to wrap my page top and footer around the SMF forum, blending it into the site as a whole.

The new version I'll be having a side-menu global between all subsites and forum so that needs to be available irrespective of where they are, including the forum. That menu is completely dynamic for content based on the user logged in.

 

[dknife]

I just noticed there is no way to see the code base without purchasing and no refund period either. The only option is trying to sell the license if I can't do what I want with XenForo? Ouch.

I'm really just looking to see if anyone has done any site integrations with XenForo, or even whether there are any existing authentication hooks, server side includes etc.

 

[dknife]

This plugin looks like exactly what I need.

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/xenapi-xenforo-rest-api.902/

Or this connector

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/xenforo-connector.202/

Found through some interesting discussions by members trying to achieve outside-of-xenforo integrations

 

[dknife]

Successful conversion of SMF to phpBB as a test which means a conversion from phpBB to Xf should go smoothly hopefully. Closer to making a decision.

 

[Bionic Rooster]

Successful conversion of SMF to phpBB as a test which means a conversion from phpBB to Xf should go smoothly hopefully. Closer to making a decision.

Did you check passwords and avatar association to members? Although the posts and everything seemed to convert ok I lost lots of functionality from SMF > phpBB

 

[SchmitzIT]

There's been numerous bridges/authentication ports with XenForo. There's an add-on for WordPress, one for MediaWiki, aMember have their own integration, and as you saw, using existing add-ons like the API, it's be fairly straightforward adding something of your own.

 

[dknife]

Did you check passwords and avatar association to members? Although the posts and everything seemed to convert ok I lost lots of functionality from SMF > phpBB

I ran the conversion on a dev server which didn't have all the avatar and attachment images so none of those came across anyway. For passwords I tested a few accounts I knew the passwords for and they all authenticated fine in phpBB3 so I guess they converted ok?

 

[TPerry]

I ran the conversion on a dev server which didn't have all the avatar and attachment images so none of those came across anyway. For passwords I tested a few accounts I knew the passwords for and they all authenticated fine in phpBB3 so I guess they converted ok?

From what I understand, the passwords will be lost in the conversion from phpBB3 to xenForo. My recommendation... place a notice on your SMF forum to advise ALL users to make sure their contact e-mail is updated. That way, when the conversion is done and if the passwords don't carry over, they will have a valid e-mail account to send the password reset request to.