IPB custom login vs. Converge

[hohzho]

As these forums are meant to provide feedback... ;)

(pardon English mistakes if any)

After extensive search (not only here but also on ipsbeyond and invisionize) I find it difficult to make a choice between several possibilities, and I guess (but i might be wrong) that just a few explanations could make things clearer.

Our project is based on two applications:
- OsCommerce MS2.2 on the one hand
- IPB 2.2.1 on the other hand of course! ;)

We want to "bridge" both applications so that:
- when users log on/off oscommerce, the same automatically applies to ipb
- when users want to change their login information (eg email & password), they only have to do it once (or if the data is stored in two DB, it should be updated in both)

We tried to achieve this with invisionize SDK, but it brought many problems (not only with ipb 2.2 but also 2.1) and this is not the place to discuss this anyway.


I understood that ipb custom login AND/OR Converge could do that, but some custom development is needed.

My question: is there any more precise advice available ? specifically:
- which solution is easier to implement?
- is one of them (or both?) supported by IPS for custom develoments?
- if not, are there any examples available?


many thanks in advance

[Mark]

Converge is probably your best shot - but it is not publically released ;)

I think the best idea for you would be to contact IPS directly in a support ticket and ask them if they'll do the work for you (it might be a bit pricey - you'll have to ask them for specifics) - they'll use converge or ipb as they see fit - if they can't do it they'll send you to a company that can but I reckon they'll sort something out for you :)

[hohzho]

Thanks for the advice.

In fact IPS does not offer custom modification services (at least not in that case) right now. So I am heading to a few specialized companies (on of them they recommend).

I still find a bit weird that so little info is given on functions that many people try to implement (see the numerous requests and donation proposals for the invionize SDK to be updated!). I guess at some point we have to sort things out by ourselves! <_<

[Tomm]

Well I did make a mod that connects to (2.1 or 2.2) board together, it is based on the external login method. Keep in mind that by default the external login method is meant to work with systems that use simple MD5 passwords such as PHPBB, Joomla, mambo also it does not work with cookies unless tweaked up. I'm not to farmilar with what OsCommerce MS2.2 uses, other wise i could help you further.

[Millar]

I ended up having to code one by hand to bridge my login/registration script I have for my site and my IPB installation.

It really depends on your PHP/MySQL experience level as to what option is best for you, do you feel comfortable taking a look around the IPB code?

[BRamburn]

use ipb's api to do logins and stuff but you have to configure cookies properly :P

[hohzho]

thanks for the proposals. In fact we gave the job to a contractor who will hopefully make the SDK work whithin our environment. As we were close to succeed, we found it would be the quickest way, even if it may not be the most relevant technically speaking (timing is a big issue for us right now).

I'll give the topic an update later if anyone interested...