Integrated user creation

shillier — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 19:55:04 -0400

I have been developing a system where the visitor is required to log on to use the functionality.
In this system I am using the email address as the user name.
I wanted to add a forum and while creating a user for my system it would make sense to create a user in phorum using the same credentials.
After help from Maurice who pointed me in the direction of a post by KWood I achieved this.
Now because I wanted to do this creation silently and come back to my own code I made a few tweaks.
Here they are if anyone can make use of them.
In my signup routine I have the following code

Language: PHP
    if ( ($userid = $user->get_user_id( $_POST[';email1';] )) == USER_ERROR_USERNOTEXIST )
    { $sysparms = new run_class();
      $user_details[USER_FIRST_NAME] = $_POST[';fname';];  
      $user_details[USER_LAST_NAME] = $_POST[';lname';];  
      $user_details[USER_USERNAME] = $_POST[';email1';];  
      $user_details[USER_PASSWORD] = $_POST[';pw1';];  
      $user_details[USER_AUTHORITY] = USER_NOT_PAID;  
      $user_details[USER_DB_PREFIX] = ($sysparms->increment_user_prefix() . ';_';);
      $user_details[USER_LANGUAGE] = $_POST[';language';];  
      $user_details[USER_LAST_RUNNO] = USER_DEFAULT_RUN_NUMBER;  
      $user_details[USER_LOGON_STATUS] = USER_LOGGED_OFF;
      $user_details[USER_CREATE_DATE] = strftime( "%Y-%m-%d", mktime( 0, 0, 0, date( "m" ), date( "d" ), date( "Y" ) ) );  
      $user_details[USER_RENEWAL_DATE] = strftime( "%Y-%m-%d", mktime( 0, 0, 0, (date( "m" )+$licence_period), date( "d" ), date( "Y" ) ) );  
      $user_details[USER_LAST_LOGON] = strftime( "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S", mktime() );  
      $new_user_id = $user->create_new_user( $user_details );
 
      mkdir( "userfiles/" . $user->get_user_db_prefix( $new_user_id ), 0755 );

Now I know what language the user is working on at this stage so I might as well pass this across to phorum so I can put language support in the forum so after my code I placed the following

Language: PHP
      foreach( $language_code as $key => $value )
      { if ( $key == $user_details[USER_LANGUAGE] )
        { $phorum_language_file = $value;
          break; 
        }
      }
 
      $raw_query = sprintf( "%d][%s][%s %s][%s][%s][%s][%d", $new_user_id, $user_details[USER_USERNAME], $user_details[USER_FIRST_NAME],
        $user_details[USER_LAST_NAME], $user_details[USER_PASSWORD], $user_details[USER_USERNAME], $phorum_language_file, $licence_period );
      $encoded_query = base64_encode(base64_encode($raw_query));
      header( "Location: phorum/cuser.php?idh=" . $encoded_query );

That gets me onto the page I have created to create the user. Note I am passing user credentials across to this routine in an encoded query string.
Once in this routine I check and decode and explode the query string. I now pick up the exploded values and feed them into the api call.

Language: PHP
  if ( !isset($_REQUEST[';idh';]) || empty($_REQUEST[';idh';]) )
  { exit(); 
  }
 
  $idh = $_REQUEST[';idh';];
  $raw_details = base64_decode( base64_decode( $idh ) );
  $user_details = explode( "][", $raw_details ); 
 
  define( ';phorum_page';, ';create_user'; );
  global $PHORUM;
  include_once( ';common.php'; );
 
  $current_working_directory = getcwd();
 
  chdir( "../phorum" );
 
  phorum_api_user_save( array(
    "user_id" => $user_details[PHORUM_USER_ID], // or the user id from your main user database
    "username" => $user_details[PHORUM_USER_NAME],
    "real_name" => $user_details[PHORUM_REAL_NAME],
    "display_name" => $user_details[PHORUM_REAL_NAME],
    "password" => $user_details[PHORUM_PASSWORD],
    "password_temp" => $user_details[PHORUM_PASSWORD],
    "active" => PHORUM_USER_ACTIVE,
    "admin" => FALSE,
    "hide_email"=> FALSE,
    "email" => $user_details[PHORUM_EMAIL],
    "user_language" => $user_details[PHORUM_LANGUAGE]
  ) );
 
  chdir( $current_working_directory );
  header( "Location: /signup.php?ur=" . $user_details[PHORUM_USER_ID] . "&lp=" . $user_details[PASSTHRU_LICENCE_PERIOD] );

When I wrapped up the query string I included the user id from my own code to use as the phorum user ID - just seemed to make sense.
I also included in the string some data I need when I get control back in my own code. This is passed back in the return header relocation as PASSTHRU_LICENCE_PERIOD. On the return journey there is nothing sensitive in the so I did not encode it.

If anyone finds this code snippet useful then I am glad to have helped.

Many thanks to the guys at Phorum for making this such an easy transition.