Authentification

Thanks!

I would also be happy to develop completly this feature within phorum if the dev team wants it too. For now the module works for me but some features are missing I guess (like handling groups and field filtering but this is not so much work).

Benjamin

PS: Some more comments on the implementation
The plugin use the hook "auth" which is called by users.php before anything else
In order to activate the custom authentification system, an object is created and assigned to variable $GLOBALS["PHORUM"]["auth"].
This object defines some functions:
- db_search_users (for the admin) to search among users with a given name
- user_check_session: check if the user is logged in and return the user data
- db_user_get: get the user data (the function also creates users which are not stored in phorum database)

I guess we should add function:
- isManaged($name): returns true if the property is managed by the custom database

Any other proposition?
Do we need group handling?

Benjamin



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/12/2005 06:50PM by bpiwowar.

I have often referred to Phorum as a real open source application. The code in Phorum is there mostly because someone needed/wanted it. You can attach files because someone needed it. We use FullText indexes because I needed to search 2 million messages at once. The list goes on. If you guys want/need this, develop it, show us how cool it is and submit a patch.

Phorum is not a project where the developers take requests. Sure, sometimes we listen to feedback. But the major changes (Thomas wrote the first login code for version 3 cause he needed it) come from developers that take the intitiative to do the job.

So, good luck.

Brian - Cowboy Ninja Coder - Personal Blog - Twitter

Hi Brian,

this is why I submitted a patch (see previous page)... I just wanted to know if this is a good direction (the plugin mechanism is already working) and to have some other people feedback before I continue or extend the mechanism.

Benjamin

Quote
brianlmoon
I have often referred to Phorum as a real open source application. The code in Phorum is there mostly because someone needed/wanted it. You can attach files because someone needed it. We use FullText indexes because I needed to search 2 million messages at once. The list goes on. If you guys want/need this, develop it, show us how cool it is and submit a patch.

Phorum is not a project where the developers take requests. Sure, sometimes we listen to feedback. But the major changes (Thomas wrote the first login code for version 3 cause he needed it) come from developers that take the intitiative to do the job.

So, good luck.

Hi again,

so how can I include this hook to phorum code? The new version (5.1) again breaks what I have written so I have to re-patch the files again. I would like to take care of this aspect of phorum, since I am not the only person interested in such a development I think this should be directly included in the original source code.

benjamin

Quote
bpiwowar
so how can I include this hook to phorum code? The new version (5.1) again breaks what I have written so I have to re-patch the files again.

What are you wanting to include? I am not following you.

Brian - Cowboy Ninja Coder - Personal Blog - Twitter

Merging authentication with your own authentication database is a good goal, but it does not feel like a core feature for Phorum. Please start out by outlining the architecture you see for this, so the Phorum devs can decide whether you're doing the right thing here (right, being what the devs consider right ;-).

The problem is that you don't simply need authentication alone. That won't make Phorum handle all available functionality. Think for example of the PM system, which really needs the Phorum user database to function.

I need it too myself and my plan is to make a nice php include file for easy syncing of external users with the Phorum database, and extend the software around my own user database with this. Next to that I will disable (through templates and a module) the functions that may not be used on Phorum (like signing up for an account).

Better ways to fully integrate an external user database into Phorum are always welcomed.

---

Maurice Makaay
Phorum Development Team
my blog linkedin profile secret sauce

I have look at Phorum for a long time and now with the latest Phorum it is very good!

This is very popular and needed feature for either Forum or a CMS to make it extensible. I am running a web site call [opensourcecms.com] and I see many posts asking for this exact thing.

I am currently running Mambo with Simpleboard and is very well integrated but I would like to find a good Forum to convert from Simpleboard and Phorum is a very viable choice if it has a good authenticate module to allow me to integrate with Mambo. I am also interested on a sample module to import forum post into Phorum. Is there something like that in Phorum that I can take a look?

One other very popular feature is to be able to use POP3 or LDAP as the external authentication so let say if I want to give anyone from this particular domain to have access to my forum then they just login using their pop3 or ldap login id and that is. No need to register or create a new account in Phorum.

So in summary external authentication for POP3, LDAP, or other CMS would be a great and wanted feature!

Thanks

[opensourceCMS.com]
[ongetc.com]
Chanh Ong

There is a difference between authentication and the underlying user system. Do you simply want to check the user name and password against POP or LDAP? Or are you wanting the user profile to come from there?

Adding hooks to allow simple authentication checking would not be that hard. If the user authenticates, but does not exist in the Phorum database, they can just be created with the data returned from LDAP.

FWIW, I sent an email to many open source PHP applications about this type of thing. I found mixed feelings from different groups. The phpBB guys seemed very interested in some sort of standard PHP user information exchange system. Others felt they should just extend their system and everything else should coform to their way. That causes a problem though.

For me, the best system would require the user to login just once. The Wordpress integration thread in this forum is a good example of how I think this should work. The user only logs in to Wordpress. The Phorum side is handled via hooks and modules.

My hope is/was that there could be a standard for all this. Each application could export an api (class, functions whatever) that would simply have to be registered with the master application in a setup the master could push changes to the lower applications and and the lower applications could retreive and authenticate against the master. I know you end up with duplicated data. But, what is the better solution? Each application needs its own settings/info about a user.

BTW, thanks for all the demos you put up on your site. If you want to run Phorum, we can help you make a Mambo integration solution in IRC. See the support page. Just look at the Wordpress solution. It would not be much harder than that assuming Mambo has the same type of hooks.

Brian - Cowboy Ninja Coder - Personal Blog - Twitter

First of all I want to thank you for offering to help on integration solution with Phorum that will be awsome!

Mambo has a component solution where a complete application run within Mambo. So if Phorum can be setup to take the user login and password to automatically add to Phorum and some how keep them in sync then that should be all we need.

The way Simpleboard work is just like that! When a user access the forum it will check its table to see if the user is in the table if not it will create the user with from the Mambo table and that's it. And since Simpleboard and any application run within Mambo as a component then the permission be will inherit for that purpose.

We also need to have a way to import all posts from Simpleboard into phorum to preserve all of our post.

I will be happy to work closely with you to collaborate on this effort. Please let me know what can I do to help you and provide you the information you on this integration. Thanks

If you can make the integration with Mambo work the same way like Wordpress which allow the user login to Mambo once and they don't have to login to phorum that is ideal!

On the POP3 and LDAP authentication that is exactly what I meant is to get the login and password using phorum login and past that information to the POP3 or LDAP server to get a good or fail return. If the login is good then create the user in phorum with that information and some how indicated that this user is authenticate via POP3 or LDAP then the next time this user login again using this loginid phorum will use the same method to authenticate this user. So for example if I use my pop3 account to login to phorum then phorum will record a "pop3" or something to indicated that I am login using pop3 so phorum don't have to know my password just the fact that phorum get a success login from pop3 server. In this case my login would be my pop3 email address.

In the case of LDAP it would be very similar concept but the actual call to the server to get authenticate might be a little different.

In my mind, with external authentication you don't need to know their profile all you care is their login and whether they are authenticated on that system. Phorum should still keep a profile about this user local in Phorum to grant to denied access to forums and posts.

[opensourceCMS.com]
[ongetc.com]
Chanh Ong



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2006 12:59AM by chanh.

Hi chanh,

you want to use a public email-adress as a "secret" PW ?
So anybody that knows the email-adress can login as that user?

Or does this concept require a new and confidential email-account being set up which will never be used to send/recieve email?