Bridging Joomla with MyBB

[MJKubba]

Requirements :
Joomla 1.5.x
MyBB 1.4.1 or newer
Jfusion 1.0.8 or newer

Installation :
Install Joomla to your host and set everything you want (templates, pages...)
Then Upload & install Your MyBB in a separated directory (preferred), using the same Database (what i did) and without changing anything (theme, templates...),

now the bridging :
1. Get JFusion (It will be in the format of a .zip file)
unzip it using your fav. software,
you should get :
1. jfusion_component.zip
2. jfusion_mod_activity.zip
3. jfusion_mod_login.zip
4. jfusion_plugin_auth.zip
5. jfusion_plugin_user.zip

2. now log-in to your Joomla Admin panel :
from the top menu click: "Extensions" -> "Install/Uninstall"
Under where it says "Upload Package File", click the "browse" button and locate "jfusion_component.zip" (one of the files we extracted earlier. Now click "Upload File & Install".

3. Configure the Jfusion plugins and select your master/slaves:
from Joomla admin Panel : Components" -> "jfusion" -> "Configuration.

select mybb and click Edit :

Quote:Description leave it
Database Type (ie mysql) mysql
Database Host localhost
Database Name your DB name
Database Username DB username
Database Password DB user password
Table Prefix mybb_ (default setting)

Full URL to Integrated Software http://www.your domain/mybb*/ (*where your mybb installed)
Full Path to Integrated Software eg : /home/you/public_html/mybb*/ (*where your mybb installed)
Cookie Domain .www.your domain.com (what you set in the mybb setup)
Cookie Path /mybb*/ (*where your mybb installed)
Cookie Prefix (leave it empty)

Default Usergroup should be registered
Usergroup for users awaiting activation make it registered too

Automatically update the activation status if it is changed in the JFusion master? yes
Automatically update the blocked status if it is changed in the JFusion master? yes
Automatically update the email address if it is changed in the JFusion master? yes

save and go back to the jfusion plugin Configuration :
now select one (mybb or joomla) as a master and the other as a slave ( i did joomla the master

you'll get couple of green lights on, if anything goes wrong the joomla will tell you what to do in the upper section of the page but so far you shoudn't get any except for the "you should disable registration on your slave),

now go to your Mybb Admin cp : configuration > User Registration and Profile Options > Disable Registrations to yes

4. now go back to your Joomla admin panel
Run the usersync in the Jfusion component to synchronise the user tables,

The user synchronisation process it split up into two parts:

1. Import slave users into the master database (you wont need it of you just installed your mybb and dont have any members)
2. Synchronize the master user database with the slave databases.

You only need to run step 1 if you need to import additional users into the master database. If all your users are already present in the master database you can skip ahead move to synchronising the slave databases.

5. Run the login checker to confirm the login behaviour is correct

The login tester allows you to test out JFusion logins without the need to publish the JFusion auth/user plugins. You can use this tool to find out what the problem is when JFusion login is not behaving as expected.

6. Install and enable the Jfusion authentication and user plugins

Much like step one of the installation, you need to upload and install some of those .zip files.

The ones to upload and install are:

1. jfusion_plugin_auth.zip
2. jfusion_plugin_user.zip

Once they have been installed, you need to enable them. To do this click "Extensions" -> "Plugin Manager". Now you just need to find the Jfusion plugins, best way do do this is to type in "jfusion" to the filter. Now click the X icon next to each plugin to enable them.

7. Disable the Joomla default authentication, from Extensions" -> "Plugin Manager"
and only the authentication in the jfusion documentation you'll be told to disable both authentication and user plugins but this will cause some problems with mybb

8. you can also install Jfusion login and activity module but its optional and i really dont see why you gonna need a 2nd log-in box or a activity module that still under development and dont work most of the times.

9. and here is the tricky part, the "Visual Integration",
so far there are no real Visual Integration so what you really gonna do is changing MyBB templates and make it looks like your Joomla, However this means Joomla is never loaded and you will have to directly modify your softwares theme to make the externale software look like Joomla.
This requires knowledge of html, css and the template system that your software uses.
To modify your template go to your Joomla page and get the source code from your browser (click on the view menu and then source). Copy and paste your Joomla header into the template header and the Joomla footer into the template footer.
Some Joomla templates load different CSS files for different browsers (ie Internet explorer 5, internet explorer 6 or firefox),
this makes it extremely hard to modify your external softwares template, as a copy and paste won't give a perfect result. There can also be conflicts between the different software CSS files, for which you might need to create a new CSS file that contains your Joomla CSS layout tags, but not any other conflicting tags.

That's it .

part of this tut. taken from JFusion Doc.

[Alex]

I was just going to ask you about this bridge actually .

[MJKubba]

its not that easy since you have to figure out everything yourself!!!, this plug-in thing took me over 4 hours of testing, by disable one thing > test > then re-enable it and disable another thing > test > and so on....
and another thing, Don't Enable "activate" anyuser using joomla users manager, it wont work, i made a couple test accounts and couldn't log-in to the admin panel by them, i had to phpmyadmin them!!!, < this took me about 3-4 days and i reported that to jfusion they say they gonna work on a "fix" for that .

[justhis]

(10-30-2008 01:43 PM)MJKubba Wrote:  its not that easy since you have to figure out everything yourself!!!, this plug-in thing took me over 4 hours of testing, by disable one thing > test > then re-enable it and disable another thing > test > and so on....
and another thing, Don't Enable "activate" anyuser using joomla users manager, it wont work, i made a couple test accounts and couldn't log-in to the admin panel by them, i had to phpmyadmin them!!!, < this took me about 3-4 days and i reported that to jfusion they say they gonna work on a "fix" for that .

Thanks ,If you have latest news Please tell us .

[yais]

I personally wouldn't advise JFusion. I have thoroughly researched bridges with Joomla with a number of different forum softwares while looking for a solution for a client. While JFusion may work well to start with, it will use up a huge amount of server load and eventually end up with problems.

The only one I have come across that has been properly coded where everything has been thought about is RokBridge made by the RocketWerx team. It doesnt work with MyBB though, it only bridges Joomla 1.5 to phpBB3 but even so does a great job of it.

[radopod]

It would be great if you could throw some more light on 'Server Load' yais. It is disappointing to see someone throw in a stupid suggestion of using phpBB instead of MyBB simply because there is a bridge for the same!

[Easy.Fun]

Thanks, for the detailed tutorial MJKubba,
Please, keep us updated if it goes well, or if you run into problems.

[yais]

I didn't before because I didnt want to write a long explanation if nobody was interested.

Unlike most other bridges, rokbridge is completely non-invasive and has very little performance overheads compared to traditional bridges. It wouldnt be something you notice in a small board, but as it gets bigger, it would be more prominant.

Quote:How Does the Bridge Work?

The bridge is a Joomla! 1.5 application and not a Joomla! component. This means that it does run standalone and not inside Joomla!. We have chosen this approach for performance reasons. Running phpBB3 inside Joomla! would almost double the server load as both the Joomla! CMS and phpBB3 applications would need to be booted up at the same time for each page request. For smaller forums this might not be a problem, but for large installations this would definitely be an issue.
Core Concepts

The user authentication and syncing architecture has been completely re-written for Joomla! 1.5. The system is now completely externalised through the plugin architecture. Out of the box Joomla! 1.5 offers different authentication plugins (joomla, openid, gmail, ldap, ...) and one user plugin.

Authentication plugins deal with the authentication of user credentials against a dedicated user store. For example, when a user tries to log in, the system will check the users credentials againt all of the enabled authentication plugins, if one of them succeeds the system will declare the user as authentic and allow the system to continue with the login procedure.

User plugins on the other hand are responsible to log a user in into an application, being that either Joomla! itself or an external application like phpBB3. The user plugins also deal with syncing users between the different applications.

Lastly, the Joomla! user plugin has special feature we call 'auto-registration'. This allows the system to auto-register (store in the database) and authenticated user who is log-in in into the system for the first time.

I suggest you see their site for more info:

http://www.rocketwerx.com/products/rokbridge/overview

[Alex]

However Rokbridge only supports phpbb3 and well not everyone uses or wants to use phpbb.

[yais]

(12-13-2008 12:37 PM)Alex Wrote:  However Rokbridge only supports phpbb3 and well not everyone uses or wants to use phpbb.

thats true but unless you will make your own bridge, there is no other aternative which suites a site in the long term.