Integrating phpBB forum into ASP.NET wesite

Integrating phpBB forum into ASP.NET website

This question was posted by StPatrick some time ago. It's still unanswered.

Let's say..
I have an ASP.NET site, but at same time I want to integrate some PHP forum into it (phpbb for example). Of course I want them to "share" the same session, not technically, but visually for user. User should login only once, for example on ASP.NET login form, and then he/she will be logged on in PHP forum as well.
Anyone have thoughts, suggestions or maybe done this before?

Re: Integrating phpBB forum into ASP.NET website

You will of course need to use a field in the forum database to relate to your .NET app user database. Assuming you have done this, the first thing that pops to mind is to just use a common cookie:

Tell your .NET app to set a cookie when someone logs in, the value of the cookie relating to their forum login name, having first found their forum user record in the forum db using the related field. You must add code to the php forum to detect the cookie and automatically log the person in if found.

You can do the same the other way too, if they log into the forum first.

There's more detail to it of course, but that's the basic idea. Just common-sense, but I don't know php so don't ask me to write anything! This assumes your .net app and your forum app are on the same domain, otherwise the cookie idea won't work.

Re: Integrating phpBB forum into ASP.NET website

Thanks, Antic. I appreciate your help very much I neiser know php but your idea is clear

Just having the username/id in a cookie poses a big security threat. You really need to analyse the sessions in phpbb so you can use all of the features of the serialized cookie, else, your forums can be compromised.

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