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Login Connectors -- Common Task

Posted: Thu Apr 09, 2009 9:50 am
by supermike
I routinely get asked to do this, or see projects for this listed on the web. Someone has something like vBulletin, and they want to connect it to MediaWiki so that they share the same login. Or connect PunBB with a login from some homegrown CMS, or WordPress, or Drupal.

Sure, I make cash by having to figure this out, and if it were just a snap-in, I probably wouldn't get the gigs. It's just that it seems to me that all these groups should shoot for a common API for logins and registrations so that these could be connected a little easier. I mean, I don't want snap-ins already built for me, but I do want to look up the API, I figure it out very easily from anything to anything (as long as the package was based solely on PHP), and I build it in far less time and hope to keep more cash.

What's your opinion on this?

Re: Login Connectors -- Common Task

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 6:10 pm
by nyoka
Sounds like a good idea, how many different systems do you think you would need to begin with? I might even be interested in doing it.

Re: Login Connectors -- Common Task

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 6:24 pm
by Christopher
Since you have done some of these, what do you think this "snap-in" (not a technical term I know ;)) would look like? And is this standard Authentication, or is this some standard Access Control that could be used after signed-in?

Re: Login Connectors -- Common Task

Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:46 am
by supermike
Well, I typically get one of these kinds of requests:

1. The end user logs in from a home page separate from a forum or other system.
2. Same as #1 but PM integration on pages outside the forum or other system.
3. Same as #1 but blog comment integration (with the same ID) on pages outside the forum or other system.

And then there are things where the client wants the last 10 forum messages (or most active threads, etc) posted as a gadget on a separate page outside the forum or other system. Clicks in that gadget then send the user to the forum system.

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The other thing I think needs to be done is to start a list of most common login connector requests that we see, prioritize, and then create a kind of "cookbook" that can be shared.