Complete MediaWiki/vBulletin 3.5 integration: is this possible?

[Cyburbia]

I've seen a lot of hacks and kludges for vBulletin/Mediawiki integration, but most seem to fall short - it might be a collection of mods with no step-by-step instructions on making the whole things work, or it may be an awkward bridge that requires separete logins, or it may require user name changes to remove characters MediaWiki chokes on.

I don't think I can be the only one who is DESPERATELY seeking a true integration of MediaWiki or any other MySQL/PHP-based wiki with vBulletin 3.5, similar to what was done with vbDrupal, or similar to the integration in commercial software like PhotoPost. This is what I'm looking for:

1) It has to be real integration; not a bridge, and more than just simple user authentication.

2) The wiki uses the vBulletin user database, and ranks and permissions system. It's not something where vBulletin login information is copied to the wiki database, and users may have to log into both, or automatic side-by-side logins. Rather, it should be like the Drupal and Photopost integration, where it's completely seamless from the user's standpoint.

3) Existing users won't have to change their names. Some bridges and integration hacks require that vBulletin users change their names to remove spaces and other characters that would be invalid in the wiki's namespace.

4) The wiki isn't an old-school system that still uses CamelCase, where visible links within an article can't have any spaces (WikkiTikkiTavi, ErfurtWiki, PhpWiki, others). I want to link to articles about urban planning and form-based codes, not UrbanPlanning or FormBasedCodes.

5) The wiki won't break when vBulletin is upgraded. The wiki should be easly updated, too.

6) No vBulletin code is altered.

Is this even technically possible?

[0ptima]

I would love to have this for my site and would be willing to pay for it if it had the integration like VBA gallery does.

[Cyburbia]

Same thing here. I'm thinking of taking up a collection among my users to help pay for this - if anyone is willng to program it. Unfortunately, it seems like RPG and arcade hacks are more popular among vB hack/plugin authors than integration with other scripts; does that mean there's more demand for them?

[0ptima]

I guess the best thing would be to get an estmate on what it would cost for someone to develop it. Then we could see if there would be enough people who would be willing to split the cost.

[Cyburbia]

Dumb question, but where would we post this? Service requests?

[Reeve of shinra]

That would be the spot for it. A vbwiki would be great... I've been wondering if logicians webtemplates couldn't serve the same purpose?

[Jon_Simmonds]

3) Existing users won't have to change their names. Some bridges and integration hacks require that vBulletin users change their names to remove spaces and other characters that would be invalid in the wiki's namespace.

from my understanding, this is down to how media wiki is coded, and short of majour cold alterations to mediawiki you wont be able to achieve this point.

[rogersnm]

Thats going to be more someone coding it from scratch than intergrating it with mediawiki.

[Cyburbia]

from my understanding, this is down to how media wiki is coded, and short of majour cold alterations to mediawiki you wont be able to achieve this point.

There's an IPB/Mediawiki integration project (http://www.ipbwiki.com/Ipb_Wiki:Integration_Of_Invision_Power_Board_with_ MediaWiki) that is more-or-less seamless, and doesn't have the namespace problems current vB hacks have. It's a bridge, but still better than any of the spit-and-bailing-wire hacks available for vBulletin. Why would the namespace issue be such a problem for vBulletin integration, but not IPB?

I would definitely pay for a similar product for vBulletin. Still, who would it be technically possible for IPB, but not vBulletin?

Seriously, do we really need another RPG or "list users who have viewed the FAQ today"-style hack? Hack authors, I'm begging you - WORK ON REAL MEDIAWIKI INTEGRATION!

EDIT: waiting for the bot that responds to all of these integration threads with "Have you tried vBAdvanced?"" in three ... two ... one ..

[vau7]

hey, have you tried vbadvance? It awfull!

No, for real: i did often see integrations of the Calitrix-Wiki (http://www.calitrix.de/). This seems to work very well like on http://boardunity.de

[Cyburbia]

No, for real: i did often see integrations of the Calitrix-Wiki (http://www.calitrix.de/)

Let me check it out! Let's see ...

CalitrixWiki ist ein WikiWeb, welches in PHP geschrieben ist und eine MySQL Datenbank nutzt.

I don't want to sound like an ugly American, but my second language is Spanish - and even then, I'm terrible at it. It would be my luck that a wiki that could integrate well with vBulletin doesn't have an English language version. :(

[sub_ubi]

If someone coded a hack like this they could sell it for a pretty decent amount.

[Brad]

1) It has to be real integration; not a bridge, and more than just simple user authentication.

Real integration will never happen given the differences between the two codes bases. What you're looking for is a better bridge. :)

2) The wiki uses the vBulletin user database, and ranks and permissions system. It's not something where vBulletin login information is copied to the wiki database, and users may have to log into both, or automatic side-by-side logins. Rather, it should be like the Drupal and Photopost integration, where it's completely seamless from the user's standpoint.

Keeping the usernames in the mediawiki DB just makes it easier to do this without breaking something, it also insures you can upgrade to a stand a lone mediawiki installation in the future (you never know..). The log-in issue can be solved by setting a cookie for mediawiki when someone logs into vBulletin, you can do the same on the media wiki end (setting the vB cookies) so no matter where the log-in they are logged into both systems.

For ranks/permissions you can place some new things in the usergroup manager, and pick up on them during the log-in to mediawiki. Based on the information in the user's vBulletin permissions you can assign them the proper permissions in mediawiki. Just make sure this is done on every log-in attempt so both scripts stay in sync with each other.

3) Existing users won't have to change their names. Some bridges and integration hacks require that vBulletin users change their names to remove spaces and other characters that would be invalid in the wiki's namespace.

Mediawiki's namespace is odd... You can do this by not coding in any checks to your log-in class, and hacking a few mediawiki files to remove the default checks for this (if you don't do this mediawiki will refuse the name upon log-in). This will break other things however, namely userpages on the wiki.

4) The wiki isn't an old-school system that still uses CamelCase, where visible links within an article can't have any spaces (WikkiTikkiTavi, ErfurtWiki, PhpWiki, others). I want to link to articles about urban planning and form-based codes, not UrbanPlanning or FormBasedCodes.

Again possible by hacking out some internal checking.

5) The wiki won't break when vBulletin is upgraded. The wiki should be easly updated, too.

When you get into hacking mediawiki this will be tough. Although as long as you're willing to keep up with your changes, it shouldn't be a problem. vBulletin should not be an issue at all as long as you use the plug-in system for any changes you need to make.

6) No vBulletin code is altered.

Again, if you use the plug-in system you can get around this. :)


Hope that helps.

[Cyburbia]

Brad, thanks for your response! Looks like some significant technical barriers. I'm still wondering how well the IPBWiki inegration works, though.

Perhaps, instead of MediaWiki, we should be looking at another wiki, like PMwiki? Someone posted the details of their abandoned PMwiki integration project (https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=111344) not too long ago.

There doesn't seem to be an incentive for coder to hack out a Wiki mod, though; like I said earlier, it seems like RPG and "who's viewed this thread" mods are the most popular. Perhaps a bounty fund?

[rogersnm]

yup, I am good with that

[bogie]

Just chiming in with my support for the need for a vb-wiki bridge.

[aquariumpros]

Ditto ~ would love something like this...

Glad I'm not the only one.

:D

[boatdesign]

Would also love to have a VB-MediaWiki bridge as discussed.

This thread seems to be a very promising option: https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=123273&highlight=mediawiki

[Kwak]

cyburbia, did you find a solution?
Noticed Planningwiki.com site coming soon and just wondering. Let us know, thanks.

[Alfa1]

I'd love a wiki bridge, but only without the need for members to join mediawiki.

[Clayton]

Hi Alfa

Kai's solution here >> https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=93024

post #10 does work

however Holistic Earth went a little further in this thread

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=112973

I have done this on a clean install and I am able to login with the Admin login from vB in the Wiki login

do note, I am doing this on a clean install of both vB and Wiki so the chances of problems would be minimal

Cheers



edit: I had contacted Kai and he mentioned that the original method works with 3.6 .. Holistics approach was to stop further registrations .. however I am not sure whether the data becomes available to the public without needing to login to view as everything is still a clean wiki ... if there is a conflict I will remove the last instruction of how to stop new registrations and look for a way to remove links to new registrations