Federated Logins
 

Anyone have any hacks for federated logins across multiple vBulletin instances, multiple domain names, and possibly multiple machines?

There are a number of possible ways to implement this:

1. True federation, wherein multiple vBulletin instances use a single (possibly replicated) user database.

2. Automated, perhaps invisible, account creation when a user from site A accesses site B.

3. Guest privileges, where users from site A can post at site B as (user@site A). They might be integrated with openID or another standard.

4. Some sort of meta-userid which players can register all of the vBulletin logins with and then login to just than one metaid to get access to everything.

Options #1 and #2 seem the most desirable because they dramatically reduce the burden on users, but anything that makes it so a user doesn't have to memorize multiple logins and passwords is probably a good thing.

I've just released an OpenID Authentication add-on. While it doesn't do everything you're wanting, it's a start.

https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=120923

Thanks! That looks like a big step toward what we're looking for. I'm anxious to see the next rev of the system, where you can create an account with openid, as I think that's approaching the transparency we'll need.

I've been thinking about it a bit, and am not sure that this can be done using hooks. Of course, it is always preferred to NOT have to upload new files, but would that be acceptable for you in order to get this feature? Basically a top-level "openid" directory that contains all of the necessary stuff.... but not modifying any of the existing vB files.

Yes, the way you describe it is relatively clean and just introduces a minor gotcha to upgrades.