Best method of identifying users from the db?
 

I need to find a method to confirm a user is who they say they are from another site, by checking the vB_user table, from a site outside of vBulletin's architecture... Now I was going to have them enter their user id, and a hidden profile key they pick themselves, but I'm not sure if this is such a great idea... What would be a good idea?

Could I just confirm it with id, md5(md5(password,$salt)) or whatever password protection method vBulletin uses?

Well additional information would be useful. Such as the degree of access that you have to the external database.

Check their username/password against the vB. database.

select userid
from user
where username = 'usetname sent' and password = md5(concat(md5('password sent'), salt));

So...
Is this correct? Or are you referring to php functions of md5/concat and not mysql (Is concat even in mysql...?)

And as for the extent at which I have access, I have complete access to the database but no access to the vB php files.

Also, while I have asked this before I'll ask again - is there any way to create a forum "blindly", as in outside the architecture? I looked at the forums table and its incredibly complex and requires some vB-only generated things.

Do it in MySQL, it is simpler that way (my query should work). Get them to enter their username - not their userid. You can change my select userid to select *

Well my problem with entering a user's name is that ... Is, well - easy to screw up... A lot of my forum members have unicode in their name, spaces in their name, etc.... Things that are easy to mess up

Well how do they sign-on in the first place? :)

Userid is easy too, simple enough to change that in the above query...

Good point... Guess userid is kind of hard for some people to get, although my concern was the people (Like myself) who click "Remember me"... I haven't logged in for almost a year :P

Anyways, on a related note - whats the best way to create a new forum blindly?:

I don't have the time to go into much detail, but you could take the array that vBulletin generates and share that with your other site (save as .php file using var_export or serialized array). That would make it easier to process.

So basically get the function in the admin area to generate a new forum, use it to generate a dummy forum with the permissions I need, access the data inside that (Securely with a keycode or something) using readfile or fopen, unserialize the array, and simply replace the variables I need and commit that to the database...?