Coldfusion / vBulletin memberfile integration
 

Outsports.com is built primarily on Coldfusion (Windows 2000/MySQL), with UBB.classic as our community forum. We're considering replacing UBB with vBulletin to gain some functionality, and as part of that migration we'd like to integrate the Coldfusion and vB login & profile modules so that registration / login / logout for the site will register / login / logout that user on the discussion board simultaneously, and clicking a member's Profile button in vBulletin will display that member's profile in Coldfusion.

In other words, we want the user data to reside on the CFML application database, with vB to look to it for authentication and update. We'd also want to "hide" our users' access to their profile data in vB, to be viewed/modified only via the CFML-based app, and have the CFML app update and maintain vB's memberfiles. A few threads on this forum are on the right track, for example External Authentication hack?, Coldfusion User Tables, Profile Hack.

We have a CFML programmer on board, so we're looking for experienced assistance in spec'ing, writing and implementing changes to the board's php code and mySQL databases.

It would require massive changes to vB's code to have it reference one database for all information except users. Instead, I would suggest investigating the possibility that your ColdFusion appplication be planned to read from vBulletin's database directly, as this would be a far easier solution.

Actually, the idea is that vB would continue to reference its own database, but with some of the field contents being mirrored in from the CFM database. I've spreadsheeted vB's featureset (attached zip of .xls), and determined that only five changes to VB buttons/links would be required:
o Register
o Login/Logout
o Display profile
o "Email address and password"
o Forgotten password
Some might need to be tweaked, but overall this approarch doesn't sound terribly complicated. Make sense?

If this design is feasible, it will become a for-pay project, since it is our preferred solution. We appreciate a reality check. Thanks