Unique Authentication System across all website/s
 

Hi all,

I have searched for a precise answer to this question in the forums, but while this seems a common request, no precise solution has been given yet.

What we want to do is simple. We have a forum shared by many websites; we are now adding services for registered users only also in our websites. So, for example, a registered user will be able to vote in an article, to submit a review, and so on. Of course, it wouldn't make sense to ask users to register for the forums and the websites separately, so we'd just like to use the forums' user database also within the websites.

I have seen there are many issues, first of all problems in setting cookies simultaneously for different domains. Can someone help me in some way? Any suggestion would be extremely welcome! Thank you!

This is a FAQ and has been answered over and over agein already ;)

OK, so once more:
Cookies are bound to one domain only, so there is no way (without tricks like 1px images to transport cookies) to use one cookie on 2 domains.

To identify a vBulletin user, 2 cookies are important: bbuserid and bbpasword (where bb is a cookie-prefix, .could also be smth. else -> config.php)

Cookie bbuserid should be obvious: this is the userid.
Cookie bbpassword is a bit more complicated. This md5(md5(md5('PlaintextPassword'), salt), 'LicenseNo').
PlaintextPassword is the password, salt the value of column salt (in table user) for this user, LicenseNo is you vBulletin license number.

Column password in table user is md5(md5('PlaintextPassword'), salt).

Does this help you?

Thank you for the reply.

I never coded a cookie based script, but I should be able to do it. Anyhow, the problem is I don't know how to make so that once the user is logged in in a website, he is automatically logged in when he visits another website on our network. What should I do? Create one cookie for each domain whenever the user login in a website (so, when he logins in site1.com he gets the cookies for site1.com, site2.com, site3.com, site4.com)?

@Carlito

Take a look at:
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=70429
https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=70296

Sigh, nobody can answer this problem here?

Its not simple in any means. and what I've figured to work requires 1 single server and 1 single database. plus requires quite abit of work ontop of that.

I would love to see a similar mod (if not the same).

I am just about to buy a few more vb licenses for different domains / websites. I would like all the vbulletin forums of mine to share the same user database. e.g a user signs up to one site and will become a member of all my vb sites. I presume he will have to login to each because of cookies (correct me if Im wrong), but he would keep all the cp settings / username / pw etc.

If it's possible, then a few questions... Would all domains have to be on same server? (security reasons?) Could the usergroups be modified per each forum (im aware it would be a lot more coding)?

I wouldn't mind paying for a decent and reliable code. Please PM me if you interested in or post here if you have any useful suggestions, I would be grateful.

Thanks

oops should i open a thread in paid services? Or should I just camp here waiting for my saviour lol

The reason you won't find any clear solution to this problem is simply that for security reason no browser will allow setting a cookie for a different domain. Imagine what could happen if another website could access/set/change a cookie for your website.

Coffee2k3,

I've have been struggling with the same problem as well. But there simply isn't a simple solution to it, or any solution for that matter that covers it.

What you could (and please correct me if I am wrong as I only read this somewhere, peeps), is to include global.php and let people login to their accounts. It will mean a multiple login, but then again you will have access to the right information.

I am going to give that a try in the near future, as we're stuck with a .net and .tv on the same server where the .tv is the forum and the .net is the site itself.

Thanks for the replies MarcoH64 and Digma

Sorry if I wasn't clear in my post, I don't mind if members will have to login each time they visit another forum of mine - I just want the same user information (username and password, usercp settings) to be shared between my forums. To be able to set primary usergroups would be a great advantage if possible but there are ways to get around it.