Integration with vBulletin - Complete Wordpress/Vbulletin Bridge - Share Users And Postings

DOES NOT WORK FOR Vbulletin 4.x

This version probably no longer works for Wordpress 3.x. I have started developing this product over and have released the NEW version here:

http://www.lampwrights.com/showthread.php?t=41

This mod bridges your Vbulletin users over to Wordpress. You can also use Vbulletin as your comment engine instead of the spammy one built into Wordpress. You can display the comments inline in your post. You need not use the comment feature, if your only interested in sharing users.

You can map your Vbulletin Usergroups to Wordpress Usergroups and those users will then be recognized as registered Wordpress users.

For example, user "Joe" registers at your forum and logs in. Joe then clicks on your Wordpress page. Joe is instantly added to the Wordpress user base with the permissions you set for his usergroup. In otherwords, if a user comes over belonging to the "Registered User" group, you can select that he is placed in the Wordpress "Subscriber" usergroup.

If you change a users group from vbulletin, it will automatically change in Wordpress.

Requirements:

• DOES NOT and WILL NEVER support Wordpress MU.
• Wordpress and Vbulletin scripts must reside on the same physical server.
• Wordpress and Vbulletin must use the same domain name.
• Stable Wordpress Version greater than or equal to 2.5.
• If your WP login name is the same as your VB username, this user will NOT be ported! If this was the case, you could lose your WP admin rights if there was an error, or if you deactivated the plugin.
• DOES work for Vbulletin 3.7.

Limitations:

• Please don't ask if it works for any BETA versions of Vbulletin. I do not know and will not convert this to the latest version of VB (whatever it is at the time you are reading this) until the version is released as non-beta.
• If you delete a user, you must do so in both Wordpress and Vbulletin.
• If you are using XMLRPC to post with applications such as Windows Live Writer, you must change the password of the author in the WORDPRESS admin cp, after the user is ported over from VB. If you are not integrating users, then you do not have to.
• Chances are, this will not work when VB and Wordpress are located in different sub domains. I.E. forum.yoursite.com - blog.yoursite.com. Cookie issue.
• I did the best I could in determining your forums file path with the script. There may be certain script setups that cannot find the file path properly, in which case you may get errors that the script cannot find or open /config.php. If this is the case, please HARDCODE your ABSOLUTE path to the forum in vbridge.php.
  
  To do this find:
  
  

   ## If you are having path problems, uncomment this next variable and define the path
  ## NO TRAILING SLASH!
  # $vwd = '/some/path/to/your/forum';

  And uncomment the last line, and change the path to your forums path:
  
  

   ## If you are having path problems, uncomment this next variable and define the path
  ## NO TRAILING SLASH!
  $vwd = '/some/path/to/your/forum';

Common Mistakes When Installing:

• Using two different host names causes problems. If your forum URL contains www.yourdomain.com, then your wordpress blog URL MUST contain the www. part of www.yourdomain.com also. This goes for any other host name. Browsers are finnecky when it comes to cookies (as they should be).
• Editors generally EDIT, not write. In Wordpress, editors don't show up in the post author drop down. This has nothing to do with this plugin, that is Wordpress code.
• Make sure you DO NOT create a subdirectory for this plugin in the wp-content/plugins directory. Just upload it directly there.
• If the admin username in Vbulletin is the same as the one in Wordpress (i.e. Admin), that user will NOT be able to login to the WP dashboard.
• If you do not map users before you turn auto-integrate on, the plugin has no idea whether your allowed into the dashboard.
• If you all of a sudden can't login to the dashboard, see the above two common mistakes.
• FOLLOW the directions and make a test post first. Being in a rush and not testing will most likely turn out bad for you.
• When you create a test user in VB to test mapping users, the test user MUST have an email address. If a VB users email address is blank, they will not map.

UPDATES:

01/03/2007 - Fixed the unlock_tables() issue on some setups.

01/03/2007 - Fixed a bug in the script that if you used a MySQL database prefix, integration would not work. Please see this post for more information! Special thanks to axisoverdrive for giving me access to his server and letting me troubleshoot the issue!

01/05/2007 - Fixed issue where if a user saved (not published) and published later, the post would not be added to the forum.

01/05/2007 - When a post is edited, it will also be edited in the forum.

01/08/2007 - Modified slightly so when posts are edited, so are the titles (if edited).

02/07/2007 - Major modifications to new version (now 2.05). The list follows:

• Reworked the code so it uses the $vbulletin object throughout the code especially during the bridging process.
• Users are bridged whether they checked the "Remember Me" box or not.
• Removed a couple of SQL calls that became redundant.
• Addressed a bug where if a user logged out of the dashboard, it only logged them out of VB.
• Added Inline Comments capability. Comments posted to the forum (using VB for comments) will now appear at the bottom of a WP Post when viewing the post.
• Author user names can now be linked to their VB profile page if desired.
• Added option to turn off posting to forum. All this really does is remove the "Select Forum To Post To" option when writing a post. (There you go AxisOverdrive )
• The $vbulletin object should now be available in all templates and most plugins.
• Fixed a bug where deactivating any plugin would semi deactivate this plugin.
• With the reduction in SQL calls, and the removal of now unnecessary variables, speed and memory use should be improved.
• PLEASE READ THE UPGRADE INSTRUCTIONS IF UPGRADING!

07/17/2007

• Fixed problem where upload iframe was a bit mangled.
• Fixed problem where users had to refresh the dashboard once after logging in.
• Fixed problem that arose from Wordpress 2.2.1 upgrade that would not allow activation.
• Fixed logout issue where users would still be logged into Wordpress.
• When a Wordpress post is deleted, so is the thread it created.
• Added option to allow thread posted from Wordpress article to be truncated, with a linkback to the article.
• Fixed issue when user re-activates plugin, and vb_threadid column already exists. Now checks for column first.
• Removed a stray VB_Init() call.
• Forums that do not allow threads will not be selectable in the drop down menu when writing a post.
• Forums are listed out in a parent/child nested pattern.
• (Note: 367 downloads of version 2.05)

11/29/07 - 3.00

• Added TABLE_PREFIX throughout the script instead of the get_option('vbb_VBPRX') call. get_option('vbb_VBPRX') is now deprecated.
• Addressed path issues by establishing $vwd first. If for some reason there are path issues on an install, the path only needs to be manually changed once, at the beginning of the script.
• Removed call to admin_db.php which seems to no longer be necessary.
• Changed all queries to the VB database to be handled by the $vbulletin object. This should facilitate multiple database configurations.
• Added limited XMLRPC support.
• Had to include a basic copy of the functions_wysiwyg.php file (functions_wysiwyg2.php) with a minor change in the sanitize_url function (now sanitize_vburl) as it conflicts with a new WP function of the same name. Otherwise, this is identical to the VB release. This was necessary to keep formatting somewhat uniform between the two.
• Removed unnecessary globals.
• Changed the global.php call so it always loads. $vbulletin should be available throughout the code (via global in functions).
• Edited some code around wysiwyg functions of VB, and conversions to vbcode.
• Added "Turn Plugin On" option.
• Fixed an issue with the forum list on the "Write Post" page. Default forum was not being auto selected in some cases.
• Modified from BETA so that the new functions_wysiwyg2.php file is loaded using the WP ABSPATH constant. Requires the plugin to stay in the plugins directory.
• Fix an error message when a post was deleted in VB, then edited in WP.

12/10/07 - 3.01

• Fixed two <? tags that should have been <?php (pointed out by Amenadiel)

03/31/08 - 3.02

• Fixed media-upload clash for new version of Wordpress (2.5).
• Added fix that will now delete threads in VB when the post is deleted in WP and not using Ajax delete.
• Added code to insert a default email address if VB users email address is blank upon bridging.

04/20/08

• Fixed a bug in user roles for the new version 2.5.1 of Wordpress.

05/08/2008

• Fixed issue where CSS was munging scrolling text box when selecting a forum during a post
• Fixed an issue where content encoding was getting screwey between WP and VP creating a lot of unintended characters (only on PHP installs where utf8_decode() exists (most)).

05/08/2008

• Fixed issue where post count of a user did not change

Sites Using This Plug-In:

• http://www.jeffsrecipes.com
• http://www.worldwidecreations.com
• http://www.xboxcircle.com
• http://www.detailuniversity.com
• http://www.daggersden.net/
• http://www.talkbronx.com/
• http://www.czeta.it

(PM me if you want to add your site here)

Special Thanks:

axisoverdrive - Debugging Help, Kyraal - Paypal Donation, Kalina - Paypal Donation, Wildcard27 - Paypal Donation, Shri - Paypal Donation, pspcrazy - Paypal Donation, Tomahoochi - Paypal Donation.

If you use this plug-in, and find it useful, please support us by nominating us for Mod Of The Month (MOTM) in the top right corner of this thread, or feel free to donate.

[Jafo232]

Originally Posted by pspcrazy

Everything works well except for the post to thread part on adding a new post, it lacks the scroll bar so it's very hard to navigate.

Yeah, this is a css issue with the latest WP release. If I get some time, I will try to add the workaround in the code.

Originally Posted by zeropaid

Questions - I have a very large site with over 500k users and about 10k stories that i am considering moving to WP and VB but i have some concerns.

I want to handle all the story comments inside of WP. Is this possible?

I want to be able to handle anonymous comments in WP using this plugin. Is this possible?

How is the login process handled; is it all done in VB? In other words I direct all my users to the forum to login or can i have a login in the header that does all this?

My major concern is that I can allow my users to comment inside of stories but have WP handle all the data. VB is only concerned with users...

Thanks
Jorge

If you allow anonymous people to post to your forum, then yes, anonymous users can post to your WP articles. VB handles all logins. You need not have Vbulletin handle the comments if you don't want to. You can leave it the way it currently is.

Originally Posted by barnepal

Hi,

Thanks for help, but I still don't get it. So far I've filled out the following but how will you know the Forum ID when you haven't even posted any material during setup?

VB User ID: 1 (the first user of the forum is me, the administrator)
VB Username: administrator (the name of the admin of the forum)
VB Forum ID: ?

Thanks.

These settings are for the DEFAULTS! Please, read the readme, it spells it out there. You can select any other forum when you are posting. The reason these settings are there is if you do not use the integration, WP needs to know what VB user to post the thread as.

[barnepal]

Originally Posted by Jafo232

These settings are for the DEFAULTS! Please, read the readme, it spells it out there. You can select any other forum when you are posting. The reason these settings are there is if you do not use the integration, WP needs to know what VB user to post the thread as.

So can I leave all three blank if I only want registered users to post?

[Jafo232]

No, you put the admins user id in there, or the person you want it to DEFAULT to if WP cannot identify the person writing the article. You put the default forum ID where articles will be place (unless the user selects a different forum on the Write Article page).

[barnepal]

Originally Posted by Jafo232

You put the default forum ID where articles will be place (unless the user selects a different forum on the Write Article page).

See this is what I don't get. How do you know the Forum ID when setting up this Mod?
You don't want it to clash with topics already created in VBulletin so do you create a new topic for it?

[Jafo232]

Originally Posted by barnepal

See this is what I don't get. How do you know the Forum ID when setting up this Mod?
You don't want it to clash with topics already created in VBulletin so do you create a new topic for it?

FORUM ID, not thread id. Every forum on your board has an ID. Go to your forum manager and it shows you the ID #.

[Suri.CMS]

Please clarify...

If your WP login name is the same as your VB username, this user will NOT be ported! If this was the case, you could lose your WP admin rights if there was an error, or if you deactivated the plugin.

Sorry for my ignorance. But can you please explain this sentence clearly.

What porting of users ?

Does this mean that : whenever a new users registers, his data will be created (inserted) in vBulletin's users table and then same data will be replicated (inserted) in WordPress's users table as well ??

So you cannot insert that data in WordPress's users table if the username already exists ?

Is my understanding correct ?

If you delete a user, you must do so in both Wordpress and Vbulletin.

What about editing any of the user's details ? Do we need to do editing in both places ?

[Suri.CMS]

Hi,
Please clarify if my understanding is correct.

1) I can have my vB 3.7 forum in sub-folder www.testsite.com/forum and then install WordPress 2.5.1 in sub-folder www.testsite.com/blog and then integrate both using this plug-in.

Is there any problem with above folder structure ?

Or do I need to install WordPress only in the root folder ?

2) To use this plug-in, the theme of WordPress does NOT matter. Right ??
I mean, can I use any WordPress theme (Lets say: http://www.wpremix.com/home/ )

3) Any other modules of WordPress are NOT affected by this plug-in. Right ?

4) I can deactivate this plug-in anytime and still have all my vBulletin forum data unaffected. I mean, this plug-in does NOT alter any of vBuleltin's data. Right ??

5) Does it work along with vbSEO ?

6) Do you see any problem with this combination WordPress + This Plug-In + vBulletin + vbSEO for high-traffic sites ? (Lets say - 1000 users online)

7) If I use this plug-in, the vBulletin's members (users) data will be used everywhere (registration, login...etc), but NOT the WordPress's members (users) data. Right ?

[Suri.CMS]

Anyone using this plug-in for a very high traffic site, please let me know. It really helps me.

[ryans]

Nice mod! Can I just import all my vb users into wordpress? Is there a way?

[DoubleGlasses]

Just wanted to say thanks a bunch. The install worked beautifully. Your instructions were dead on. I will add just one note. Make sure that your admin account on your forum is also an admin in Wordpress or you could find yourself locked out I hopped on another pc, changes my user account to be an admin and everything went great. Thanks for this mod.