Integration with vBulletin - vBulletin Ldap Authentication Plugin

I am using vbulletin for a long time now and before there was the plugin system introduces i hacked every single version of vb to enable ldap authentication. with the introduction of the plugin system i have written a little plugin that works in every version since VBulletin 3.5. This Plugin is the buyable VBulletin Ligh Authentication from http://www.sartori.at. now its FREE.

Since its working and i will not enhance this small plugin anymore, i will make it public. If there are any enhancements, i can put it into my versioning system and update this plugin.

In contrast to the ldap authentication from zemic my board can authenticate against every - already deployed - ldap directory without changeing the encryption type.

If the ldap user is not added in the VBulletin database, the user is automatically added the first time he authenticates against the ldap. if the user already exists then nothing is changed, except the authentication against the directory.

in the admin or moderator panel no user is authenticated against the directory.

Requirements

• php with ldap support

Installation Notes:

1. copy ldapAuth directory to your vb forum installation directory
2. change the path to controller.php directory in ldap-plugin.xml
3. copy the hooks_ldap.xml to FORUM_ROOT/inclucdes/xml directory
4. in login.php search for:
   
   PHP Code:

   if ($vbulletin->GPC['vb_login_username'] == '')
         {
          eval(standard_error(fetch_error('badlogin', $vbulletin->options['bburl'], ....
         } 

   insert below:
   
   PHP Code:

   ($hook = vBulletinHook::fetch_hook('ldap_login_hook')) ? eval($hook) : false; 

5. activate plugin system (if not done already) in admincp
6. in admin cp import the product at "Download / Upload" Plugins
7. in global.php search for:
   
   PHP Code:

   $show['nopasswordempty'] 

   and change:
   
   PHP Code:

   defined('DISABLE_PASSWORD_CLEARING') ? 1 : 0; 

   to:
   
   PHP Code:

   defined('DISABLE_PASSWORD_CLEARING') ? 0 : 1; 

8. configure the ldap settings in: ldapconfig.inc.php
9. test the product

Additional Notes:
If you are running a Microsoft Active Directory as Ldap server you have to change some settings to allow anonymous queries. This is described at
Novell and Microsoft


I would be happy if you support my modification in any way. Install or nominate it or donate some cents at paypal.

[dellusionaldude]

1. copy ldapAuth directory to your vb forum installation directory
2. change the path to controller.php directory in ldap-plugin.xml

I did no. 1, but have no idea how to do no. 2. Please help.

Jose

[dellusionaldude]

Hey Guys, I figured out the problem- my zip file was not extracting properly, so I never saw the config or plugin files for LDAP.

[Kahuna900]

any more word on the "authenticated binding". My admin will not allow anonymous access to the active directory LDAP server.

[dellusionaldude]

Cannot figure out how to test if plugin is working. When i enter my credentials, they are not recognized, so it seems that vB is not querying active directory via the LDAP plugin. Please help.

[upnorth]

malcolmx first I would like to say this is a great add-on. Exactly what we needed in order to move forward with utilizing vB on our intranet so thanks!!

Everything works correctly and I'm not having any problems but I have been asked a number of times if there is any way to add the users full name to the users vB account? My thought was that I could add two custom user fields called first name and last name but is there any easy way to pull the first and last name out of LDAP and add them to these fields?

[Rondo44]

what was the line of code to add for this functionality and to what file. if i may ask. thank you

[Johnny G]

Hi - first post, newbie alert, etc.
I've taken over running a forum which has around 5000 members. Now, we've got an online shop (which isn't quite live yet) running on OSCommerce and I'm just in the process of putting Joomla! on the site.

Now, I know LDAP from work, but there's a wondering I've got about how this works.

Firstly, if I install this mod on a clean LDAP database, how can I import the 5000 usernames from the vBulletin installation?

Would I be correct in assuming that when a user logs in to the forum, the LDAP would be checked, then report no such user. Then vB would be queried and report a success - with the LDAP then taking in the information from vB.

... or have I got this completely wrong. If so, any pointers on how to get the users in the LDAP DB?

Thanks in advance!

[Aylwin]

Originally Posted by Johnny G

Would I be correct in assuming that when a user logs in to the forum, the LDAP would be checked, then report no such user. Then vB would be queried and report a success - with the LDAP then taking in the information from vB.

I think your understanding is the wrong way 'round.

The plugin will kick in after failed vB login. In other words, any users that are on vB already can login directly. For users that are not yet registered, they are checked from the LDAP. If they are on LDAP but not on vB then a new user is created.

So, LDAP does not get information from vB. vB is the one that gets information from LDAP. Your existing 5000 users will continue to use vB as before. There is no need to move them to LDAP.

[Aylwin]

In controller.php, there is an if condition that checks for errors before a new user is created:

		if($newuser->errors)

How can I check what exactly the error is?

If I remove the if condition and force the new user to be created, I get the following error message:

Fatal error: Unable to proceed with save while $errors array is not empty in class vb_datamanager_user in /includes/class_dm.php on line 763

[drsox]

Fantastic, I had to make a few changes to the line which logs people in once they have passed authentication, other than that - perfect.

Thanks malcolmx!

Tom - www.mouselike.org