Integration with vBulletin - Steam Connect - Sign in with your Steam Account! [RC3]

Steam Connect

INFO

-- Steam Connect Addon for vBulletin 4.2.x;
Development Platform := vBulletin 4.1.3 - 4.2.0, Debian Linux, PHP5, MySQL5, apache2;
Dependencies := lib cUrl (PHP), openid (included);
Author := Andreas "Radon" Rudolph, Disasterpiece;
Contact := radon@purgatory-labs.de, https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/member.php?u=198844
Homepage := http://purgatory-labs.de


WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW BEFORE INSTALLING

This addon is Unsupported as of 2015 until further notice. I have not enough time or interest in vbulletin to keep this alive.

This addon provides a framework for future extensions which make use of the Steam API.
It helps to determine the SteamID of an user. Unless older methods of inserting the steam
id into a user field, the addon lets the user authenticate with Steam OpenID, therefore
you can trust 100%, that this particular user is the same user as the Steam-ID provided.

Users can link their Steam ID to their forum account or they can create a new account
using details pulled from their Steam Profile.
Like the Facebook connect plugin, it allows users to quickly set up a forum account without
having to define a password or an email address. This option can be disabled in the AdminCP,
however it is encouraged to allow users to use this quick-register feature, since they
already authenticated themselves through steam, so any additional password or email
authentication is just unnecessary.

If the user decides to un-link his forum account with his steam-profile, he has to set up
a password and email first, so the forum account remains usable after this.

At the moment, the addon is in its second RC state, which means that the current versions contain mostly bugfixes and are candidates for a full release.
Until now, the product worked without major problems in productive environments. Although it is stable as is, the author doesn't provide any guarantee.
Due to the nature of the addon and how vBulletin manages 3rd party code inclusion, additional
login and register methods have been provided by the plugin. It is discouraged to use the
plugin on high profile communities in this early development state.

If you have any further questions, feel free to post in this thread.


F.A.Q. / General Issues / Error Messages

"There has been a problem with the OpenID libary: No OpenID Server found at http://steamcommunity.com/openid"
- Additionally, a 503 HTTP error is thrown. Simple solution: Wait. Steam Community servers are overloaded/down right now, there's nothing you can do about it

Do NOT uninstall the mod if you want to keep the linked users records. Upgrading means uploading the new product xml file for the new version and choose "overwrite" in the upload dialog.
The Installer will handle the update process by its own. Uninstalling the product will erase all the table fields which contain the steam link data.


STEAM CONNECT ADDONS

- Steam Mini Profiles


INSTALL HOWTO

[Captain Tycoon]

Originally Posted by FF|Skyrider

Had to disable the whole plugin :-\, loading threads is taking so much longer now with the steam login system enabled.

Which is why I'd prefer if the Steam Profiles show up in Forum Profiles than PostBits.

[Skyrider]

Originally Posted by Captain Tycoon

Which is why I'd prefer if the Steam Profiles show up in Forum Profiles than PostBits.

That's the odd thing. The steam profiles plugin was disabled, only the steam connect was set enabled which was causing the longer loading towards threads and new threads.

[billstelling]

loads fine on my site.. no slowdowns..

[Skyrider]

I just re-tried. Using this plugin (enabled) causes major slow-downs in loading threads. Once disabled, loading threads goes very fast.

[CoZmicShReddeR]

I never seen anything on my pages saying waiting for Steam... Does this happen when Steam friends is down or all the time? Am curious because I never paid attention when Steam friends being down causing issues with page load nor have I ever seen or noticed any page load lag from this directly...

[Skyrider]

It shouldn't affect the thread loading time at all, I have the steam profile plugin completely disabled and even removed. Only the steam login is enabled.. How does that affect the forum loading times in threads?

[Cadellin]

Another feature idea - how variable to optionally force information to be retrieved from Steam rather than from cache when using the function? This would be particularly useful in cron jobs to avoid a double-delay in updates being processed.

[Disasterpiece]

Originally Posted by Cadellin

Another feature idea - how variable to optionally force information to be retrieved from Steam rather than from cache when using the function? This would be particularly useful in cron jobs to avoid a double-delay in updates being processed.

Not quite sure what you mean - can you explain a little more detailed?

[Cadellin]

Sorry I probably used the wrong terminology.

Perhaps there should be a way to force fetch_steam_info to get information from Steam rather than from the cache.

Does that make sense?

[Disasterpiece]

There is already a way to force steam connect NOT using the cache, just set the cache lifetime to 0 and/or leave the path to the cache dir empty if you want to diable the file cache.

Good news nontheless: I found a bug with the additional fields which caused to redownload the profile data every request over and over again which is now fixed.
Also, the internal cache works better now which increases page load time A LOT.

Releasing next version later today or tomorrow.