Mod Feedback: Custom RSS Feeds via Authentication

[johnmont]

I've created a modification for vbulletin which will show a customized RSS feed based upon a user's membergroup permissions. I needed to do this, as many of my forums are protected via subscriptions.

I'm looking for feedback regarding it -- as I'm kind of a noob at this (I helped modify the gallery2 integration, so I'm not totally in the dark). I used the data manager, but I'm not sure if that's the best way. How does it work?


Plugin location: external_start

1. I request http autorization for the external.php feed. This works with most RSS news readers.

2. Password is checked -- if successful, groups are set.

I understand this circumvents some of the security that is built into the password system, but my forums are https:// -- so I'm not worried about it in this case.

PHP Code:

include("includes/functions_login.php");
include("includes/init.php");

if (!isset($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'])) {
 header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="New"');
 header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
 echo 'You have cancelled';
 exit;
} 

else {
 
   //Check authentication
    $test = verify_authentication($_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER'], $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW'], false, false, false, false);
    if (!$test) {
        header('WWW-Authenticate: Basic realm="New"');
        header('HTTP/1.0 401 Unauthorized');
        exit;
    }

   //Authentication is good -- so carry on
    $userdm =& datamanager_init('User', $vbulletin, ERRTYPE_ARRAY); 
    $userdm->set('username', $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_USER']); 
    $userdm->set('password', $_SERVER['PHP_AUTH_PW']);

    $userinfo = $userdm->registry->userinfo;
    $vbulletin->userinfo['membergroupids'] = $userinfo['membergroupids'];
    cache_permissions($vbulletin->userinfo);
   

}