newbie needs some advice on automating registration and login

[advwebsys]

i posted this earlier today on the .com forum:

here's the scoop -

we have created a website for a customer which allows a user to register on the site in order to gain access to specific site areas. what we would like to do is also register the user in vbulletin during that process.

we are not averse to adding vbulletin-specific fields into our current registration form.

it would also be neat if a user logs in to the website, then clicks on a link going to the forum, we could log them in under the covers.

we have both php and mysql skills, and we're willing to entertain the possibility of some 'professional' help.

i've looked at the api documentation, and frankly, it's as clear as mud, given no previous knowledge of vbulletin.

i'd have to believe someone has done this before, and i'm looking for any guidance i can get.

thanks in advance.....

and steve replied:

Integrating vBulletin with a non-vB member system would require a rather extensive modification of the code. Of course, we cannot provide official support for code modifications. What most people do is modify their current system to use the vB member system.

to which i replied:

actually, i'm not looking to 'integrate', per se, meaning i don't want to use the site's user table as the vbulletin user table, nor do i want to modify your code (!). i just want to be able to write the code necessary to emulate a vbulletin registration transaction, or even better to somehow execute the vbulletin code with all the variables pre-assigned.

i also should have added that our member system is much more than just a single table with username, password, etc. it's actually a set of 6 tables which have many to many relationships.

looking forward to expert comments/suggestions........