Login outside vB / Protect content

[rrottman]

I have been searching at vbulletin.org, vbulletin.nl, vbulletintemplates.com and vulletin.com (which is unfortunately down on both URLs at present). I have seen some posts relating to this issue but none was dealing with exactly what I want to achive. Also I know how to code parts of the solution I am very much interested in your professional opinion as to how to do it best.

I have a website where vB is just a subpart of the overall content. So there are plenty of other non-vB .php pages.

Basically what I want to achieve is, that users outside the board can login without having to use the login form provided by vB. If the have logged in successfully they should not be taken to the forum home index.

I thought of just copying the login.php form but obviously the POST method takes users to the forum index after logging in. That is not what I want to do.

I have written a function which uses global.php and some other includes to get the session ($bbuserinfo) data, so once users have logged in I can user their authentication information to protect content outside vB and do all sorts of things (like personalization, etc.)

The only thing missing to have a complete picture is: How could I create a simple .php page which users can use to submit ther vB username / password, log into the board and exit to any other page outside vB?

Any idea?
Your help, as always, is greatly appreciated.