Version: 1.2., by Ianomed
Developer Last Online: Dec 2005
Version: 3.0.3
Rating:
Released: 10-24-2004
Last Update: 11-16-2004
Installs: 23
DB Changes
No support by the author.
Quick Account Switch v1.2.
by Ianomed
Uses of this hack:
This account will let you string together several accounts owned by the same person. Of course it will also let you string together accounts owned by different people, but that's a dangerous thing to do.
What then is the use of stringing accounts together? Well, this hack will let you switch from one to the other account without having to log out, then log in again. Those interested in the technical aspect I refer to the addition made to login.php, it's all quite simple. You'll see now why it's dangerous to string together your account with someone else's, they'd be able to switch to your account.
I wrote this for two play-by-board RPGs that I frequent, at each of which I have several accounts, an account for each character. This lets me assume another account in moments.
It's also used by admins to switch between test accounts quickly.
Maybe you'll find other uses, eh?
Changes required:
Adding of 1 field to user table (installer will try to do this)
Adding of 18 phrases (installer does this)
An addition to admincp/user.php
An addition to global.php
An addition to login.php
A modification to the navbar template (for each style)
Time needed: 20-30 minutes Difficulty rating: moderate
Known issues with v1.2:
Changing the username of an account that's either a slave or master, it does not update these cached usernames. This will be taken care of in v1.3.
Work-around: If you rename a user, unlink it first, and relink after the renaming.
Since I don't see this happening very often on any board I'm releasing v1.2 with this caveat.
Item of note:
For some obscure reason vBportal does NOT play nice with this hack. It'll introduce cookie/header errors. Either do not install this hack if vBportal is installed, or vice versa. Since I don't plan on spending $20 to buy software I'll never use, there's no intention on my part to work out that problem. You're good to go with vbadvanced CPMS, however, this has been tested.
Warranties:
None, in the instructions you'll notice I tell you to backup before applying the hack. I've tested it on 4 boards, each of which have additional hacks installed, and it runs on many more. If it doesn't for you then, well... roll back the changes you've just made and blame yourself.
Tested (and works) on:
vB 3.0.3. - vanilla
vB 3.0.1. - vanilla
vB 3.0.3. - With vbAdvanced Homepage / CPMS (out of the box)
vB 3.0.1. - With vbAdvanced Homepage / CPMS (out of the box)
v 1.3 - Optionally displaying the linked accounts on the public profile. (i.e. 'I am also ....')
v 1.3 - Fix user rename issue (see known issues, above).
v 1.3 - Under Users in the ACP add a Manage Linked Accounts option, listing all linked accounts and their slaves.
v x.x - Very maybe: allow sharing of a secondary account between two users. This is the trickiest of all, since when on that account, who should you allow switching back to in a way that can't be circumvented.
Future non-plans (I will probably never implement these):
Removed username colouring, it's not really necessary and only adds extra queries.
No longer uses a custom profile field, instead an extra field in the usertable is made
Fully phrased, installer written to add phrases
The usernames for the linked accounts are cached, this means that running the hack now takes no extra queries at all for those logged on as master, or who have no linked accounts. Being logged on as a slave account adds only 1 query per page view, this used to be more too.
v1.1.1 - 27th October
Fixes session expiration problem occuring after switch. Users are encouraged to upgrade. To upgrade follow the instructions in switch_11_to_111.txt. For new installs the corrected code is in switch_111.txt, the installation instructions.
v1.1 - 26th October
Fixes a flaw where on some MySQL versions IDs were matched improperly, also the new session is now permanent. Users are encouraged to upgrade.
To upgrade roll back and redo the changes to global.php and login.php, no changes were made to the template or custom field.
v1.0 - 25th October 2004
initial release
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This modification may not be copied, reproduced or published elsewhere without author's permission.
I've given permission to Psionic Vision to port this hack to vB 3.5.x on 22 November. Since that I've not heard back from him on it, so I'm unaware of the status in regards to that.
I'm too busy at this time to do it myself, what with porting two custom CMS's from 3.0 to 3.5.
My port is near complete, once I have Ianomed's assistance on this little problem it will be ready for beta release, yes beta as I have a feeling it will have a bug or two which is normal for a hack this big.
I expect the release to be ready within the week so everyone keep an eye on it popping up in the plugins area.
I got a question, can't it be possibly modified so that only admins can see the little box in the admincp user editing page? I mean, won't an if conditional work or something? Cause some mods need access to user editing options, but I don't want them messing with that.
Not to mention, can't it be done so, that when you are inside a slave account, it asks for a password if you try to switch to a master account? Cause that way it is safer to have multiple masters, otherwise any mod might just log on with an admin account, if they are connected. I mean, that would be just a load of trouble. And yeah, I know I could just disable the switch to master account and log out, but clicking that log out button is so tiring - why else do people want, need and like this hack?
Quick Account Switch v1.2 Details »»
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DB Changes 
No support by the author.
12-14-2005, 10:37 AM
