Integration with vBulletin - Complete Wordpress/Vbulletin Bridge - Share Users And Postings

DOES NOT WORK FOR Vbulletin 4.x

This version probably no longer works for Wordpress 3.x. I have started developing this product over and have released the NEW version here:

http://www.lampwrights.com/showthread.php?t=41

This mod bridges your Vbulletin users over to Wordpress. You can also use Vbulletin as your comment engine instead of the spammy one built into Wordpress. You can display the comments inline in your post. You need not use the comment feature, if your only interested in sharing users.

You can map your Vbulletin Usergroups to Wordpress Usergroups and those users will then be recognized as registered Wordpress users.

For example, user "Joe" registers at your forum and logs in. Joe then clicks on your Wordpress page. Joe is instantly added to the Wordpress user base with the permissions you set for his usergroup. In otherwords, if a user comes over belonging to the "Registered User" group, you can select that he is placed in the Wordpress "Subscriber" usergroup.

If you change a users group from vbulletin, it will automatically change in Wordpress.

Requirements:

• DOES NOT and WILL NEVER support Wordpress MU.
• Wordpress and Vbulletin scripts must reside on the same physical server.
• Wordpress and Vbulletin must use the same domain name.
• Stable Wordpress Version greater than or equal to 2.5.
• If your WP login name is the same as your VB username, this user will NOT be ported! If this was the case, you could lose your WP admin rights if there was an error, or if you deactivated the plugin.
• DOES work for Vbulletin 3.7.

Limitations:

• Please don't ask if it works for any BETA versions of Vbulletin. I do not know and will not convert this to the latest version of VB (whatever it is at the time you are reading this) until the version is released as non-beta.
• If you delete a user, you must do so in both Wordpress and Vbulletin.
• If you are using XMLRPC to post with applications such as Windows Live Writer, you must change the password of the author in the WORDPRESS admin cp, after the user is ported over from VB. If you are not integrating users, then you do not have to.
• Chances are, this will not work when VB and Wordpress are located in different sub domains. I.E. forum.yoursite.com - blog.yoursite.com. Cookie issue.
• I did the best I could in determining your forums file path with the script. There may be certain script setups that cannot find the file path properly, in which case you may get errors that the script cannot find or open /config.php. If this is the case, please HARDCODE your ABSOLUTE path to the forum in vbridge.php.
  
  To do this find:
  
  

   ## If you are having path problems, uncomment this next variable and define the path
  ## NO TRAILING SLASH!
  # $vwd = '/some/path/to/your/forum';

  And uncomment the last line, and change the path to your forums path:
  
  

   ## If you are having path problems, uncomment this next variable and define the path
  ## NO TRAILING SLASH!
  $vwd = '/some/path/to/your/forum';

Common Mistakes When Installing:

• Using two different host names causes problems. If your forum URL contains www.yourdomain.com, then your wordpress blog URL MUST contain the www. part of www.yourdomain.com also. This goes for any other host name. Browsers are finnecky when it comes to cookies (as they should be).
• Editors generally EDIT, not write. In Wordpress, editors don't show up in the post author drop down. This has nothing to do with this plugin, that is Wordpress code.
• Make sure you DO NOT create a subdirectory for this plugin in the wp-content/plugins directory. Just upload it directly there.
• If the admin username in Vbulletin is the same as the one in Wordpress (i.e. Admin), that user will NOT be able to login to the WP dashboard.
• If you do not map users before you turn auto-integrate on, the plugin has no idea whether your allowed into the dashboard.
• If you all of a sudden can't login to the dashboard, see the above two common mistakes.
• FOLLOW the directions and make a test post first. Being in a rush and not testing will most likely turn out bad for you.
• When you create a test user in VB to test mapping users, the test user MUST have an email address. If a VB users email address is blank, they will not map.

UPDATES:

01/03/2007 - Fixed the unlock_tables() issue on some setups.

01/03/2007 - Fixed a bug in the script that if you used a MySQL database prefix, integration would not work. Please see this post for more information! Special thanks to axisoverdrive for giving me access to his server and letting me troubleshoot the issue!

01/05/2007 - Fixed issue where if a user saved (not published) and published later, the post would not be added to the forum.

01/05/2007 - When a post is edited, it will also be edited in the forum.

01/08/2007 - Modified slightly so when posts are edited, so are the titles (if edited).

02/07/2007 - Major modifications to new version (now 2.05). The list follows:

• Reworked the code so it uses the $vbulletin object throughout the code especially during the bridging process.
• Users are bridged whether they checked the "Remember Me" box or not.
• Removed a couple of SQL calls that became redundant.
• Addressed a bug where if a user logged out of the dashboard, it only logged them out of VB.
• Added Inline Comments capability. Comments posted to the forum (using VB for comments) will now appear at the bottom of a WP Post when viewing the post.
• Author user names can now be linked to their VB profile page if desired.
• Added option to turn off posting to forum. All this really does is remove the "Select Forum To Post To" option when writing a post. (There you go AxisOverdrive )
• The $vbulletin object should now be available in all templates and most plugins.
• Fixed a bug where deactivating any plugin would semi deactivate this plugin.
• With the reduction in SQL calls, and the removal of now unnecessary variables, speed and memory use should be improved.
• PLEASE READ THE UPGRADE INSTRUCTIONS IF UPGRADING!

07/17/2007

• Fixed problem where upload iframe was a bit mangled.
• Fixed problem where users had to refresh the dashboard once after logging in.
• Fixed problem that arose from Wordpress 2.2.1 upgrade that would not allow activation.
• Fixed logout issue where users would still be logged into Wordpress.
• When a Wordpress post is deleted, so is the thread it created.
• Added option to allow thread posted from Wordpress article to be truncated, with a linkback to the article.
• Fixed issue when user re-activates plugin, and vb_threadid column already exists. Now checks for column first.
• Removed a stray VB_Init() call.
• Forums that do not allow threads will not be selectable in the drop down menu when writing a post.
• Forums are listed out in a parent/child nested pattern.
• (Note: 367 downloads of version 2.05)

11/29/07 - 3.00

• Added TABLE_PREFIX throughout the script instead of the get_option('vbb_VBPRX') call. get_option('vbb_VBPRX') is now deprecated.
• Addressed path issues by establishing $vwd first. If for some reason there are path issues on an install, the path only needs to be manually changed once, at the beginning of the script.
• Removed call to admin_db.php which seems to no longer be necessary.
• Changed all queries to the VB database to be handled by the $vbulletin object. This should facilitate multiple database configurations.
• Added limited XMLRPC support.
• Had to include a basic copy of the functions_wysiwyg.php file (functions_wysiwyg2.php) with a minor change in the sanitize_url function (now sanitize_vburl) as it conflicts with a new WP function of the same name. Otherwise, this is identical to the VB release. This was necessary to keep formatting somewhat uniform between the two.
• Removed unnecessary globals.
• Changed the global.php call so it always loads. $vbulletin should be available throughout the code (via global in functions).
• Edited some code around wysiwyg functions of VB, and conversions to vbcode.
• Added "Turn Plugin On" option.
• Fixed an issue with the forum list on the "Write Post" page. Default forum was not being auto selected in some cases.
• Modified from BETA so that the new functions_wysiwyg2.php file is loaded using the WP ABSPATH constant. Requires the plugin to stay in the plugins directory.
• Fix an error message when a post was deleted in VB, then edited in WP.

12/10/07 - 3.01

• Fixed two <? tags that should have been <?php (pointed out by Amenadiel)

03/31/08 - 3.02

• Fixed media-upload clash for new version of Wordpress (2.5).
• Added fix that will now delete threads in VB when the post is deleted in WP and not using Ajax delete.
• Added code to insert a default email address if VB users email address is blank upon bridging.

04/20/08

• Fixed a bug in user roles for the new version 2.5.1 of Wordpress.

05/08/2008

• Fixed issue where CSS was munging scrolling text box when selecting a forum during a post
• Fixed an issue where content encoding was getting screwey between WP and VP creating a lot of unintended characters (only on PHP installs where utf8_decode() exists (most)).

05/08/2008

• Fixed issue where post count of a user did not change

Sites Using This Plug-In:

• http://www.jeffsrecipes.com
• http://www.worldwidecreations.com
• http://www.xboxcircle.com
• http://www.detailuniversity.com
• http://www.daggersden.net/
• http://www.talkbronx.com/
• http://www.czeta.it

(PM me if you want to add your site here)

Special Thanks:

axisoverdrive - Debugging Help, Kyraal - Paypal Donation, Kalina - Paypal Donation, Wildcard27 - Paypal Donation, Shri - Paypal Donation, pspcrazy - Paypal Donation, Tomahoochi - Paypal Donation.

If you use this plug-in, and find it useful, please support us by nominating us for Mod Of The Month (MOTM) in the top right corner of this thread, or feel free to donate.

[Jafo232]

Originally Posted by Bubble #5

Which brings us back to our question... since we never originally registered as 'admin' through the forum, how do we log-in at vb with that username?

You don't. Admin is basically never used again. You should have mapped a VB usergroup to administrator. That user should have admin privis. If not, deactivate the plugin (just rename the plugin file), login as admin, rename the plugin to the original name, turn off integration, and remap the usergroups correctly.

[Bubble #5]

Originally Posted by Jafo232

You don't. Admin is basically never used again.

Well that's not going to work because only the original WordPress admin has a level 10 access! All other WP admins are only level 8

So basically what you're saying is that by installing this hack that the main Wordpress admin (level 10) is removed?

[Jafo232]

Originally Posted by Bubble #5

Well that's not going to work because only the original WordPress admin has a level 10 access! All other WP admins are only level 8

So basically what you're saying is that by installing this hack that the main Wordpress admin (level 10) is removed?

From what I understand, version 2.x does not use user levels, it only uses roles:

http://codex.wordpress.org/User_Levels

Note: The User Levels described in this article are replaced in WordPress 2.0 by Roles and Capabilities.

So being an 8 or a 10 is not relevant.

Further information follows:

http://codex.wordpress.org/Roles_and_Capabilities

WordPress Version 2.0 introduces the concept of Roles. The WordPress distribution comes delivered 'standard' with five pre-defined Roles: Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, and Subscriber. Each Role is allowed to perform a set of tasks called Capabilities. There are thirty Capabilities including publish_posts, moderate_comments, and edit_users. The Capabilities are pre-assigned to each Role.

The Administrator Role is allowed to perform all possible Capabilities. Each of the other Roles has a decreasing number of allowed Capabilities. For instance, the Subscriber Role is allowed just the read and level_0 Capabilities. One particular Role should not be considered to be 'senior to' another Role. Rather, consider that Roles define the user's responsibilities within the blog.

[Bubble #5]

Originally Posted by Jafo232

From what I understand, version 2.x does not use user levels, it only uses roles:

That would be incorrect. Firstly, they still describe using both roles and user levels on their site for the current version.

Role Name: Administrator

Capabilities

switch_themes
edit_themes
activate_plugins
edit_plugins
edit_users
edit_files
manage_options
moderate_comments
manage_categories
manage_links
upload_files
import
unfiltered_html
edit_posts
edit_others_posts
edit_published_posts
publish_posts
edit_pages
read
level_10
level_9
level_8
level_7
level_6
level_5
level_4
level_3
level_2
level_1

The admin that this hack imported is a level 8, not a level 10. There needs to be at least one level 10 admin in control at all times. We cannot just effectively delete the level 10 admin as you suggested that this hack does. We'd love to use this hack, but not at the expense of losing our level 10 admin account

Secondly, we tried to install another plugin the other day and we received the error: "Sorry, a user level 8 cannot make this change" so we know levels are still being used. We are also using a fresh install of their latest version (2.1.1).

[Jafo232]

You failed to read further down that page:

"Maintained for backward compatibility for Plugins"

The error you are getting is most likely from the plugin you are trying to install, not WP. The plugin needs to be updated.

I can install/uninstall any plugin on three different fresh installs of the latest version of WP. User levels are now deprecated.

The page clearly states:

Administrator - Somebody who has access to all the administration features
...

the role of Administrator encompasses every possible task that can be performed within a WordPress blog.

[Greg-J]

Does anyone have this working with VB3.5.x ? If so, were there any modifications involved?

[Jafo232]

Originally Posted by Greg-J

Does anyone have this working with VB3.5.x ? If so, were there any modifications involved?

It has been a while since I have used 3.5.x, so I cannot be a 100% sure. From what I know of the VB code, I see no reason why it will not work, but please report any problems.

[Bubble #5]

2.1.2 is a mandatory upgrade, as a cracker has altered 2.1.1's files. However when we went to upgrade and tried to activate this plugin we received this error:

WordPress database error: [Duplicate column name 'vb_threadid']
ALTER TABLE wp_posts ADD vb_threadid INT(10)

How should we fix this?

Also, we came up with a great feature idea if you'd like to include it in the next version. Since vB members are now automatically being subscribed to the sites blog, it would be great if their avatar also carried over. This way when they post a comment, their vb Avatar would also be displayed

[Jafo232]

Originally Posted by Bubble #5

2.1.2 is a mandatory upgrade, as a cracker has altered 2.1.1's files. However when we went to upgrade and tried to activate this plugin we received this error:




How should we fix this?

Also, we came up with a great feature idea if you'd like to include it in the next version. Since vB members are now automatically being subscribed to the sites blog, it would be great if their avatar also carried over. This way when they post a comment, their vb Avatar would also be displayed

All that error means is the column already exists. The plugin should be enabled at that point. If it really bothers you, delete the vb_threadid column from the wp_posts table.

[sandrodz]

can I use subdomain? like blog.flunkme.com for the blog? also do I have to change usergroup? can I use default vb name? like registered group?

thx.