Multiple Forums using a single user table

This was originaly done in 3.0.9 by westpointer you can view that thread here

This Modification is for VB3.5.4 This is not supported but I will give as much help as I possible can.

I have this working now on 2 sites

The main site is http://forums.everything2stroke.com

Slave sites are
http://forums.everythingmx.com
and
http://forums.everythingduners.com

After a successfull install of this modification your sites will share User, PM, and sesson data.

This thread will detail how to have a single login for multiple forums. It makes the following assumptions:

• A valid vbulletin license exists for each install
• All forums will be on the same server
• One database will contain all the tables

A valid vbulletin license exists for each install


Follow these steps

1.) Download your new copy of VB that contains a seperate license key
2.) Go to /includes/config.php.new rename the file to config.php and make necessary changes to the file. See VB Directions. Make sure this code has a different setting than the master site for table prefix.

PHP Code:

 //          ****** TABLE PREFIX ******
 //          Prefix that your vBulletin tables have in the database.
$config['Database']['tableprefix'] = ''; 


3.) Run the vb install from the new directory (/www/new_forums/install/install.php)

4.) During the install, be sure NOT to empty the tables. If you have any doubt about what this means, stop NOW! If you empty the tables, you will lose all of your existing data from a prior install!

5.) Download all files and directories to your PC from the new install location.

6.) You will need a tool to do a mass Search and replace on all files. I use WildEdit. Here is what you will do using a tool like Wild Edit.

• Search for [" . TABLE_PREFIX . "user] Replace with [" . "vb3_user] where "vb3_" is the prefix to your master site. 110 Files modified 599 Total changes made
• Search for [" . TABLE_PREFIX . "strikes] Replace with [" . "vb3_strikes] where "vb3_" is the prefix to your master site 4 Files modified 8 Total changes made
• Search for [" . TABLE_PREFIX . "pm] Replace with [" . "vb3_pm] where "vb3_" is the prefix to your master site 16 Files modified 77 Total changes made
• Search for [" . TABLE_PREFIX . "session] Replace with [" . "vb3_session] where "vb3_" is the prefix to your master site 20 Files modified 31 Total changes made

Now to modify some of the code.

In /include/class_dm.php

Search for:

PHP Code:

 function fetch_insert_sql($tableprefix, $table)

            { 


Add below change vb3_ to your master site prefix:

PHP Code:

if ($table == "vb3_pmtext")

            {

                        $sql = "INSERT INTO {$table}\r\n\t(" . implode(', ', array_keys($this->$table)) . 


")\r\nVALUES\r\n\t(";

            

            }

            else 


Go to /include/class_dm_pm.php

Search for:

PHP Code:

var $table = 'pmtext'; 


Replace with making vb3_ the prefix to your master site:

PHP Code:

var $table = 'vb3_pmtext'; 


Search for:

PHP Code:

$pmtextid = ($this->existing['pmtextid'] ? $this->existing['pmtextid'] : $this->pmtext['pmtextid']); 


Replace with where vb3_ is the prefix to your master site:

PHP Code:

$pmtextid = ($this->existing['pmtextid'] ? $this->existing['pmtextid'] : $this->vb3_pmtext['pmtextid']); 


Search for:

PHP Code:

$this->dbobject->query_write("INSERT INTO " . TABLE_PREFIX . "pm (pmtextid, userid) VALUES ($pmtextid, $user[userid])"); 


Replace with where vb3_ is the prefix to your master site:

PHP Code:

$this->dbobject->query_write("INSERT INTO " . "vb3_pm (pmtextid, userid) VALUES ($pmtextid, $user[userid])"); 


Search for:

PHP Code:

" . $this->dbobject->escape_string($user['username']) . "', '" . $this->dbobject->escape_string($this->pmtext['title']) . 


Replace with where vb3_ is the prefix to your master site:

PHP Code:

" . $this->dbobject->escape_string($user['username']) . "', '" . $this->dbobject->escape_string($this->vb3_pmtext['title']) . 


Go to /include/class_dm_user.php

Search for:

PHP Code:

$return = $this->db_update(TABLE_PREFIX, 'user', $this->condition, $doquery, $delayed); 


Replace with where vb3_ is the prefix to your master site:

PHP Code:

$return = $this->db_update('vb3_', 'user', $this->condition, $doquery, $delayed); 


Search for:

PHP Code:

$this->db_update(TABLE_PREFIX, 'userfield',     $this->condition, $doquery, $delayed); 


Replace with where vb3_ is the prefix to your master site:

PHP Code:

$this->db_update('vb3_', 'userfield',     $this->condition, $doquery, $delayed); 


Search for:

PHP Code:

$this->db_update(TABLE_PREFIX, 'usertextfield', $this->condition, $doquery, $delayed); 


Replace with where vb3_ is the prefix to your master site:

PHP Code:

$this->db_update('vb3_', 'usertextfield', $this->condition, $doquery, $delayed); 


Search for:

PHP Code:

if ($return = $this->db_insert(TABLE_PREFIX, 'user', $doquery)) 


Replace with where vb3_ is the prefix to your master site:

PHP Code:

if ($return = $this->db_insert('vb3_', 'user', $doquery)) 


Search for:

PHP Code:

$this->db_insert(TABLE_PREFIX, 'userfield',     $doquery); 


Replace with where vb3_ is the prefix to your master site:

PHP Code:

$this->db_insert('vb3_', 'userfield',     $doquery); 


Search for:

PHP Code:

$this->db_insert(TABLE_PREFIX, 'usertextfield', $doquery); 


Replace with where vb3_ is the prefix to your master site:

PHP Code:

$this->db_insert('vb3_', 'usertextfield', $doquery); 


Search for:

PHP Code:

DELETE FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "session 


Replace with where vb3_ is the prefix to your master site:

PHP Code:

DELETE FROM ?.?vb3_session 


Search for:

PHP Code:

INSERT INTO " . TABLE_PREFIX . "passwordhistory (userid, password, passworddate) 


Replace with where vb3_ is the prefix to your master site:

PHP Code:

INSERT INTO " . "vb3_passwordhistory (userid, password, passworddate) 


Search for:

PHP Code:

 UPDATE " . TABLE_PREFIX . "session SET 


Replace with where vb3_ is the prefix to your master site:

PHP Code:

   UPDATE ?.?vb3_session SET 


That is all the code modification.


The only other item I did is remove a couple cron jobs.

Go into Scheduled tasks then to Scheduled Task Manager

Delete the following CRON jobs from the Slave Site

User Promotions*
Birthdays
Activation Reminder Email

This will eliminate members getting emails from the primary and secondary sites
*not sure if this will duplicate efforts between primary and secondary sites I have it running on both sites still waiting to see if it causes any issues.


Please post here if you have any problems and questions I will try my best to keep up with everyone to help you through this. Once you get the code done the first time you can just do a mass search and replace on your license code and you can be up and running in minutes with a new site.

This is my first major modification so I hope I posted this all correct, again Thanks to Westpointer for his original work without his post this would not have been possible.

Thanks

UPDATE:

Please make this changes it will allow you to make changes to usergroups in the subscription section and when editing a user.

admincp/adminfunctions.php
Search for

PHP Code:

                $result = $vbulletin->db->query_read("SELECT title, $tableid FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "$tablename $wherecondition ORDER BY title"); 


Replace with

PHP Code:

if ($tablename == "usergroup")
                {
                $result = $vbulletin->db->query_read("SELECT title, $tableid FROM " . "vb3_$tablename $wherecondition ORDER BY title");
                }
                else
                {
                $result = $vbulletin->db->query_read("SELECT title, $tableid FROM " . TABLE_PREFIX . "$tablename $wherecondition ORDER BY title");
                } 


[Chunky Monkey]

Has anyone got this working properly with 3.7.4?

Is there a way to share some of the forums, as well?

[shri]

Hi - I've tried to contact the author to see if they'll upgrade to the latest version of VB as a paid service, but no avail. Any ideas if this is compatible, or if there is an alternative to this for 3.8.x users?

[wmlvb]

I would love tis in 3.8 too!!

[xlguy]

Anyone fancy doing this for 3.8x?

[sR->Shaun]

I am currently working on a 3.8 version. I have the tables shared and it's working in terms of logging in. Acutally a lot of it works. But I'm getting insert errors when trying to create a new thread.

*edit this might be because I made new forums before importing the usertable.

[sR->Shaun]

Finished. So far so good.

Mod installation seems to be exactly the same in terms of edits for 3.8.1

[sv1cec]

OK, I've asked these questions in the thread for vB 3.0.x and got no answers, so I would post it here as well, since there are a few things that you guys may have seen and could save me the trouble. Here are my questions:

I would like to know how the "sessions" are handled. I have some questions here and I would appreciate if someone can answer them for me.

Let's assume two sites, A and B. With this hack, all user information is kept in the "user" table in database A.

A member of site A logs in Site B. Obviously, since the last login time is stored in the shared user table, the last login time entered in the table, will be common for both sites, correct? So if the member comes back after two days and logs-in in site A, the last login time will be the last login time from his visit in site B. That means that if the user asks to see the new posts since his last visit (for example), the posts shown to him will not be correct, he will miss the posts between the last time he visited site A and the time he visited site B. Am I correct on this? It is of course possible to alter the user table to have separate columns for these time parameters for site A and site B.

Another question: again, let's suppose that a member logs in site B, does some work there and then follows a link to site A. Will he still be logged in in site A or will he need to re-log in in the other site? In other words, how are cookies handled? And what difference will it make if someone uses the "Remember me" checkbox in one site?

[MagicThemeParks]

Great questions John!

I'm keeping my eyes open for the answers as I'm researching this as well

[betts02]

any update on a new vesion of this mod or if it works on 3.8 and above ?

[sticky]

Would it be possible to get this to work for VB 4? I'll gladly pay.