Quick Account Switch v1.2

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:

1. Adding of 1 field to user table (installer will try to do this)
2. Adding of 18 phrases (installer does this)
3. An addition to admincp/user.php
4. An addition to global.php
5. An addition to login.php
6. 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)
• vB 3.0.3. - With vBindex v3.0.0 RC5 (Instructions by bondjetta)
• vB 3.0.3. - Nexialys - ACP cookie hack. <- Recommended combination
• vB 3.0.1. - Nexialys - ACP cookie hack. <- Recommended combination
• vB 3.0.3. - Assorted mods

Future plans:

• 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):

• A 'let users link accounts themselves' mode.

Thanks to Oblivion Knight for the updated dropdown look.

Enjoy

--- History ---
v1.2 - 17th November 2004

• 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

[bondjetta]

right now i'm trying some different things.

1) logging in as one name and not switching at all...so far so good
2) logging in as one name then switching and staying that name (soon)
3) logging in as one name (in 1 tab) and logging into admincp (in another tab)
4) logging in as one name then switching (in 1 tab) and logging into admincp and letting it sit there

i've got a bunch of these, hopefully one will yield a result

[Ianomed]

I've not been able to make it log me out yet after several switches and letting it sit. Revisiting 3 sites after several hours still had me logged on as the user I last switched to, with session length at 900 seconds (15 minutes). And I'm a prolific user of tabbed browsing myself. *scratches head*

Thanks for running these tests, people

I'm interested to see what results this will yield. Between us we should be able to make this work for (almost) all boards.

[bondjetta]

Originally Posted by Ianomed

I've not been able to make it log me out yet after several switches and letting it sit. Revisiting 3 sites after several hours still had me logged on as the user I last switched to, with session length at 900 seconds (15 minutes). And I'm a prolific user of tabbed browsing myself. *scratches head*

Thanks for running these tests, people

I'm interested to see what results this will yield. Between us we should be able to make this work for (almost) all boards.

you know Nex's admincp dual cookie hack? do you know much about it? because that isn't keeping me logged in and I bet that might be interacting somehow...

[bondjetta]

done

Here's what I did, this took place over a 10 minute period:

1) I was logged in as Botanist (ianomed this'll make sense to u)
2) I switched to bondjetta (browsed the forums)
3) Opened new Tab, logged into admincp (not cookied though my browser hasn't closed, which is why i asked about the Admincp cookie hack)
4) went back over to front end (as bondjetta) clicked a link or so
5) waited ~10mins (I was on a conference call )
6) Opened new tab to ETC.com (so count 3 tabs now) and BOOM i was no longer logged in.

hope it helps, if you have questions let me know, i can try duplicating the results as well.

[Ianomed]

Originally Posted by bondjetta

you know Nex's admincp dual cookie hack? do you know much about it? because that isn't keeping me logged in and I bet that might be interacting somehow...

It gives the ACP its own cookie. And indeed, the adminCP will log you out after a while.

Possibly it could log you out if you switch to your admin account, then do something in the adminCP again. Or something along those lines. It's a bit hard to explain my reasoning for it, but if you're one account in the forum and another in the ACP then it should keep you logged on.

Any possible scenarios where this hack breaks, with or without Nex's hack will be good to study. I'll introduce any special programming for those circumstances in v1.2. Like I said in the last post, I've not been able to make it break yet on 1.1.1, and it's hard to debug something you can't replicate

[bondjetta]

Originally Posted by Ianomed

It gives the ACP its own cookie. And indeed, the adminCP will log you out after a while.

Possibly it could log you out if you switch to your admin account, then do something in the adminCP again. Or something along those lines. It's a bit hard to explain my reasoning for it, but if you're one account in the forum and another in the ACP then it should keep you logged on.

Any possible scenarios where this hack breaks, with or without Nex's hack will be good to study. I'll introduce any special programming for those circumstances in v1.2. Like I said in the last post, I've not been able to make it break yet on 1.1.1, and it's hard to debug something you can't replicate

i just gave you the steps to replicate it log into a slave account, then switch to master, open a new tab for admincp (maybe even click something in there), then wait a few minutes and make a new tab back to your forum's homepage....that's what i did

[Ianomed]

Bondjetta, check PM@ETC for some instructions specific to you to narrow things down some more... I think we're getting at something

[bondjetta]

Originally Posted by Ianomed

Bondjetta, check PM@ETC for some instructions specific to you to narrow things down some more... I think we're getting at something

will do

FYI i just got timed out over lunch on ETC, but VB.org kept me in...~45mins

[Holidazed]

How do we make it so the users can set up their own "Quick Switch". I run a site that allows users to have multiple accounts. This would be great for them. How does your have validate that they have the right to use that additional account?

[bondjetta]

Originally Posted by bitg

How do we make it so the users can set up their own "Quick Switch". I run a site that allows users to have multiple accounts. This would be great for them. How does your have validate that they have the right to use that additional account?

that's a future plan for v1.2 right now that would be an admin-only mod.