MODx & vBulletin integration

BanzaiTokyo has developed an integration script for MODx CMS and vBulletin forums. This script allows you to run those two products as one system where your users will only need to register and login only once for both your website and the forums. The integration concerns not only registration but seamlessly synchronizes all user related aspects of your website and forums.

Here is the list of the features:

• synchronized userlist for both MODx and vBulletin*
• login
• log out
• registration
• password reset
• creation of a user though the admin panel
• user removal
• password/email change through the admin panel**

*on MODx side the integration works for webusers only. We may integrate synchronization of administrator usergroup in vBulletin with manager users in MODx, but at this point we haven't got such requests from our clients. And it seems that there might be no real need for this.

**other user profile fields are not synchronized because of their differences in vBulletin and MODx CMS.

Some technical information:

The script is compatible with all versions of MODx and the latest versions of vBulletin. If it is required it is possible to install it on vBulletin 3.8

The PHP files of both systems (MODx and vBulletin) should be located on the same server while the databases can be located elsewhere - the integration script reads the parameters from the configuration files of the products.

If at the moment of the installation of our integration script in either MODx or vBulletin there existing users their information will not be synchronized due to the differences in password encryption in vBulletin and MODx. But we have a plugin that can synchronize the existing vBulletin users at their next login. At the login the information about this user will be transferred to MODx and he will be able to use all the advantages of the integrated website just like a newly registered member. The same functionality can be developed for existing MODx users.

It is noteworthy that standear MODx snippet WebLogin uses case sensitive usernames, while vBulletin doesn't.

Installation:

I. in vBulletin

Plugins & Products -> Manage Products -> Add/Import Product -> select product-modxvbin.xml -> Install

At the installation we recommend to turn off GZIP HTML output. You can do that in vBulletin Options -> Cookies and HTTP Header Options -> GZIP HTML. You can turn it back on after checking that login and registration work fine.

in vBulletin Options -> General Settings -> Path to MODx - fill in the relative path to your MODx software. For example, on DesignContest.net where MODx is installed in the root folder and the forums are installed just one level up in DesignContest.net/forum this field needs to be: ../

II. in MODx 

In Manager -> Resources tab -> Manage resources -> Plugins -> New plugin.

Plugin name - BanzaiTokyo Integration

Plugin code  - insert the contents of  modx_plugin.php

Configuration tab: in Plugin configurationinsert: &VBDIR=vBulletin path;text

Click somewhere on the page and you will see "vBulletin path" parameter appear. You should put the path to the vBulletin forums on your website. In the case of DesignContest.net where MODx is installed in the root folder and the forums are installed in DesignContest.net/forum this would be: forum/

In System Events tab check the following events: OnWebAuthentication, OnWebChangePassword, OnWebDeleteUser, OnWebLogout, OnWebSaveUser.

The paths should be relative and end with "/".

Examples

BanzaiTokyo integration script has been implements and tested on a number of websites including our own project DesignContest.net If you need more examples of our previous integration projects, you can contact us and we'll be glad to send you the links via email.