Presales Question - Very Large Forum

[misteraven]

Hello,

I have some pre sales questions regarding your bridge add-on. Some background: We have a very large forum 150k+ members and apps 6.5 million replies that is being relaunched. We recently migrated from ExpressionEngine x vBulletin to use WordPress x Xenforo. Unfortunately our member database is a bit of a mess as we had a very poorly implemented bridge. We've successfully migrated the data and ran into issues with xFrocks bridge in that in some cases a user already exists in both databases, but have mismatched passwords so the association cannot be made. After struggling for weeks to resolve, seems like I can't get any help on it and decided to simplify the situation by going with a single point authentication instead of the two point as is the case with the other bridge.

This being said, I was hoping to get a couple answers and hopefully hiring someone that can assist.

Questions:

1. Assume the WP login widget can be modified or somehow tweaked so we can add a login form to all our WordPress pages? (We have a completely custom theme).

2. Can you please explain the feature that copies the member data to WordPress a bit? Hoping to have that feature just for some future development plans that might rely on member data being in WordPress.

3. We also have a fairly complex set of roles for our news publishing staff on the WordPress side. Can you please explain a bit how this is handled with your plugin.

4. Wondering if you can point me to someone that might be able to assist with the implementation, including the customizations to our theme to allow for the login (assuming that question number 1 is true).

Thank you,

Allen

P.S. In terms of looking for sites / forums for testing, not sure you'll find a more convoluted setup than ours. So long as it al works, I'd be more than happy to pass along any feedback along the way if we can just get our bridge up and working.

 

[LPH]

Hi Allen. Hopefully I can answer most of these questions. Some might require a discussion about your site's needs.

Questions:

1. Assume the WP login widget can be modified or somehow tweaked so we can add a login form to all our WordPress pages? (We have a completely custom theme).

2. Can you please explain the feature that copies the member data to WordPress a bit? Hoping to have that feature just for some future development plans that might rely on member data being in WordPress.

3. We also have a fairly complex set of roles for our news publishing staff on the WordPress side. Can you please explain a bit how this is handled with your plugin.

4. Wondering if you can point me to someone that might be able to assist with the implementation, including the customizations to our theme to allow for the login (assuming that question number 1 is true).

Thank you,

Allen

P.S. In terms of looking for sites / forums for testing, not sure you'll find a more convoluted setup than ours. So long as it al works, I'd be more than happy to pass along any feedback along the way if we can just get our bridge up and working.

1. There is a login widget supplied with XenWord. This uses the XenForo user_id / account username and password to log into XenForo and WordPress.

2. There is an option to have XenForo members copied into the WordPress database. This is not a good idea when there are so many accounts already in WordPress and XenForo is new. However, there is code supplied in XenWord to copy the WP accounts over first into XenForo ... this might be important.

3. I'm assuming you are using custom roles - which can be assigned to the staff accounts.

4. Maybe @Tecca would be interested in helping with theme integration?

 

[misteraven]

1. There is a login widget supplied with XenWord. This uses the XenForo user_id / account username and password to log into XenForo and WordPress.

2. There is an option to have XenForo members copied into the WordPress database. This is not a good idea when there are so many accounts already in WordPress and XenForo is new. However, there is code supplied in XenWord to copy the WP accounts over first into XenForo ... this might be important.

3. I'm assuming you are using custom roles - which can be assigned to the staff accounts.

4. Maybe @Tecca would be interested in helping with theme integration?

As for my sites needs, currently I just need a stewed login and user session that is stable and seamless. I'd love the ability to make the login fields consistent across ALL pages, whether forum or WordPress, but about to throw in the towel on that. I chose xFrocks' bridge because it allowed login from either side and kept both member tables in sync. He's put in a ton of time to helping get it working, but eventually dropped off before I got it implemented on our production website. Now I'm getting desperate because the staff users are confused about having to login twice and all the extra URL's (login / admin) needed to access everything across both systems.

We have a pretty big website and right now the member tables are out of sync. I finally have the XF side of it fully migrated and current so now I'm hoping to sort out the bridge and get it implemented and solid.

1. So would I be correct that since this works as a widget, the code could be modified to appear within templates as well? (Sorry, pretty new to WordPress as well)

2. Yeah, right now our forum members are accurate so my plan was to purge the WP members table to avoid conflicts. That being said, I would like to ensure that WordPress has a copy of the users as they're logged in so assume once its been purged, I should be okay?

3. Yes, we are using custom roles. Okay, great!

4. @Tecca feel free to start a private conversation and I'll pass you my email if this interests you.

Thanks!

 

[LPH]

We have a pretty big website and right now the member tables are out of sync. I finally have the XF side of it fully migrated and current so now I'm hoping to sort out the bridge and get it implemented and solid.

1. So would I be correct that since this works as a widget, the code could be modified to appear within templates as well? (Sorry, pretty new to WordPress as well)

2. Yeah, right now our forum members are accurate so my plan was to purge the WP members table to avoid conflicts. That being said, I would like to ensure that WordPress has a copy of the users as they're logged in so assume once its been purged, I should be okay?

3. Yes, we are using custom roles. Okay, great!

4. @Tecca feel free to start a private conversation and I'll pass you my email if this interests you.

Thanks!

1. Yes. I prefer using a widget over template edits.
2. You are making your life easier by cleaning up the XF side and purging the WP side. Once XenWord is installed then it'll copy the XF user over to the WP side as a backup.
3.

 

[misteraven]

Have to say that I'm super nervous to try this since every bridge has been problematic in the past. Wondering of anyone qualified is available to assist for a reasonable fee? If I can get this working smoothly, happy to buy a lifetime license and pay the extra for branding removal (By the way where would it be branded).

 

[LPH]

Hi

I've been thinking about your case as well as numerous others -- and released a XenWord test version for free today. This was done so that people can try the login / logout on a developer server and see how things work.

Let me know if this is helpful.

 

[misteraven]

Hi

I've been thinking about your case as well as numerous others -- and released a XenWord test version for free today. This was done so that people can try the login / logout on a developer server and see how things work.

Let me know if this is helpful.

I actually downloaded and tried installing it on our dev server shortly after my last post but got the following error:

Call to undefined function mb_internal_encoding()

Been trying to solve it for going on two hours, but haven't made any progress. Could really use a hand and willing to pay someone a reasonable fee for some assistance.

 

[misteraven]

@LPH I know it specifically mentions that you don't do installs, but think you might be willing to make an exception?

 

[LPH]

I actually downloaded and tried installing it on our dev server shortly after my last post but got the following error:

Call to undefined function mb_internal_encoding()

Been trying to solve it for going on two hours, but haven't made any progress. Could really use a hand and willing to pay someone a reasonable fee for some assistance.

Ah !! This is a server requirement not in my documents. It's been a long time since I've seen the message. Luckily the fix is easy. Simply install mbstring at the server level. After installation of the extension then use phpinfo() to make sure it is activated.

http://php.net/manual/en/mbstring.installation.php

It's a good thing you tried the trial first.

 

[LPH]

@LPH I know it specifically mentions that you don't do installs, but think you might be willing to make an exception?

@MattW does all of my server work for me. This isn't a XenWord install issue but a server one. But after you do the mbstring installation on the server then I can help you with XenWord.

 

[misteraven]

I actually downloaded and tried installing and got

Ah !! This is a server requirement not in my documents. It's been a long time since I've seen the message. Luckily the fix is easy. Simply install mbstring at the server level. After installation of the extension then use phpinfo() to make sure it is activated.

http://php.net/manual/en/mbstring.installation.php

It's a good thing you tried the trial first.

Sorry for the long delay in responding... been doing a bit of travel and also took me a bit to get PHP tweaked with mb_internal_encoding

Unfortunately my trial expired long before I got PHP updated. Is there any way to reset my 7 day trial?

Thank you.

 

[LPH]

I actually downloaded and tried installing and got

Sorry for the long delay in responding... been doing a bit of travel and also took me a bit to get PHP tweaked with mb_internal_encoding

Unfortunately my trial expired long before I got PHP updated. Is there any way to reset my 7 day trial?

Thank you.

You should still be able to use the version you downloaded. Let me know if you need to download again and I'll extend the license.

 

[misteraven]

Okay, got PHP tweaked and was just able to successfully install and was able to view the settings screen. Since there was a big warning about not using on a live website, I stopped after confirming the settings page and then deactivated the plugin to avoid interrupting things on our website (our dev server is so far out of sync its about worthless at this point). So guess I'm ready to buy a copy and give this a go for real.

Thanks for the answering all my questions on this. Will probably start a private conversation once we get the install going with any additional questions regarding configuration in our specific instance. Also, still trying to wrap my head around how best to handle login forms on non-XF pages. We have a completely custom theme so I don't think widgets will work in our situation.

In any case, thanks again!