MyBB Community Forums

Hi All

I am very new to MYBB and am on the very first rung of the ladder using it.

I have just installed a copy of it to act as a replacement forum to what we currently have
which is a 15 year old copy of a cold fusion script called fusetalk.

Our shared hosting providers  are culling cold fusion support
and MYBB came out as my top pick of something more modern to
replace it with.

What I want to try and do is replicate ( roughly if not exactly )
what we currently have using the new mybb install.

Current Scenario

We run a small paid membership site.

We have a private forum which is available for paid members to use as
an optional extra. Once they get into the paid member area
they have the option of setting up a message board username.
Really just a bit of small custom code that lets them check
if a username is available and letting them pick it if so.

Forum username and password are stored in our main member database.
But on username set up the same username is created in the forum db
and placed in a  special member group.

Once set up they can then log into the forums.
( a totally separate log in to our main member area )

Note the original 15year old fusetalk script did have a spot in the config
file where one could nominate a 2nd database to be used for
member authentication.

Note all forum categories are set to be accessed by a non standard user group only.
ie any normal registration won't see very much at all.
Special group access rights required to read or reply etc.
It is a private not public forum.

Our main member db pretty much controls access rights.
ie say a paying member cancels their subscription
and reverts to free member rights only on our main site database,
they also then do not get forum access rights.


That is a very rough explanation of the current status quo.

What I am trying to figure out now would be a sensible way
of achieving roughly the same core thing but using mybb.

I suspect that precise quirks of MYBB may
make some routes more sensible than others.


For starters would I be correct in saying that mybb does not have
default config file settings that would permit set up of a call to
a 2nd database to authenticate log in rights?





Anyhow hoping to hear some big picture thought ideas
as to how I best I might go about using mybb to the same rough net effect
as we have at present.

Possibly some ideas may make things considerably easier.
eg right now if I downgrade a paying member in out main database
that is sufficient to block their access to the paying member forum.

Perhaps with MBB I may need to add something new in
such as a call to MBB to remove said user from the more
privileged ( can read and post ) user group in mybb?


Perhaps there is even some mod available that quickly and easily permits such a
check 2nd database for access rights thing?
ie use of 2nd database / table and fields , SQL for log in authentication?
Somewhat like a wordpress integration mod but set up to be much more generic?
Most likely not currently existing but who knows.




Right now I am trying to grasp big picture stuff and
and pros and cons associated with how best to go about things.

More experienced than I about Mybb thinkers appreciated.

I'm not going to answer your full post in this reply.

You can control user login and registration via plugin:

• Register a user from other applications, and push an account to MyBB to create the user in MyBB's database.
  
• Verify logins from other applications, find the corresponding users in MyBB's database and let MyBB handle the logins.
  

All these can be achieved by using plugin hooks and MyBB built-in functions, instead of direct database queries.

There are also plugins for membership subscriptions, IIRC. Have a search here: https://community.mybb.com/mods.php

ta Noyle

re "plugins for membership subscriptions"
would I be correct in thinking these are best suited ot the scenario where one has a base mybb installed and then wants to add paid areas to it.

So slightly different for me as we already have an existing non mybb membership set up
from which we just want to primarily check on access rights?


re "Register a user from other applications, and push an account to MyBB to create the user in MyBB's database."
Yup I can see need to do that. ie I will somehow need to permit an authorised member ability to
optionally set up a message board username if they want to avail of it.

re "Verify logins from other applications, find the corresponding users in MyBB's database and let MyBB handle the logins."
I think this is perhaps the zone of max interest to me.

eg user logs in at mybb but instead of checking the default mybb it will somehow
go check my primary member db.

and googling I found https://docs.mybb.com/1.8/development/plugins/hooks/

But I do not really understand what any of them do or how I should use them.

My php skills are very very low.

My current understanding of mybb even lower.

cheers
Mick