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Integrate WebWiz Forum with Current SQL DB

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Category: Web Wiz Web App Support Forums
Forum Name: Web Wiz Forums
Forum Description: Support forum for Web Wiz Forums application.
URL: https://forums.webwiz.net/forum_posts.asp?TID=19621
Printed Date: 29 March 2026 at 7:36pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.08 - https://www.webwizforums.com

Topic: Integrate WebWiz Forum with Current SQL DB

Posted By: idonnoasp
Subject: Integrate WebWiz Forum with Current SQL DB
Date Posted: 29 April 2006 at 11:15pm

Hello All!

I was wonder if it's possible to integrate WebWiz Forums with my current database of users/password. When someone joins my website I'd like to have the system create an account in the forums for them automatically.

Is that possible?

Thanks,

P.

Replies:

Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 02 May 2006 at 12:50pm

There is a built in member API.

Just add the following to your own sites login system:-

Session("USER") = Member_Username
Session("PASSWORD") = Member_Password

Replace the parts in red with the users login username and password, this will auto log the user into the forum, and create an account for them when they go to the forum, if they don't have one already.

This does rely on your own sites security for logging in users which probably won't be as secure as that built into Web Wiz Forums. So make sure your login system is adequately secure.

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Posted By: idonnoasp
Date Posted: 02 May 2006 at 1:18pm

Will the forum prompt them for more information regarding their new account or let them right in to use the forums?

Thanks,

Patrick

Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 02 May 2006 at 1:26pm

Once your users login into your site using this method they will not need to login into the forum also.

What happens is, the member logs into your site, they then go to the forum where they will also be logged in under the same username, without them having to do anything extra.

If it is the first time the logged in member goes to your forum an account for them will be created by the forum and they will be logged in under that username to the forum without them needing to do anything else.

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Posted By: idonnoasp
Date Posted: 02 May 2006 at 1:32pm

Will the system prompt them for a different username if the one from my system already exists on the forums?

Thanks for the quick replies, it's much appreciated!

Patrick.

Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 02 May 2006 at 1:40pm

No, your login system needs to use unique usernames.

Because you are relying on the security of your own login system it means that the user is auto logged into the forum by whatever username they log into your sites own login system under.

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Posted By: idonnoasp
Date Posted: 02 May 2006 at 1:48pm

Is there a way to disable the 'registration' on the forums? Which would allow me to force users to register with my main site which in-turn would create an account on the forums for them.

Thanks,

Patrick.

Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 02 May 2006 at 1:54pm

Sorry I forgot to mention, that you should disable new user registration from the admin area.

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Posted By: idonnoasp
Date Posted: 02 May 2006 at 2:05pm

Where is that option in the Admin? I've tried looking for it but unable to locate.

I really don't want to say this, but I must ask, why do WebWiz and phpBB look very similar (admin area, forums, etc...)?

Thanks AGAIN :)

Patrick

Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 02 May 2006 at 2:24pm

Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 02 May 2006 at 2:27pm

You need to edit the file 'functions/functions_member_API.asp' to enable this feature.

Many forums that use a flat bulletin board method look the same or similar.

I've never used PhpBB myself, so wouldn't know if the admin area looked similar or not, I just developed the admin area in the way it is based on tools that people asked for and required.

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Posted By: wistex
Date Posted: 03 May 2006 at 12:29am

As they say, form follows function. Many things will be similar because there are only so many ways to do the same task in a programming language.

Its like how all cars look the same, even though they have a different style. If a car had two (2) wheels instead of four (4), it wouldn't be a car anymore, for example. It might be a motorcycle, but it wouldn't be a car. You'd probably get nervous if your car didn't have a steering wheel or brake pedal. You'd also probably not want to buy the car if it had square wheels.

So, in any forum software, like WWF, phpBB, etc., certain features are going to be expected, and are going to be similar since they must be by design. All car wheels are round because its what works. All forums have similar admin features because that is what works and what users want and expect.

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Posted By: skbohler
Date Posted: 03 May 2006 at 2:18pm

I can't seem to get this to work.

I've set the session variables, edited the .asp and set the flag to "True".

However, when I login on my site, then go to my forum site, it wants me to register or login.

What am I missing?

Thanks,

Steve

Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 04 May 2006 at 12:32pm

It's hard to tell, make sure the session variables are being set correctly.

A link to have a look may also help.

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Posted By: skbohler
Date Posted: 04 May 2006 at 5:10pm

The session variable is being set as

Session("USER") = Login

It is being set fine, but when I go to my default.asp of the forum and try to response.write the value, it is blank.

What links would you like to see?

The page for my site is http://www.theoxfordprogram.com/OP/ - http://www.theoxfordprogram.com/OP/

The page for my forum is http://www.theoxfordprogram.com/forum3/ - http://www.theoxfordprogram.com/forum3/

Thanks very much,

Steve

Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 04 May 2006 at 5:20pm

If the session variable is blank like you mention it could be that your site or server has a problem holding the session variable.

If you are using a web farm, web garden, load balanced web servers etc. then these will stop session variables from working.

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Posted By: skbohler
Date Posted: 04 May 2006 at 5:27pm

No web farm or anything liked that. All on the same machine.

Could it be that my application has a global.asa file or something?

I don't know much about the scope of session variables.

Steve

Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 04 May 2006 at 5:41pm

Global.asa should make a difference unless you are using session.abandon within it.

Also make sure when your set the session variable that you are actually populating it with a value.

If it is the server that is having problems holding the session then this is something that your host needs to look into.

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Posted By: skbohler
Date Posted: 04 May 2006 at 9:54pm

The global.asa was calling session.abandon. I commented it out, but still no luck.

The session variable is definitely being set, but it's definitely not set when I move to the forum/default.asp.

I can't see why not. It's a shame because I really need that functionality.

Posted By: calmoim3
Date Posted: 17 May 2006 at 5:46pm

boRg,

I wish I had found this thread sooner. We tried to do this on our own and wound up locking everyone out! Ouch.

Is there a way to make membership and forum access time limited? We are setting up a support forum that will be subscription based and we were planning to require authorization for new members, then track subscription status manually. Upon expiration, we plan to send a tickler email, and if the user declines remove them from the forum.

This adds a couple of layers I would just as soon not administer.

Is there a better way?

thanks

Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 18 May 2006 at 9:51am

There isn't a time limited feature built into the present version of web wiz forums.

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Posted By: wistex
Date Posted: 18 May 2006 at 12:34pm

calmoim3 wrote:

boRg,

I wish I had found this thread sooner. We tried to do this on our own and wound up locking everyone out! Ouch.

This adds a couple of layers I would just as soon not administer.

Is there a better way?

thanks

If I am understanding what you want correctly, there are a couple ways to do it:

If you are using your own login system and using Borg's method of integration you can do this:

In a table in the database you will need to store their subscription expiration date. (It doesn't matter where.)
When they login, do a quick query to see if their subscription has expired.

If it has expired, then check if they have access to the support forums and if so do an update query on the database that changes their status in the forum so they can't access it anymore. You would probably do this by changing the permissions of that particular user.
If it has not expired, then do nothing.

Continue the login process like normal.

This way users with expired subscriptions will automatically be restricted from accessing the forums.

An alternate way would be to:

In a table in the database you will need to store their subscription expiration date. (It doesn't matter where.)
Create a script that checks a user's subscription expiration date.

If their subscription is expired and they still have access, change their permissions in the forum.
Else do nothing.

Create a scheduled task that runs this script once a day.

Some Notes:

You may want to create some additional error checking and optimization into this. What I described is simple and uses more resources than necessary, but would work.

Additional Ideas:

You could also make it so that it sends out the tickler as well. You would just need to make sure that it records that it was sent out to prevent it from being sent multiple times.

Hope that helps.

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Posted By: calmoim3
Date Posted: 18 May 2006 at 1:58pm

Thanks, gives us something to work with.

Posted By: Geekman
Date Posted: 25 May 2006 at 6:34pm

I'm having trouble implementing the new Member API. I'm sure I'm overlooking something simple. I set the Session variables (USER & PASSWORD). But when I run default.asp it does not autologin. I've even written code to read back all session variables and sure enough they are both correct. I just can't see the forest for the trees. Thanks

Posted By: WebWiz-Bruce
Date Posted: 25 May 2006 at 7:23pm

You need to edit the file 'functions/functions_member_API.asp' to enable this feature.

Change the following variable to True as shown below:-

Const blnMemberAPI = True

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Posted By: Geekman
Date Posted: 25 May 2006 at 8:11pm

Thanks borg. That was it.