Please note: This SIP is not compatible with the latest version 3. A SIP for version 3 will be available shortly.

Q: Do you support user table integration on my existing site? I already have a lot of users in my database.

A: Yes we do. We look at integration with existing membership in 3 areas:

1. importing existing users
2. creating new users - one registration form
3. Login - one login form

1. You can import your existing users to our database using the "fast member import" feature in the software. Or, you can use the Site Integration Package (the SIP; in VBScript Object / .NET assembly) that is available for the forum owner to programmatically import users into the database.
   
   To use the "fast member import" feature, you just prepare a list of your current users, one member per line, in the following format:
   
   Login, email, password
   
   e.g.
   
   Samuel, abc@def.com, password
   
   And then copy&paste the list into a text box in the forum control panel to import your users to our software.
   
   To prepare the list of your users, you can use a very simple ASP page/recordset object to response.write the list.
   
   The Site Integration Package (SIP) COM interface can be found here:
   
   http://www.aspplayground.net/SIP/readme.htm (you want to pay attention to the PGDRegistration Class)
   
   In conclusion, you have two ways to import your members to our software, one is through the admin feature "Fast Member Import", and the other is through the use of the SIP (Site Integration Package).
2. Once you have imported all your existing members, you can make use of the PGDRegistration Class in your own registration page to insert new users into the forum database. You can turn off the registration system in the forum and direct visitors to your own registration page.
3. You need to integrate the login system so that users only have to login once, you can make use of the SIP's PGDLogin class too. You can simply call the PGDLogin's signin() method in your own login system to create a session variable or an auto-login cookie (2 different ways) that can be recognized by the forum.
   
   Once forum sees the session variable or the auto-login cookie, the forum will recognize this user as being logged in.

The SIP (Site Integration Package) provides a very easy programming interface for you to integration your own membership system with the forum software. The SIP is available for both our ASP and ASP.NET versions and can be downloaded in our Tutorial forum (only available to license holders). The classes and their members are available here:

http://www.aspplayground.net/sip/readme.htm

Q: what if my site is written in another language? How can I still use your SIP to perform an auto login?

A: very simple. Follow the steps below:

1. create a db table (GUID, login , password), and insert a GUID (generated by Cold Fusion) and login name + password (from user input on your codefusion page) once a user is logged in on your site.
   
2. then, do a simple redirection to a vb.net page with the GUID appended as the querystring.
   
3. From the vb.NET page, retrieve the login name and password from the table using the GUID, perform a simulated login using the SIP (a cookie will be created for you), and delete the db record.
   
4. At the end of the page, redirect the person back where he is from. Now since he as the needed cookie for automatic login, the forum will recognize him.
5. To remove the login/logout link from the forum -> just delete it from the header
   

Samuel Chou
Forum Administrator