Ok, thought I would throw this out there and see what I catch I cant imagine that no one else wants to or may all ready be doing this.

I use dbman as a user database. I want to be able to use the same password file for a BBS & chatroom, so only registered users would have access to there "name". I am not interested in this for security, more for the safty of peoples idenity. (IE-agvitale is really agvitale not someone pretending to be me on boards and chatrooms.) Is anyone else doing this? Is it possible to add the login screen to other scripts? I know I would have to make one other mod (to force the login name to be the userid too) but this doesnt seem so far fetched, anyone?

I am not tied to any one BBS, or Chatroom altho just adding a a mod to run the login screen and keeping the info in memory for so long and running a check to see if the person is logged in doesnt seem to far fetched no? Am I asking to much?

Anyway just curious to see what other people (if any) are doing... Maybe I am going about what I want to do all wrong?

Thanks in advance..
~Gina

Oh, Gina, I'm sorry. I didn't get back to you! Your email is in the pile somewhere.

You would have to look at the structure of the password files in the chat room and BBS scripts to see if there would be a way to adjust them to work together. Different scripts use very different methods, but it might be possible.


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JPD

lol, thats ok! Not a problem...

Well currently the board I am using doesnt utilize passwords and the chatroom I am totally unsettled on..right now I am using a java applet thats hosted which I am not happy with still looking into that, what I was wondering is if I could pop something in the front of the board script to call up the login screen from dbman? I dunno...I feel kind of at a loss here. Wondering if I am going about this all wrong. Just trying to gain some ideas.

Its seems like a logical need for websites no? I user list with member name and password that works accross the board in chatrooms and boards? Maybe there is a product that supports all of this I havent found? I feel totally clueless!

I don't know of a unified web package, which is really what you're looking for.

The only way I can envision a chat script that would work this way would be to use an html-based chat. There are some problems with those, though. For one thing, they are very slow. For another, a lot of servers won't let you use them because they use a lot of resources.

I may have an idea for the chat script, but I'll wait until I investigate it before I give you any kind of description of it.

I'll get back to you.


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JPD

There are a few integrated packages that are geared toward academic environments. Some of them are

Top Class:
www.wbtsystems.com

WebCT:
www.webct.com

However, these are licensed products. They do provide message boards, chat, and other interactive options. I do not know of ANY freeware integrated packages and I highly doubt that there will ever be one available.
It takes a lot of time, energy, and financial resources to produce a secure integrated product.

But as Carol suggested, there may be a way to use DBMAN to mimick password files from other scripts and programs. (Although it would take a lot of programming to ensure that everything matches...You really have to weigh the costs and benefits in terms of programming time, userability, end user needs, purpose of your web services, etc.)

Also, check out these web sites for information on groupware products:

Conferencing Software on the Web
thinkofit.com/webconf/ - BEST

ZDNet Webopedia Definition and Links
www.zdwebopedia.com/TERM/g/groupware.html

Hope this helps.

Regards,

------------------
Eliot Lee
Founder and Editor
Anthro TECH, L.L.C
http://www.anthrotech.com/
info@anthrotech.com
==========================
Coconino Community College
http://www.coco.cc.az.us/
Web Technology
Coordinator
elee@coco.cc.az.us

Thanks Carol let me know if you find out ANYTHING, and Eliot thank you too! I will look over those products too. Like I said maybe I am going about this ALL wrong. I have a few things I need to find out it looks like...Life is one big learning experience eh? Thanks again!

~Gina

I just saw a BBS that looks wonderful -- and is free! -- called Ultraboard, which is at
http://www.ultrascripts.com/

I haven't looked closely at the files as yet to be able to see if the DBMan password files could be used for the BBS, but I've asked a question on their support forum, so maybe I'll get an answer.

As for a chat script, I have used a chat service from www.toolzone.com. I think that the entry page for the chat could be incorporated into DBMan. The problem is that I don't seem to be able to log on to toolzone today. It's been a while since I've been there, so I'm not sure what the deal is.

If the toolzone thing gets to working, this is a great solution. It allows folks who are "Java impaired" to be part of the chat, but it doesn't use up your own system's resources so your sysadmin won't yell at you.

From what I saw on it before, it would appear that you could use DBMan as the entry into the chat, which would mean that your chat's would be password protected and the usernames would be consistent between DBMan and the chat.

I'm going to look some more, though, and see what I can come up with.

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JPD

Carol,

Thanks I would love to get this going..I did run Ultra Board and I cant remember why I didnt choose it, but I do remember I liked the board just was missing something. Probably didnt do threaded messages. BUT, like I said if WE can get it to work I will change if you need me to do something on my end let me know. While your surfing look over the board on my site. Not sure if you have seen it, I like it its WebBBS. Its a nice small threaded board thats I thought would be easy to incorporate this into.

As for the chat... I cant find a chat I like so I will switch. I was running Crzy Chat which I liked but there server has been down. But again I will switch that too! Email me if I can be of any help...I will do what I can to help. Would be a nice Mod if we could get this.. I know I have been burned in the past someone trying to be me so I am extreamly touchy on this subject.

~Gina

I think this would be an okay discussion to have in the open, since someone else might be interested in integrating several applications.

You're right. Ultraboard isn't a threaded board. It's like this one. I did download it and figured out how the passwords work. I think I could write code for DBMan to create a Ultraboard's password files at the same time as a user signs up for a password. And I also think I could create a link that would automatically send the user to Ultraboard without their having to log in.

I've downloaded the WebBBS script and will take a look at it later this evening to see what its structure is.

(A couple minutes later.) WebBBS doesn't use password security within the script. You might need to find out if you can use .htaccess on your server. If so, your problems would be pretty much solved.

Toolzone is still down, it seems, so I can't check it out. I didn't find another one that I liked, but I didn't look at all of them that are available either. (I had to go offline while the cable guy came to fix something. )

I'll check out some other ones and see if I can't find something that you can use.

------------------
JPD

lol...And I just downloaded Ultra Board again. It is a nice board for free I will admit. not sure my users would be able to get used to a none threaded board. But I would be willing to see. So I downloaded it too.

Anyway my server does support .htaccess but I dont know anything about it! lol I think I better try to read up on it..because I threw this ? out to webbbs and they suggested the same thing. lol I will ask this (remember I dont know anything about the .htaccess) How does it work with dbman (or does it) I mean would I have to change a dbman around?

~Gina

There are cgi scripts available via cgi-resources.com that automatically add users and passwords into an .htpasswd file.
Check out cgi-resources.com (Perl) and then click on Password Protection link. Look for some scripts that automatically add user info into the .htpasswd file.

The way I see it, you could use DBMAN as a front end that can create a password file that can be used for your various interactive options. There may be a way to redesign the .htpasswd file that works with .htaccess to allow user info to be passed to it.

------------------
Eliot Lee
Founder and Editor
Anthro TECH, L.L.C
http://www.anthrotech.com/
info@anthrotech.com
==========================
Coconino Community College
http://www.coco.cc.az.us/
Web Technology
Coordinator
elee@coco.cc.az.us

DBMan will work with .htaccess, although you wouldn't be able to use the password lookup, I don't think.

------------------
JPD

Believe it or not I have all ready used the password lookup.. I am not sure how to take this, like I said I dont know anything about the .htaccess so I am trying to read up on it it will take me some time to comprehend (thats the hardest part!) But I will get it. So bear with me!

~Gina

JPDeni et al,

The password lookup mod will NOT work with the .htpasswd file that is used with .htaccess. Passwords are automatically encrypted in the .htpasswd file.

Regards,

------------------
Eliot Lee
Founder and Editor
Anthro TECH, L.L.C
http://www.anthrotech.com/
info@anthrotech.com
==========================
Coconino Community College
http://www.coco.cc.az.us/
Web Technology
Coordinator
elee@coco.cc.az.us

I may have a way to work around that, though. I'm pondering.

Gina, toolzone.com is up and running if you want to check out their chat script. It shouldn't be too hard to incorporate the chat login into DBMan.


------------------
JPD

What the saying noting good comes easy? Hope this is the case! lol Cant take a peek at the chat, it says I dont support cookies, roflol funny thing is I am actually making cookies too! Was kind of weird, anyway I have a email into them to find out whats up, there diag found I support it and I know for a fact I do.. So we wait...and ponder and eat cookies.....

~Gina

Ok, I'm hoping to bring this thread back from the dead. Carol, did you ever get the integration with Ultra working, in particular the common user/password/sessionID? I've just started playing around with it, and was hoping not to have to re-invent the wheel, so to speak. Also, does anybody have any recommendations/strong feelings on where the user profile should be stored... within DBMan or the board user profile. Thanks in advance...

------------------
The Immuatable Order of Modding
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1. Read the FAQ, 2. Search the board, 2a. Search the board again, 3. ask the question, 4. back-up, 5. experiment, 6. rephrase question (or better yet, post solution to original question)

Hello, oldmoney.

Good luck on hearing a response from Carol. She has not been active in the Forum since middle of October.

My humble suggestion is re-write the logging process to work with Ultraboard. I think it would be more problematic to re-write the Ultaboard login process. Although the problem with setting permissions and stuff in DBMAN and have it work with Ultraboard would be problematic. May be, what you could do is add a routine in that will copy the information (email, userid, password) into a separate file that can work more amicable with the Ultraboard userid file.

Don't know for sure...I think there will be many problems.

BTW: It seems that Widgetz has created a login script that works across LINKS, Discussion Forum, and other interactive options in one of his sites. Problem though is that the script is written for MySQL tables rather than flat files.

Regards,

------------------
Eliot Lee
Anthro TECH,L.L.C
www.anthrotech.com
----------------------

Just to update... I started trying to strip out the authentication from Ultraboard, but it quickly got hairy. Since I haven't spent too much time playing with DBMan, I tackled the easier job of integrating the DBMan session authentication with a low end threaded discussion that did not previously have a user DB (RobBoard). That was pretty easy... if I make any headway on the Ultra integration, I'll update again.

------------------
The Immuatable Order of Modding
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
1. Read the FAQ, 2. Search the board, 2a. Search the board again, 3. ask the question, 4. back-up, 5. experiment, 6. rephrase question (or better yet, post solution to original question)

Has anyone tried integrating authentication of DBMan with Ultimate Bulletin Board (UBB)?



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donm
All those who believe in psychokinesis, please raise my hand.