I will record all my findings here - seems to make sense - anybody can see it as I go and correct me if I'm off-beam and I can work on it both @ work and @ home. although the chances of getting time to do this @ home are approaching null...
Design Goals [no particular order]
- Have one single user table for both software
- User registration/ creation does not need to take place within the wikka software - this can be handled by phpBB
- Not important if some phpBB users cannot edit wikka pages - if the user wants to edit they should make their name into a WikiName
- This design goal is imposed by architectural differences in the software. I am taking a phpBB centric view of this project, that is because in both places I intend to implement, phpBB is the primary software.
Steps for development.
- Set up dev phpBB board
- Set up dev wikka engine using same database different directory
- Analyse data structure of the 2 user tables - phpBB vs wikka
- Begun - there are sufficient gotcha's in this that some design goals will have to be pre-determined by the difference in architchture. Translation - To have a proper WikiName username you will have to manually do this when you join the phpBB or by modifying your username there...
- Set up users
- locate ALL references to the users table in the Wikka codebase
- replace the "name" field referance with "username"
- debug
- document needed alterations
- beta test
- release
It would appear that OfficeRabbit has completed this here: WikkaWithphpBB! More power to him - and much gratitude! I will report back on the success or not of implementation...
Implementation does seem to be succesfull. This is the forum site I have implemented at: http://www.ibdof.com/ And here is the wikka: http://www.ibdof.com/wikka/
CategoryUserContributions
CategoryDevelopmentArchitecture
You might be interested in this recent contribution by OfficeRabbit:
http://wikka.jsnx.com/WikkaWithphpBB
I will simply delete this page once I get his stuff working...