I have a somewhat unique member integration issue. My current member and group tables exist in a MS SQL Server database. My site uses ASP for authentication processing.
My plan is to add some code to my current registration process that will insert a new row into the WSN Links member table in the MySQL database when a new member confirms their registration. I will of course import all of my existing members into the WSN Links member table as well.
I will be modifying the necessary WSN Links pages so that members will always login using the current process. That is, they will never login using the WSN Links process.
But first I have a few questions:
1. What fields are required in the WSN Links member table? Obviously I'll need to insert the id, name, password, email, validated, and usergroup fields. Are there any others? I realize that I will need to turn off the auto_increment function on the id field.
2. Regarding groups, my current system uses 3 tables to assign members to groups (members can be assigned to more than one group) whereas it appears that WSN Links uses just 2. I'm not sure this will be too much of an issue because I mainly just need to track "all members" and "administrators" for my links, and I'm the only administrator anyway. But if I do need to track additional groups, how should those be inserted into the secondarygroups field (numbers separated by commas or something)?
3. If I set the wsnuser and wsnpassword cookies as part of my current login process, is that all I need to do so that members will be logged in to WSN Links?
1. They're all requried for their associated functions (except possibly a couple that are useful to WSN Forum but got left in Links)... links and comments are required to count the number of links and comments submitted, various profile fields are required for them to be recorded when someone edits their profile, adminpermissions is required if you choose to set admin permissions, etc etc. I imagine if you don't have them all you'll get various errors where the script is trying to use a field you don't have. The included integration process automatically adds all the non-present WSN fields to the foreign member table when you integrate -- though this of course doesn't work with MSSQL.
2. I believe it puts a | on both sides of the number, but editing your profile to give yourself a secondary group will show you for sure.
3. Yes, presuming that WSN Links can locate the account in the database for that user id. Note that the wsnpassword value is the md5 of the actual password.
Thanks Paul. I should have phrased my first question a little differently.
What I meant was that I will be using the default WSN Links member table to store member data on the MySQL side. So it will have all of the necessary fields.
My question was, if I add a routine to my existing registration process so that a member's data is automatically inserted into the WSN Links member table when they confirm their registration, what pieces of data are absolutely required to create a valid member record?
I can see id, name, password, email, validated, and usergroup being necessary... will the other fields function okay with default or null values, or is there more data that I must insert?
'time' is important if you don't want everyone's registration date listed as Jan 1, 1970.
template and language and stylesheet should default gracefully to whatever's available though it'd be good form to fill them in.
Note that yes/no options like notifyoflinks will end up defaulting to yes the first time the member edits their profile, and this might not be desirable in all cases.
cookieduration should probably be filled, though if you leave it 0 I believe that means it'll just keep them logged in for the session.
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Comments on Getting started with member integration
Member
Usergroup: Customer
Joined: Dec 12, 2005
Total Topics: 11
Total Comments: 19
I have a somewhat unique member integration issue. My current member and group tables exist in a MS SQL Server database. My site uses ASP for authentication processing.
My plan is to add some code to my current registration process that will insert a new row into the WSN Links member table in the MySQL database when a new member confirms their registration. I will of course import all of my existing members into the WSN Links member table as well.
I will be modifying the necessary WSN Links pages so that members will always login using the current process. That is, they will never login using the WSN Links process.
But first I have a few questions:
1. What fields are required in the WSN Links member table? Obviously I'll need to insert the id, name, password, email, validated, and usergroup fields. Are there any others? I realize that I will need to turn off the auto_increment function on the id field.
2. Regarding groups, my current system uses 3 tables to assign members to groups (members can be assigned to more than one group) whereas it appears that WSN Links uses just 2. I'm not sure this will be too much of an issue because I mainly just need to track "all members" and "administrators" for my links, and I'm the only administrator anyway. But if I do need to track additional groups, how should those be inserted into the secondarygroups field (numbers separated by commas or something)?
3. If I set the wsnuser and wsnpassword cookies as part of my current login process, is that all I need to do so that members will be logged in to WSN Links?
I think that's it for now. Thanks.
developer
Usergroup: Administrator
Joined: Dec 20, 2001
Location: Diamond Springs, California
Total Topics: 61
Total Comments: 7868
1. They're all requried for their associated functions (except possibly a couple that are useful to WSN Forum but got left in Links)... links and comments are required to count the number of links and comments submitted, various profile fields are required for them to be recorded when someone edits their profile, adminpermissions is required if you choose to set admin permissions, etc etc. I imagine if you don't have them all you'll get various errors where the script is trying to use a field you don't have. The included integration process automatically adds all the non-present WSN fields to the foreign member table when you integrate -- though this of course doesn't work with MSSQL.
2. I believe it puts a | on both sides of the number, but editing your profile to give yourself a secondary group will show you for sure.
3. Yes, presuming that WSN Links can locate the account in the database for that user id. Note that the wsnpassword value is the md5 of the actual password.
Member
Usergroup: Customer
Joined: Dec 12, 2005
Total Topics: 11
Total Comments: 19
Thanks Paul. I should have phrased my first question a little differently.
What I meant was that I will be using the default WSN Links member table to store member data on the MySQL side. So it will have all of the necessary fields.
My question was, if I add a routine to my existing registration process so that a member's data is automatically inserted into the WSN Links member table when they confirm their registration, what pieces of data are absolutely required to create a valid member record?
I can see id, name, password, email, validated, and usergroup being necessary... will the other fields function okay with default or null values, or is there more data that I must insert?
developer
Usergroup: Administrator
Joined: Dec 20, 2001
Location: Diamond Springs, California
Total Topics: 61
Total Comments: 7868
id' needn't be supplied, let it autoincriment.
'time' is important if you don't want everyone's registration date listed as Jan 1, 1970.
template and language and stylesheet should default gracefully to whatever's available though it'd be good form to fill them in.
Note that yes/no options like notifyoflinks will end up defaulting to yes the first time the member edits their profile, and this might not be desirable in all cases.
cookieduration should probably be filled, though if you leave it 0 I believe that means it'll just keep them logged in for the session.