Revision as of 02:47, 1 August 2013

Fudla Bridge will offer an integrated forum solution to users of Joomla! CMS by linking Joomla! to a FUDforum installation. There was a version for Joomla 1.5, but its development was abandoned. There is a new version under development for Joomla 3.1.

Requirements

• FUDForum v3.0.3 and above (Native), v3.0.2 (requires code patch).
• Joomla! v1.5 (Native), v1.6 (Abandoned).
• Joomla 3.1 (Beginning development in May 2013)
• Both FUDforum and Joomla! must be located under the same document root.

Features

• Maintains FUDforum urls (no Iframes).
• Unified login from Joomla! (users logged into Joomla are automatically logged into FUDforum).
• Unified registration via Joomla!
• Auto resolves javascript and css conflicts.

Information about the 3.1 version

W. Curtis Preston from [Truth in IT] is funding the development of this version, as he needs it for multiple sites that will soon be switching from phpBB2 to FUDForum. Development started in May '13 and finish as soon as he can make it happen, as he wants it up and running as much as you do.

Here are the summary of the functionality of the upcoming version:

It basically moves login and authentication functionality over to Joomla, and then logs the user into FUDforum in the background. This is similar to what the MediaWiki Login component does for Mediawiki. Accounts are managed on the Joomla side, and info is synced to the MediaWiki (or in this case FUDforum) side.

1. Users attempting to login to FUDforum will actually be redirected to Joomla to login.

2. Users logging into Joomla will then be automaticaly logged into FUDforum

3. Users logging out of Joomla will be logged out of FUDforum

4. Joomla plugin will monitor for any changes in user accounts, and then makes those same changes in FUDForum, including:

• adding a new user
• deleting an existing user
• changing an existing user's login name
• changing an existing user's password
• changing an existing user's email
• blocking or unblocking a user

5. Users logged into FUDforum who want to edit their profile will actually be directed to their Joomla profile, and any changes the make there will be propogated to their FUDforum profile.

6. Plugin will also monitor Community Builder fields and do the same thing, and will allow mapping of CB fields to FUDforum fields.

7. Joomla! search plugin so that a Joomla search yields results from FUDforum

Speak now if you're interested.

Information about the 1.5 version

Notes

• The package comes as six separate files.
  • FUD_patch.diff: This contains the changes required for the plugin to work with FUDforum 3.0.2. Either apply directly or manually.
  • plg_system_fudlamole.zip: Acts as a mole within Joomla! and provides status information to the plugin
  • plg_system_jquery.zip: This contains the JQuery Includer created by Elovaris Web Development. It is used to resolve the conflict between Mootools and Jquery Javascript libraries used by Joomla! and FUDforum respectively.
  • fudforum_auth.zip: This contains the FUDforum Authentication Plugin that logs users into Joomla! if registered on FUDforum.
  • com_fudla.zip: This contains the Fudla component responsible for pushing Joomla! html to the plugin
  • fudla.zip: The actual plugin to be installed in FUDforum.
• The plugin will place additional load on the server as both Joomla! and FUDforum will be loaded for each request if caching is not enabled.
• Make sure you have the Site Administrator registered with the same details on both applications before activating the plugin.
• Users should ideally edit their templates to remove the login, logout and registration links in FUDforum but in any case, the plugin does the following:
  • The quick login form is removed
  • All Login, logout and registration links are rewritten to point to Joomla!
• The FUDforum session is subordinate to the Joomla! session. If a user is not logged into Joomla!, they will be logged out of FUDforum by the Fudla plugin (except if requesting an admin page) Similarly, they will be logged into FUDforum by the Fudla plugin if logged into Joomla! no matter what the FUDforum settings are.

Installation

Prepare FUDforum

• Make sure the FUDforum Administrator has the same username as the Joomla! Administrator.
• If running FUDforum 3.0.2, the provided patch (FUD_patch.diff) needs to be applied.

Prepare Joomla!

• Log into the Joomla! Administration interface.
• Create a menu item as an external url pointing to your forum.
  • Note the item id of the menu item as it will be needed later.
• Install the fudlamole plugin (plg_system_fudlamole.zip).
• Install the JQuery / Mootools conflict resolving plugin (plg_system_jquery.zip).
  • Select JQuery 1.6.1 for FUDforum 3.0.3 and above (1.4.4 for FUDforum 3.0.2)
  • You will need to enable the jquery fix in the Joomla! Plugin Manager after installation ("System - Jquery")
  • You also need to enable the mootools upgrade ("System - Mootools Upgrade")
• Install the FUDforum Authentication Plugin (fudforum_auth.zip).
  • Configure it by providing the full server path to your FUDforum data folder.
  • Enable this authentication plugin.
• Install the Fudla component (com_fudla.zip).
  • No configuration required.

Install Fudla Plugin

• Unpack the plugin file (fudla.zip) to the FUDforum plugins folder.
• Configure the plugin (you will need the item id of Joomla External Menu item from earlier).