phpBB3 Integration into Site

[Jojee]

I want to have a Login option as well as the latest posts of the forum on my site sidebar. I looked up how to do this and it seems people use Joomla or something? I don't really know, but I downloaded that and I don't get it at all. o_o

Can someone tell me, in really simple terms xD, how to accomplish what I'm trying to do?

[rubah]

You need to use php to make calls to your forum's database.

[Jojee]

Yes, but how?

[o_O]

I've never tried to do it with phpBB, but you basically need to have a script that handles making a connection to the database which you can include in your page code to grab the latest posts. You can make a connection with the following code:

<?php
    // The $conf array holds the configuration data for the db
    $conf = Array('host' => 'real_host', 'user' => 'real_username', 'pass' => 'real_password', 'db' => 'real_database');

    function connect() {
        return mysql_pconnect($conf['host'], $conf['user'], $conf['pass']);
    }
?>

And call it like this:

<?php
    $con = connect();
    mysql_select_db($conf['db']);
?>

Then when you want to make a query:

<?php
    $sql = 'select * from post limit 5';        // You'll need to change this query to reflect the actual db structure.
    $result = mysql_fetch_array(mysql_query($sql, $con));
    echo '<pre>'; print_r($result); echo '</pre>';
?>

Obviously you'd have to write some sort of code to deal with connection failures, but that's pretty straightforward with php.net and a bit of googling.

This is nowhere near as object-oriented as it should be, I think, but it's easy to code and deal with.

[Jojee]

Thanks Face ^.^

And I found a good tutorial for it too. :3

I think I'll just skip the login thing I wanted cos' I can't find a tutorial for that. xD

[Little Blue]

I dunno if this is the easiest way to do it, but its the way I do it one some of my pages, and that's to fully integrate your site with the phpBB system.

This tutorial illustrates what's needed to use the phpBB system in custom pages: phpBB • Add a New Custom Page to phpBB • 3.0

Then use a mod such as phpBB • Modifications database as as long as you've the overall_header template on each of your custom pages you'll be able to login anywhere on your site. I'm not sure about adding it to a sidebar though, but I suppose you can use the login box html in a sidebar template and it should still work...

Hope that's of some help...