On Fri, Dec 24, 2010 at 11:36 PM, Phil M Perry <[email protected]> wrote:
> (I won't be able to make any meetings for a while, but I will be sure to > read anything archived on the site.) > > I am considering using Drupal to make an integrated site, versus a > semi-integrated mashup of SMF 2.0 (forum), osCommerce 2.3.1 (ecommerce), and > home-brew PHP code providing entry into the forum and store, as well as some > gallery/about_us/info_pages/etc. > > I realize that I can't (without a lot of pain and work) get SMF and osC to > use the same member ID system and session control, so that signing on to one > will let a user jump back and forth among SMF, osC, and my custom pages > without losing session (sign-on, cart contents). Yes and no.....you can't have them use the same session generally without a lot of work. You can, however, generally find one that has hooks to allow you to setup all 3 sessions or tear down all 3 sessions with a single logon. For example, SMF has a lot of logon/logoff hooks http://wiki.simplemachines.org/smf/Integration_Hooks#Log_in.2Flog_out you just then need to find the logon/logout handling of oscommerce, redirect all the urls for that functionality to use the smf process[you don't even need code for that one, just use htaccess redirects] and create sessions only in smf. As for a shared user database, there is an easy way to do this assuming your on a fairly recent level of MySQL[somewhere in the 5.x series, I forget which]. MySql introduced the concept of "views" in version 5. This means you can delete the user tables for osCommerce and your own code, and then recreate them as views combined the SMF tables with a small table for any missing columns. This way if osCommerce updates it's user table, it will automatically is reflected in the other views. Most open source apps don't take advantage of mySql v5 features[triggers, views, etc] because they are designed for the lowest common denominator. > I want a forum with the quality of SMF (or better, with good anti-spam > measures such as preventing robot signup and examining posts for spam > characteristics and dealing with it), I want a store that's as good (or > better than) as a standalone osC store (various credit card payment > services, mixture of physical goods and digital downloads, multiple tax > rates for different classes of goods, flexible shipping, etc.). I want a > gallery where I can not only post pictures along with text information, but > also a thumbnail page and navigation links among the pages. And I want to be > able to put in arbitrary pages and arbitrary links among pages (e.g., a > series of essays each with a link to a discussion area, and in the > discussion area (part of the forum) linking back to the essays). Product > sales pages should have links to the forum section (customer product > discussions) and vice-versa, so no matter where you come in or sign on, you > can get to sales from discussion and from sales look at the discussions. I > need to restrict certain discussion areas to registered users, and possibly > to listed product purchasers. > > Can Drupal handle all this fairly cleanly, or should I continue looking at > custom coding? Anyway, that's what I'd be looking to do with Drupal, and I'm > hoping that at least part of your presentation could could address that > angle. > > I have never been happy with the integrated forums of any CMS.... Since SMF has a rich hook language, I'd say use it[I myself prefer FUDforum] For ecommerce, use Ubercart. For everything else, I find Drupal to be an 80% solution, so long as you don't fear coding your own final 20% it will work well.
_______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Jan 5 - Building a Community Site with Drupal Feb 2 - Zimbra Mar 2 - MHVLUG 8th Anniversary - Show and Tell
