The Jamroom 4 Bridge Scripts
What is a Jamroom Bridge?
A Jamroom Bridge is a small script that allows Jamroom to "talk" to an external application in regards to User Accounts. When a Jamroom Bridge (or set of Bridges) is "active", then whenever a User Account in your Jamroom is created, updated or deleted, the corresponding User Account in the "bridged" application is also created, updated or deleted. This allows you to synchronize an external application (such as a User Forum) with your Jamroom User Accounts.
The most common user of the Jamroom Bridges is to integrate an external Forum into your Jamroom, such as SMF or phpBB - when the User updates their password (for example) in their Jamroom Profile, the password for the bridged application is also updated.
What a Jamroom Bridge can and cannot do
Since the Jamroom Bridges work 100% at the database and backend level, there are some things the Jamroom Bridges currently cannot do:
- The Jamroom Bridges cannot "import" pre-existing User Accounts in the bridged application into Jamroom.
- The Jamroom Bridges cannot "auto login" the User Account into the bridged application - the User will need to log into the Bridged application if they need access to it.
Available Jamroom Bridges
The Jamroom Core only comes with 2 Jamroom Bridges by default - the "Jamroom" bridge (for bridging one Jamroom installation with another) and the "jrWrapper" bridge, which allows for running multiple Jamroom Bridges simultaneously. All of the other Jamroom Bridges are available in the Jamroom Marketplace and currently include:
- Content Management Systems
- Community Forum Software
- Mailing List Management Software
- Other
If you are looking for a Custom Jamroom Bridge to be developed, please contact us and let us know the application you are looking to have bridged.
Configuring a Jamroom Bridge
Installing and configuring a Jamroom Bridge in Jamroom is not a hard process, but requires the following steps be followed to ensure the Jamroom Bridge is installed and configured properly.
- Download the Jamroom Bridge you want to use from the Jamroom Marketplace. Save this file to a temporary location on your hard drive.
- Edit the downloaded Bridge PHP file with a Text Editor (such as notepad). At the top of the Bridge File you will see a section for configuring the Database and other information for the Bridged Application. If you are not sure what these settings should be, you will need to find out this information from your Hosting Provider or the person who configured and installed your application. After editing the required settings, save the file.
- Upload the modified Jamroom Bridge PHP file to the jamroom/include/plugins/jrBridges directory.
- Log in to your Jamroom as the Master Admin
- Click on the "Jamroom Config" link in the Master Admin menu.
- Click on the "System Settings" link in the Jamroom Config menu.
- Scroll down to the "Active Bridge Script" setting, which is a drop down list.
- Select the Jamroom Bridge you uploaded via the drop-down menu, and press the "Test" button
- If the test returns successful, scroll to the bottom of the page and press "Update Settings" - you are all set.
- If the test does NOT return successful, Jamroom will show you the error that was encountered, which is usually an incorrect database setting. Fix the error and re-upload the Jamroom Bridge file.
That's it - once the Jamroom System Settings are saved, the Jamroom Bridge becomes active.
Advanced: Using more then 1 Jamroom Bridge at a time
If you want to bridge more then 1 external application at a time, Jamroom has a special bridge that can be used for this. It is called the "jrWrapper" bridge, and it's purpose is to be a "wrapper" around multiple Jamroom bridges. To use it, you need to:
- First, make sure EACH of the applications you want to bridge have had their respective bridge files configured properly
- Edit the jrWrapper bridge file, and enter the names of the Jamroom Bridges you want to run
- Make the "jrWrapper" bridge the ACTIVE bridge from the Jamroom Config -> System Settings section (make sure and test it to be sure it works)
That's it - once the jrWrapper bridge is the active bridge, Jamroom will run all the "wrapped" bridges in the order they are entered in the jrWrapper.php file.
Advanced: Importing your phpBB2 forum topics into the Jamroom Profile Forum
Jamroom features its own built-in Forum, and many users may want to "import" the existing topics in a phpBB2 forum in to their Jamroom Forum. This small guide will show you how to do this.
- First, make sure your phpBB2 Jamroom Bridge is configured and working properly (see directions above for Configuring a Jamroom Bridge).
- Once the Jamroom Bridge is configured correctly, open a Text Editor such as Windows Notepad, and paste the following into a new file:
<?php
require('include/jamroom-include.inc.php');
require('include/plugins/jrBridges/phpBB2.php');
$_data['band_id'] = '0';
echo "starting import...<br>";
jrBridge_phpBB2_import($_data);
echo "...completed";
?> |
If you would like the band_id that the topics get imported for be something different then the Jamroom Community Forum, set the band_id to the correct band_id, or leave at 0 (zero) for the main Jamroom Community Forum.
- Save the file as "phpbb_import.php"
- Upload this file to your Jamroom directory using your FTP client
- Load the script that you just uploaded in your web browser - i.e. http://yoursite.com/phpbb_import.php and run it
- The import process can take some time depending on the number of posts in your phpBB2 forum - do not interrupt the process!
- Once the import is complete, make sure and log in via FTP and delete the phpbb_import.php file
That's it - the phpBB2 topics that were in your phpBB2 forum have now been "imported" into your Jamroom Community Forum.
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