Is it possible to have a user enter a password to enter your site (accessing a mysql database) and then when they go to use the bulletin board on your site the general site database can be used as the registration database for the bulletin board?

This site (webhostingtalk) uses vbulletin but the whole site is the bulletin board so there is no need to have another password/registration to enter other areas.

Do any of the standard bulletin boards (such as vbulletin) allow this to happen or is it difficult to set up if you have to do it yourself?

Sorry if this is a bit of a simple question, I am not sure how the bulletin board database is connected to the bulletin board and the site in general but I need to know so I can think about what is possible to do with this.

Thanks

While it is possible, some scripts integrate everything so tightly that sharing databases requires some scripting. It may be easier to alter one script (meaning either the forum or the membership system), to use the values of the other database.

I really don't know exactly how to do this, but for example, people have written scripts that combine phpwebsite and/or nuke to tie in with vbulletin and extended that futher to tie in with other scripts that use membership systems. http://phpportals.com/ - talk to wajones about this one.

Yes, it can be done, but it's usually a lot of work.

Sharing the user-name and password is usually the easy part. Most of the discussion forums use some sort of session to keep track of who is logged in. Sharing this session (so you don't have to log in multiple times) is usually the more difficult piece.

Frank

It can definitely be done -- I'm working on a similar project now, using vBulletin. The trick is figuring out how the board tables work, and then emulating the behavior of the board with the rest of your site.

check out the official vBulletin hacking forum for answers www.vbulletin.org