There is an existing phpBB/Movable Type integration out there, although I don't know if it has been updated to reflect the most recent versions. Being 2:00AM I just can't be bothered with finding the link, but it's easy to google for.
What there has never been is a decent MT/vB integration - never one at all that I know of, and for some reason, the logic of building one struck me as I was eating lunch today. I haven't built it yet, and I don't know when I can prioritize it, so I'm laying out the logic here for somebody else to build it or barring that, creating a referrence for myself at a later date.
The idea is pretty simple. Create a plugin for MT that on publication of an entry, will use the WWW::Mechanize module to create a thread in vB with the same title. WWW::Mechanize will handle logging into forms pretty easily - I built an auto-checkin thing for southwest airlines that I was days away from publishing before they sued boardingpassfirst.com for the same idea.
Another option would be to hold off on creating the thread until somebody hit a "discuss this" link, but that gets a little more complicated because of timing issues. I suppose you could set up a job to delete inactive threads with no responses after a period of time, or you could use AJAX and hold off on changing the page until you got a success message returned.
On the MT side of the street - displaying the actual threads is pretty easy. In my mind, I don't want to display the entire postbit, or even the entire thread - who needs the duplicate content issues or even the issues associated with the fact that your page is no longer about the topic the original article was written about. I'd rather flag 3-5 insightful messages and publish those dynamically on the MT page.
That's simple enough to accomplish with an additional database table and a single query to the DB. You could just have a "highlighted posts" box with a few of the comments that people have made that might inspire further discussion. This could be done dynamically with PHP, or with Perl on rebuild of the page, and in fact - you could trigger a rebuild easy enough when a moderator flagged the threads in vB. It would be as simple as editing the postbit template in vB and putting a checkbox to flag a particular post.
So there it is, the skeleton logic for a vB and Movable Type integration. Check back in a month to see if I built it, or build it yourself today and get a nice quality link from my very own special PR0 sight :).
| 02-24-2007, 02:00 PM | |||
| Runs This Show  Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 159
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I plan on releasing the code for the integration by the end of the month. I'm working out the kinks in the system as we speak There are some caveats, however - at least for the initial phase of release: 1) It probably will not work well for dynamically published movable type installations. The back end efficiency is not what it needs to be for dynamic publishing. 2) It will require some perl modules (which may already be installed). 3) It works as both a plugin within vBulletin and as a plugin within movable type. Template edits in vBulletin are required, as is the creation of a new file based on post.php. At least in the early phases, I would expect that you need to be a little bit of a technical person to be able to install it and understand how it works. This really will be a beta release and I don't know if I'll be able to respond to support requests with great efficiency. (of course I'll try, but I cannot make any guarantees). | ||
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| 06-11-2007, 10:09 PM | |||
| Runs This Show Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 159
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The plugin is at: http://www.stevekallestad.com/wiki/VbMT_Download There's a vBulletin side of the street too that I'll have to find soon. I'm pretty sure it's a simple vb plugin to highlight individual posts and pull them into the main page. Line 189 of skvbmt2.pl reads: my $urlholder = $mech->find_link( text => "LinkBack URL" ); Basically, it's looking for the URL of the thread that is posted. I have a link on my forum pages that reads "LinkBack URL". It won't work without a link to the page. You can change the text to whatever you want, but it has to be on the page. (or figure out how to get the redirect info out of www::mechanize which I wasn't able to do when I wrote this). It's been ages since I worked on this, and the documentation is shoddy and there are bugs. So... download at your own risk. Hopefully a couple of early testers can push this into a ready state. | ||
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vBulletin and Movable Type Integration Commentary
