phpBB3 Integration into Site

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?

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

Yes, but how?

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 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 Code:

---

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

---

Then when you want to make a query:

PHP Code:

---

<?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. :p

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

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

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...