There are a couple of implementations that integrate Drupal with vBulletin (or the other way around). One of these implementations is of course vbDrupal. The various integrations offer different levels of integrations and functionality. This page will give an overview of the differences between the integrations.
Currently the following integrations are available:
| vbDrupal | Drupaltin (1.x) | Drupal vB (1.x) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| General Information | |||
| Integration type | Port of Drupal + vBulletin plugins | Drupal module + vBulletin plugins | Drupal module |
| Supported Drupal versions | 4.7; 5 | 5 | 4.7; 5 |
| Supported vBulletin versions | 3.5-3.6 (vbDrupal 4.7); 3.6 (vbDrupal 5) | 3.6 | 3.6 |
| Database connection | Reuses the vBulletin DB connection | Independed MySQL connection | Independed MySQL connection through Drupal's multiple database connection handling. |
| Installation | 4.7: vBulletin product import and running the Drupal update script. 5: Uses Drupal's installer |
vBulletin product import and file edits of Drupaltin. Activation of Drupaltin module. | Activation of Drupal vB module and Drupal vB file edits. |
| Configuration | Only vBulletin path required in the vbDrupal config. | Separate configuration file. | Uses a copy of vBulletin's config.php. Needs Drupal config adjustment |
| User accounting | |||
| Shared session1 | Yes | Independed sessions; shared lifecycle | No |
| Single sign on2 | Yes | Yes (requires authentication through a vBulletin login form) | Partial (only Drupal -> vBulletin). Cookies are set, but user is not actively logged in on vBulletin. |
| Automatic login (remember user) | Yes | Partial (only by visiting vBulletin) | No |
| Single sign off | Yes | Only through vBulletin | Yes |
| Registration | Through vBulletin or Drupal | Only through vBulletin. User is created in Drupal at log in. | Only through Drupal |
| Alternative user creation3 | Yes | User is created in Drupal at log in. | Only through Drupal |
| User deletion | Yes | Only through vBulletin | Only through Drupal |
| Drupal user authentication4 | Yes | No | Yes |
| Account synchronization | Yes | Only through vBulletin | Only email and password through Drupal |
| Relevant Drupal hooks and vBulletin plugins executed5 | Yes | Partial (only plugins) | Partial (only hooks) |
| Integrated profile pages | No | No | No |
| Forum content in Drupal | |||
| Latest threads/posts block | Yes (unlimited, highly configurable) | No | Yes (all forums) |
| Birthdays and event blocks | Yes | No | No |
| Forum statistics block | No | No | Yes |
| Private message integration | Yes | No | Yes |
| Import vBulletin posts as content | Yes | No | No |
| Use vBulletin for Drupal content comments | Yes | No | No |
| Miscelaneous | |||
| Theme integration | Partial (only vBulletin template support in Drupal) | No | No |
| vbCode input filter | Yes | No | No |
| Drupal blocks in vBulletin6 | Yes | No | No |
| Drupal content in vBulletin | Partial. API available to interface with Drupal from within vBulletin plugins. | No | No |
| Integrated search | No | No | No |
1) Only vbDrupal has a true shared session where the session in both Drupal and vBulletin have the same ID. Drupaltin initializes the standard Drupal session resulting in 2 session IDs (and thus 2 cookies).
2) Drupal vB sets the cookies that will trigger automatic authentication when the user visits the forums.
3) This means users created using alternative means like manually through the vBulletin admincp or my a module/plugin
4) Drupal provides API to authenticate a user through code rather than a log in form. This is for example used by the XML-RPC functionality of Drupal. Without user authentication this functionality would not work.
5) Are the relevant drupal hooks and vBulletin plugins called for certain user actions (like authentication, or creation). Various modules and plugins perform actions on these events.
6) vbDrupal provides builtin functionality to load various Drupal blocks and use them in vBulletin templates. The templates will have to be edited manually.
Thanks for your good code!!! Keep up the good work!~
Thanks for your good code!!! Keep up the good work!~