Joomla! Discussion Forums

I have no idea what bridge to use and I havent followed the updates or news on any of them so I'm completely blank and just want a working bridge for my 15k + community

I thought I should put up this poll and let that help me decide as I have no clue what to go for. Maybe this poll can be usefull for others like me as well

It would also be nice if you posted what you like and/or dislike with each bridge

Thanks for voting

i dont know how bbpixels bridge work

but if it works like the old vbridge, you CAN NOT switch later to other solution
because it change the user tables in joomla ( or vbulletin )

com_connector is clean solution to connect this applications
with only one core file changed

on other side, bbpixels is a comercial solution which give you support and updates/fixes
they have people to develop and support his solution

com_connector is develop only by me and i can not react fast on any core changes in joomla  like actual update from joomla 1.0.7 to 1.0.8
(older version can be patched with attached patch by self )

my connector works fine with large forums and you have only the users in joomla/vbulletin which are using this software
the synchronisation of the users is only by first login or registration and you does not need to synchronise all users

Thanks, well I'm in the middle of the com_connector installation now

I have tried both BBPixel and COM_Connector and I can say both have their good and bad. But remember though, that you are trying to get a vote on 2 products, where one is free and other is payware. So considering that this website is biased towards open source software, the voting will be influenced by this.

I will try to be as objective as possible, basing everything on MY personal experience.

BBPixel Solution

PROS:

1. Works 100% as advertised. The latest version is for Joomla 1.0.8 and VBulletin 3.5.4
2. Extremely easy to install and uninstall
3. No database queries are required. Database is not touched.
3. No settings to mess with
4. Great support, and updates are released days after a new version of Joomla and/or VBulletin is made available
5. Includes script to syncronize all Joomla and VBulletin users

CONS:

1. Overwrites some Joomla and VBulletin core files
2. Won't run wrapped with your Joomla website. (Create a wrapper link for the forum, to get around this issue)


COM_Connector Solution

PROS:

1. Completely free
2. Overwrites only 1 core Joomla file

CONS:

1. EXTREMELY difficult to install
2. Too many settings to mess with, which have almost no clear instructions on what each setting does or how they should be set
3. Lack of documentation or tutorial on how to correctly setup everything

I hope this helps you out. I hope no feelings were hurt with this post, but I am trying to be objective and basing it on my personal experience with both.

What are you going to do now though?  Use bbpixel or keep waiting until com_connector works perfecty?  I just got the bbpixel, but don't know if I want to spend the time installing it if I think com_connector might be better. The only things is the wait that bugs. Right now, I would still need to wait for the vbulletin side of the connector so it can log in and out from both side. If there's some kind of schedule, at least you can plan things out. Even if it's a schedule that says oh it will be out in 2 week or a month.

I already installed the BBPixel solution and am very pleased with it. The only thing that I don't like about it, is that it will not run wrapped. I have taken this issue to the creators of the plugin and they have told me that they have taken my request and are looking into it and should have something for me in the next couple of days. If they can in fact get to wrap into my website, then I will stick with BBPixel.

If you do get Com_Connector to work, take into consideration that if you run it wrapped, it will not resize it's height dynamically. You either need to assign it a fixed height, which is totally not right, because it will cut out the display when displaying long threads, or add scroll bars to it, which look even worse.

Thanks!  I don't care as much for the wrapped feature. vBridge had the wrapped option but it uses iframe which I rather not use, so if bbpixel does come up with the wrapped feature, but also using iframe, then I would still rather run it unwrapped. 

I just also realized that CB will not work with bbpixel, but then again I don't think com_connector does either?!

Any updates on using BBPixel? I'm considering a change from Mambo 4.53 to Joomla and then setting up the bridge. I'm more on the design side of things, so I'm probably going to pay BBPixel to handle the conversion/integration. I did use them before when they had the Mambo/vBulletin integration and had them remove it because of error messages - something along the lines of cookie limits? Not sure exactly what it was, but several folks had the problem.

I'd love to hear positives/negatives on the BBPixel integration.

What do you mean by this?

Another thumbs-up for BBPixel - a doddle to install and all worked perfectly.

One to add to the Cons section, however, is its use of only very basic Joomla user groups. For example, I run a forum for free (as long as people register), but parts of my Joomla site require paid access. However, once a member has registered for the forums, BBPixel automatically registers them for the Joomla site and there's no way of denying them access to the Joomla site's Registered-only content other than to block them entirely. Presently looking for a way around this.

Anyone any ideas? BBPixel doesn't work with JACL apparently.

ZeldaUniverse.net uses com_connector and their forums are about 25,000+ members. 

What's the current state of com_connector?  I know Leonsio has bene busy, but I'm concerned that the component is two Joomla releases behind and no one seems to be responding to support issues.  Unfortuantely, I just launched my site that uses com_connector and I feel like my hands are tied.  I'm half tempted to extract the bits of com_connector that I need and develop my own bridge, but I'd rather not go down that road if I don't need to.  Cheers!

-Rob

But it doesnt work.

I regged and logged into the vb forums.
I clicked on the homepage and i was not logged in there.

it seems like the problems have improved after I manually logged into the homepage (joomla) the first time.

"Create a wrapper link for the forum" <-- can anyone explain this ?

means that the forum will pop up in a new window instead of looking like it's part of the site
however that can be solved with using a wrapper that comes with joomla.

The problem is that the Joomla Wrapper does not use vB url's, only that of Joomla so linking to anything inside your forums prolly won't work.

If your actually planning on using the wrapper in the first place, why even bother installing a bridge?