After some help from Frank (skippybosco) and some enlightenment from Alex, I've got amemberpro working with mamboserver 4.5. Since there is not much clear and detailed documentation on this combination, I hope this thread will help others and save everyone some time. After purchasing and downloading the mambo server plugin, you have to place the mambo folder in /amember/plugins/protect/. You then log into the amember cp and you should see a mambo tab at the very top. click on it and configure it. you'll need to give the mysql location, username, password, and db name. after you click save, you'll have to go into each product info and configure the mambo settings. In mamboserver, there are currently 3 groups: public, registered, and special. Public is for any anonymous users browsing the site. Registered is for anyone who has registered through mamboserver. Special users are from what i've figured out and learned, our Amember users. In the amember cp mambo product configuration menu, there are 4 options: public, registered, special, and no integration. I haven't been able to change the setting to no integration and have it stick... In any case, most likely, you'll want all your products in special. You can finetune the protection further with amember so that isn't a showstopper. Since i am just creating my membership site, i didn't have any registered users in Mamboserver except my test users. By signing up users through amember, a user is created in the Mambo server database in the special group. Through Mamboserver, you can create content directed toward the special group. The only problem with Mamboserver i've seen is the user manager. You can't see any "special" amember users in the user manager. You can only see the total number of users in Mamboserver. You can still see them in the mamboserver db, but not the administrator interface. from what i've read in the mamboserver forums, group access/control should be a lot better in version 5.0. in addition, you'll probably spend most of your time in the amember cp to administer paid members anyways. With Frank's (skippybosco) Mambo Server plugin, you can have the user single sign-on through the Mamboserver frontpage. Once you successfully sign in, the module has options for "logout" and "edit profile" which are very useful and fit in great. anyhow, i hope this helps someone with their integration plans. Mambo server is a very flexible CMS that really looks professional with the right templates and modules. feel free to add on, comment, and criticize. -james
Great Post James. One suggestion to get around the no users in Mambo Administrator is to set the users to registered versus special. Then within Mambo Administrator, disable the ability for new users to signup so you don't have any backdoor users popping up. This leaves your special group free for defining administrators/editors, etc.. Frank
Where can I find mod_amemberl.php I saw mention of this mambo module that Frank (Skippybosco) had written. Sounds like just what I'm after. Can someone point me to this module? Thanks in advance! Paul
have just read this sticky and it appears to have some great info. I think I have started the wrong way...I have downloaded and installed the entire Amember trial app. I have installed it in a dir in the mambo dir. From the info above It would appear that I only have to get hold of the mambo module - is that correct? Or do I still need the Amember app plus the mambo mudule? Where can I get a trial copy of the module. Cheers in advance....
Any further news on integration.. Greetings.. I am interested in further integration with Mambo, since I am on the Mambo Core Dev Team (Nick Designer). I am currently doing some work for a client who requires integration between Mambo and aMember. Right now, it looks like the two systems will be running side by side without true integration...am I correct? Anyhow, I'd love to hear some ideas on how these two great packages could be further integrated.. Thanks Nick mambotemplates.com Mambo Core Developer
Nick, I believe it is not easy, however, if you have any ideas how and what to do, please let me know.
Is this an additional script with additional functionality? Frank this script that was mentioned regarding mambo plug-in and amemberpro. Is this a seperate script from the mambo plug-in? Or is it now included in the mambo plug-in? If it is the former could I get a copy of that script and a lil' explanation as to what it does and how to implement it? Taine
updates. A basic problem which all the amemberpro-CMS integration plugins have is the login module/page. There is usually a user database built into the CMS and a separate user database built into Amember. The integration plugin synchronizes the user login/password information. However, logging into Amember doesn't necessarily mean logging into the CMS and vice-versa and the behavior of the system isn't consistent if you don't log in correctly... Frank's (skippybosco's) Mamboserver module bypasses the default mamboserver login module and makes the amember login prompt a module that you can place anywhere and most importantly, it has the same look and feel as a module in Mamboserver. Once a user logs in using this "amember" login module, he/she can utilize any of the privleged content and folders defined in Mamboserver. I am currently looking at another CMS and my biggest problem is creating a login module/content element similar to the Mamboserver-amember module Frank/skippybosco graciously created and provided. Cutting and pasting the login code into certain pages works, but kind of defeats the purpose of a CMS... -james
Frank's plugin... could you send it to me?? Frank, I am going to use Mambo and would like to implement the login as you have. Would it be possible for me to get a copy of your plugin? - jeff
If you PM me your email address I will send it along. In addition, I have provided the code to Alex and I beleive he will be making it available soon as part of the Mambo plug-in package.
Frank's Plug-in questions First of all, THANK YOU Frank for sending me your MOS login module! However, I haven't installed Mambo yet and obviously not Frank's plug-in because... 1) I don't understand the nature of the problem yet... iow, does Frank's plug in negate the need for aMember login? 2) If the member is redirected directly to Mambo after signing-in, wouldn't Mambo allow the member in since it's database now has the member listed? 3) I'm not sure where to put the mambo directory: a) www.url.com/amember and www.url.com/mambo b) Or INSIDE the amember directory: www.url.com/amember/mambo ?? Frank, or whomever else, I just need help understanding what the plugin does exactly, from where, and why? Thanks for your help - jeff
I think I understand... The plugin is used when Mambo is used as the main (root) site. I may not take the approach, but I'm still not sure. However, even if I don't use mambo as the root site, the plugin will still be effective to allow users the ability to access aMember from with Mambo, right? (as long as I change the URLs in Franks code, I presume) Peace, - jeff
To the best of my knowledge Jeff, This is what Frank's login mod is about. Lets assume you already installed mambo to act as your CMS frontend, then decided you need the backend functionality of amemberpro... (which is one hell of a base solution for membership account management/access restriction-control/ecommerce all wrapped up into one not to mention the plugins which increase it overall solution possiblilties aka very flexible tool! ) Backend tools aren't neccessarily all that pretty and userfriendly as CMSs tools(webgui or mambo) are. So many would prefer to use the nice and neat login module thats already an integral part of mambo. But in order for amember to work you have to login through its system not mambo's. I think Franks mod allows us to have the login box in mambo act as the frontend to amemberpro, avoiding the need of us programing challenged individuals from taking the login code from amemberpro and intergrating it on the mambo driven homepage. Think that makes sense So in short to the user it will appear as mambo but it will actually be amemberpo. Taine
Sorry for letting this thread spin for a bit, I've been swamped with my real job! Itaine is exactly right, the plug in (which I beleive Alex is now including as part of the amember mambo script) provides a new module in Mambo which has the look/feel of the mambo login, but plugs into the amember login process. As some have commented, the script does assume that your install is the default \amember directory to stay generic enough for most. This is easily adjustable by changing a couple of paths in the module php. At some point I may look into having it read the amember directory from the config file if there is enough interest in it.. So it's pretty straightforward, take the .zip file, use the upload module feature in Mambo. You will have a new module called amember login that you can place anywhere you want on your site (left, right, top, bottom, etc). I am running this on both 4.5 stable and the new RC3 code that was just released..
Does anybody else have Frank's script? I've been trying to contact him about it but have been unsuccesfull and I have a site going live on the 22nd which requires this integration. Any help will be appreciated..
Sorry for the delay in getting back with you. Per my previous post, you can get this from the download area for amember at: http://www.cgi-central.net/amember/member.php Assuming you have purchased the Amember / Mambo integration script, the login module will be included as well.
Thanks for the reply. I have dowloaded the Mambo plugin, but I don't think it has Frank's module in there, it seems to be just the plugin.