Connect to Vbulletin forum with android app

Question

I'm trying to make a small app that connect to a vbulletin forum to retrieve the numbers of unread subjects in user panel.

I found how to retrieve info from a website, but the problem is I have no idea how to login to the forum.

Can someone give me an advice or a least a link to help me start ?

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 28 '11 at 14:51

0

There are several ways to login to web site: form login, http authentication, login via AJAX, etc..

You need to investigate how login is done in case of your particular site.

Check the http connections (e.g. Firefox with Firebug can see connections) to see what kind of connection is made when you click the login button on the site.

answered Sep 28 '11 at 14:51

Peter Knego

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i'm not sure... the form on the website has site action on submit:'
'
– jullebarge Sep 28 '11 at 14:59
So it's a http POST, with additionally MD5 hash of password. – Peter Knego Sep 28 '11 at 15:19

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 29 '11 at 17:37

You'll need to send a _POST request via your app with the username and an md5 hash of the user's password. The username field name should be "vb_login_username" and the password field name should be "vb_login_md5password". Once you figure that out, you can create your own custom login page that your app talks to. Here's something similar to what I use. It returns the user's information in JSON format on a successful login.

require_once('./global.php');
require_once(DIR . '/includes/functions_login.php');

define("BADLOGIN"              , "You have entered an invalid username or password.");
define("BADLOGIN_STRIKES"      , "You have entered an invalid username or password. You have %s login attempts left, after which you will be unable to login for 15 minutes.");
define("BADLOGIN_STRIKES_ZERO" , "You have entered an invalid username or password and used up your failed login quota. Please wait 15 minutes before trying to login again.");

// ################################ start login #################################
if ($_POST['do'] == 'login') {

    $vbulletin->input->clean_array_gpc('p', array(
        'vb_login_username'        => TYPE_STR,
        'vb_login_password'        => TYPE_STR,
        'vb_login_md5password'     => TYPE_STR,
        'vb_login_md5password_utf' => TYPE_STR,
        'cookieuser'               => TYPE_BOOL,
    ));

    // can the user login?
    $strikes = verify_strike_status($vbulletin->GPC['vb_login_username']);

    // make sure our user info stays as whoever we were (for example, we might be logged in via cookies already)
    $original_userinfo = $vbulletin->userinfo;

    if (!verify_authentication(
        $vbulletin->GPC['vb_login_username'], $vbulletin->GPC['vb_login_password'], 
        $vbulletin->GPC['vb_login_md5password'], $vbulletin->GPC['vb_login_md5password_utf'], 
        $vbulletin->GPC['cookieuser'], true)) 
    {       
        exec_strike_user($vbulletin->userinfo['username']);

        // load original user
        $vbulletin->userinfo = $original_userinfo;

        if ($vbulletin->options['usestrikesystem'])
        {
            if ((5 - $strikes) == 0)
            {
                die(json_encode(array(
                    'hasErrors' => (int) 1,
                    'errorMsg'  => BADLOGIN_STRIKES_ZERO
                ))); 
            }
            else
            {
                die(json_encode(array(
                    'hasErrors' => (int) 1,
                    'errorMsg'  => sprintf(BADLOGIN_STRIKES, 5 - $strikes)
                ))); 
            }
        }
        else
        {
            die(json_encode(array(
                'hasErrors' => (int) 1,
                'errorMsg'  => BADLOGIN
            ))); 
        }
    }

    exec_unstrike_user($vbulletin->GPC['vb_login_username']);

    // create new session
    process_new_login($vbulletin->GPC['logintype'], $vbulletin->GPC['cookieuser'], $vbulletin->GPC['cssprefs']);
    $userinfo = fetch_user($vbulletin->userinfo['userid']);

    // is banned user?
    if ($userinfo['usergroupid'] == 8) {
        process_logout();
    }

    // return userinfo
    die(json_encode(array(
        'success' => (int) 1,
        'user'    => $userinfo
    ))); 
}

Hopefully this helps get you started. By the way, set the field name "cookieuser" to true and the user will be remembered the next time a request is made.

Connect to Vbulletin forum with android app

2 Answers2