Integrate with Joomla

[aleutia]

Can WebAuction be integrated with Joomla, either:

so it woks as a Joomla component?
or
so it works just as it does but appears in it's entirety within a Joomla page?

[shannah]

There are many different strategies you can use. The easiest is to just modify the look and feel of WebAuction (change the header/footer) so that it uses the same header and footer as your Joomla site.

It would still have a separate login mechanism though.

There are other strategies for tighter integration, but they would all require some custom PHP development.

[aleutia]

Thanks, Steve;

Can you give a quick rundown on some of the other strategies?

What I would like to do is use WebAuction to list/link to items listed in Joomla sites. One site is an art site using gallery images and Paypal buttons to purchase and I would like to add an auction option for selected products. The other site is a real estate listing site using OpenRealty with CMS Realty integration so the OR listings appear within a Joomla page. Both are open source under GNU.

I know that CMS Realty is a platform that can be modified for integration with other programs (the developers state so in their forums).
How difficult would it be to integrate WebAuction with Joomla by using CMS (one or the other as a clone or plugin)?

There is quite an interest in an auction script that works with OpenRealty and so far no one is tackling the development.

thanks for your time.
Steve

[shannah]

I should preface my response by stating that anything is possible. I have not run into a PHP/MySQL system that I could not effectively integrate Xataface (web auction) into.

However ... the difficulty of the integration varies greatly on the project, and the devil is definitely in the details.

Things to keep in mind from a development perspective:

1. Joomla, OpenRealty, and WebAuction are all running on a MySQL database (i presume). Therefore it isn't difficult to extract data from each others' databases to display in another's application. So even with NO real integration it is still possible to share data between them.

2. The tighter the integration the more work it would likely be.


Some strategies for integration might be:

1. Creating an authentication handler for Web Auction to be able to authenticate against the joomla users table.

2. Using CAS (central authentication service) to handle login centrally, and use CAS plugins for each system to connect to it.

3. Create a Joomla module that wraps around web auction (total integration).

4. Create a Joomla module that merely hooks into web auction (only partial integration).

As I said, the devil's in the details so it is really hard to give you anything meaningful through forum posts.

[aleutia]

Good answer!
Obviously the question is only a starting point to consider if the project is worth doing and within my skill level/research time, not one that would produce an immediate solution.

In response, to narrow the options:

1. Joomla, OpenRealty, and WebAuction are all running on a MySQL database = CORRECT!

Do you know of an existing extention, plugin, or package to extract data from each others' databases?
Seems to be the easiest start regardless of the level of integrataion.

2. The tighter the integration the more work it would likely be. UNDERSTOOD!
Often less is more, so the easier to achieve the result, the better. The argument for partial integration is less work to do from the ground up, or using existing packages. The argument for total integration is if it is easier to edit CMS Realty since it is already a total integration package written to wrap around OR Realty, and supposedly portable to other applications.


Strategies:

I believe CMS Realty already has code for each of these 3 that could be edited to wrap WebAuction. Obviously still quite a bit of work, but much easier than starting from scratch. The database used by OR is the one Web Auction would have to extract from.
Since CMS already integrates Joomla and OR, would Web Auction extracting from OR database accomplish the desired result?

1. Creating an authentication handler for Web Auction to be able to authenticate against the joomla users table.

2. Using CAS (central authentication service) to handle login centrally, and use CAS plugins for each system to connect to it.

3. Create a Joomla module that wraps around web auction (total integration).

As for option 4, possibly easier and better way to approach the problem, but I can read, understand, and edit existing php code, but not write a module from scratch. To do 4, I would need a platform to begin with.

4. Create a Joomla module that merely hooks into web auction (only partial integration).

A different option: Would it make any senst to use CMS more or less as is, but adding Web Auction into the code so it wraps both OR and Web Auction?

Complexity of the details understood. Your answer through this forum post IS meaningful. As said, did not expect a solution, just a direction. Possibly others better at code than I and share interest will see the post and jump in to help out once the problem is narrowed down a little. If not I may take it step by step and give it a try... over time of course.

thanks,
Steve