I am working on a web application, in which forum feature has to be integrated. Jforum  was chosen to integrate. Jforum is an open source forum implementation in Java (http://www.jforum.net ).

My Application is a spring / JSF application using mysql Db.Jforum has separate user tables and separate authentication mechanism. For integration it provides Single Sign on Facility and easy configuration. By turning ‘Single sign on’ facility on, the login and registration screens on Jforum will get disabled. The jforum searches for special attributes in session for logged user information and if the user is not present in its table it will automatically create one.All the authentication details will be handled by my application. Also I wanted to keep jforum tables in same db.

The initial decision to take whether to keep Jforum code in my application or to keep it as a separate application.  JForum has its own front end, which is implemented using templates, different db configuration files and different style. Jforum administration also had to be accessible to our administration screens easily.

I decided to keep the forum code separate and not to make our application code clumsy. But I faced lot of problems during configuration. So I decided  to integrate the code it to same application. Following are steps I followed to do so.

1.       Download jforum-2.1.8 zip from http://www.jforum.net/download.jsp

2.       Rename directory as JFroum and deploy it (copied it to webapp of tomcat) as a separate application initially (this is only to install database.)

3.       I installed forum tables in same db as of m application. If you want to keep them separate, create desired database in mysql using sql command:

Create database db_name

4.       run tomcat and access following url:

http://localhost/JForum/install.jsp

Enter following:

DataBaseType: Mysql

Installation Type: New Installation

Connection Type: JDBC – leave this default not required

Dadasource Name: <blank>

Database Server Hostname : <mysql server name>

Database Port : 3306

Database name : db name – This database should exist

Database Username:<username>

Database Password: <password>

Use Connection Pool: leave this to default –

Forum Link: link to the forum: http://localhost/JForum/

Website Link: this should point to the home page of your  application. This is the only point in jforum to return to our application.  Depending on this, link ‘back to homepage’ on jforum will work.

Administrator Username : <jforum admin username> – make sure this username is same as your App super admini username – it helps to load admin console.

Administrator Password : <jforum admin password>

Click next step à begin install. Tables will be created in skill guru database.

You can now access jforum at: http://localhost/skillForum/forums/list.page

5.       Now you have the database table installed.  It’s weird… but I did above steps only to install the db tables. Now I am going to have jforum code into my application. This gives me more control over forum.

6.       Now stop tomcat.

7.       copy all jars from deployed jforum/web-inf/lib to yourApp/ WEB-INF/lib directory

8.       copy config directory from deployed jforum/web-inf/config to your WEB-INF/ directory (The db setting will be in Webroot/WEB-INF/config/database/mysql/mysql.properties file)

9.       Copy jforum/template directory to your Webroot directory.

10.   Implementing SSO:

You will have to set ‘myAppUser’ (or any other as you wish) session attribute  to logged username after logging in.

Create a separate SSO class in your application.

 package com.myapp.forum;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpSession;

public class MyAppSSO implements SSO{

public String authenticateUser(RequestContext request) {

String user = (String)request.getSessionContext().getAttribute(“myAppUser”);

return user;

}

public boolean isSessionValid(UserSession userSession, RequestContext request) {

if(request.getSessionContext().getAttribute(“myAppUser”) != null)

{

return true;

}else{

return false;

}

}

}

The  authenticateUser method will be called when you access Jforum pages first time to get logged in user and isSessionValid will be called by Jforum to check session frequently.

The session attribute setting is important here. When SSO is on, and any page of Jforum is accessed first time for that session, the authenticateUser() method will be called to check the logged user. If it returns null, then the user will be treated as ‘Anonymous’. If it returns a username, this will be verified against the jforum_users table’s usernames. If there is no username exists, then a new row will be inserted into the jforum’s users table with username  = one found in session and user will be marked as logged in.

open skillForum/WEB-INF/config/ SystemGlobals.properties

change following properties:

authentication.type = sso

sso.implementation = com.myapp.forum.MyAppSSO

12. Web.xml changes:

We’ll need to integrate web.xml file .

Make sure you have following in appropriate places in you web.xml file:

<filter>

<filter-name>clickstream-jforum</filter-name>

<filter-class>

net.jforum.util.legacy.clickstream.ClickstreamFilter

</filter-class>

</filter>

<filter-mapping>

<filter-name>clickstream-jforum</filter-name>

<url-pattern>*.page123</url-pattern>

</filter-mapping>

<listener>

<listener-class>net.jforum.ForumSessionListener</listener-class>

</listener>

<!– *******  –>

<servlet>

<servlet-name>jforum</servlet-name>

<servlet-class>net.jforum.JForum</servlet-class>

<init-param>

<param-name>development</param-name>

<param-value>true</param-value>

</init-param>

</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>

<servlet-name>jforum</servlet-name>

<url-pattern>*.page</url-pattern>

</servlet-mapping>

create a link in your application to point to the url:

http://yourApp/forums/list.page

14. undeploy old Jforum application.

Take a deep breath and restart the tomcat server.

Now you can access jforum from your application.

You can also access jforum admin console using url:

http://localhost:portno/admBase/login.page

(provided you have the super admin username and jforum admin user name same and its in session)

In next session I’ll describe how I implemented logout and made Jforum to use same db pool as spring.

Related Post :

Spring Application and Jforum Integration – Sharing same c3p pool