Shop combined with phpbb

Hi,

My site has been up for quite a while now and I have had a forum (phpbb) since start. Now its time to take the next step for the site and starting a webshop. I have looked at osCommerce and it looks like a good choice.

The thing is that I would like to be able to fix so the visitors only have to log in once. That is, the old members should just have to complement with the information osCommerce needs and new members should register on both places at the same time.

What shop should I use that offers this function? osCommerce have a module which adds a forum to it but I want them to function "side by side". Zen Card has something similar but it does't seem to be exactly what I want.

First I highly doubt you will achieve what you wish. It isn't likely the shoppers will become active forum members or the reverse to justify the programming costs. [I do not believe their is an OSCommerce mod or phpBB mod that allow cross-platform registration.

Your best bet is sample your traffic [if they register at one - do the registeration yourself at the other and email login info.

If you get a good crossover % then investigate and invest in a competent programmer.

hmm. I guess you are right. Im a fairly compentent developer and I guess with some work, I could do it myself. My line is Java though, not php. I just wanted to check if there is a shop with a "bridge" as the time I would put into this can be put at other places (as everybody knows, there is never enough time ;) )

not that I know of. But test your markets first. I do have access to a developer that is competent in this... so if you can't find one give a shout.

No idea of the cost. The last company to have this done was $12K - but that was vBulletin to a proprietary custom platform rather than open source... thus the learning curve was much greater on a solution never programmed in before.

http://www.phpbbhacks.com/download/967

This is one possibility but it would be easy to code your own in Java or whatever (as long as the host supports it offcourse). The database etc. of phpbb is very easy to extend/modify. Not too much work.

Jammer: Thats not really what im after. The shop will include books, dvds and games so I want a "real" shop as a front end. I want to find a store that is able to use phpbb's users or the other way around...

I found a phpBB integration with X-Cart at http://www.hotscripts.com/Detailed/40182.html. Is X-Cart a good shop and are there anyone who has tried this integration?

I would strongly suggest that you delete phpBB asap and get vbulletin instead (it costs but its worth it) phpBB has a security vulnerability that allowed some stupid kids to break into my website's control panel and erase all of my files and put a dancing banana on my homepage with a heavy metal mp3 playing. It was a VERY unpleasant experience.

I try to have it fairly updated so I don't think thats any danger in that. Taking regular backups also. If I get any problem I'll switch to another forum. Thanks for the heads up though.