Unofficial pre-release of Ning Integration module for Drupal

[Pierre Lannoy]

WARNING : THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL PRE-RELEASE OF THIS MODULE. ACTUALLY THIS MODULE IS IN PROCESS FOR DRUPAL CVS SUBMISSION (SINCE MID-NOVEMBER). JUST LET A COMMENT HERE AND I WILL KEEP YOU INFORMED WHEN IT WILL BE DISTRIBUTED AS A STANDARD VERSIONED DRUPAL MODULE.

 

PROJECT NAME: Ning Integration

ABSTRACT: Ning (www.ning.com) is a social networking platform that allows anyone to create its own social network. Recently, Ning has published APIs permitting network owners to use, from a third party application, the functionalities of its network. Ning Integration project is a solution to exploit these features from a Drupal site.

THE PROJECT: this project currently includes a single module named "ningauth".
The ningauth module allows a Drupal-site administrator to permits the delegation of authentication to one or several Ning network(s). Once properly configured, this module allows a user to authenticate on the Drupal-site with the username and password that she/he usually use on a Ning network.
The authentication phase is carried out under two scenarios left to free choice of the Drupal administrator:
- Exclusive mode: users are authenticated only on configured Ning networks.
- Mixed mode: the module first tries to authenticate the user on the user base of the Drupal-site. If it fails, it then tries to authenticate on configured Ning networks. A (configurable) procedure for resolving "users conflicts" is executed if a user with the same name is present in the user base of the Drupal-site and in the Ning network.
This module lets you manage the precedence of Ning networks and allows password synchronization (optional). It also allows role-mapping between Drupal and Ning : for example, a Ning user with moderator role can be mapped to a specific role in Drupal.

COMPARISON: the authentication mechanism of the ningauth module is based on the OAuth protocol (such as "Twitter module," for example). It uses Drupal-standard procedures, forms and blocks (like "LDAP integration module", for example).

DELIVERABLES: This project is structured as a conventional Drupal project. It contains the php files of the first module (ningauth) for D6 and a brief installation (and configuration) guide.

ROADMAP: I want to release a version for D7 (short-term), and release two additional modules for interacting with the timeline of a Ning network and importing / exporting medias (medium-term).

 

Don't hesitate to post comments or questions.

 

[Gilbert Guerrero]

Great work!  I have a couple of questions:

 

* I already have an up and running Drupal site with lots and lots of registered users.  I'm just setting up my Ning network now.  Can your module handle authenticating users on a Ning network with a username and password that was created in Drupal?  If not, is there a way to do this?  I'm assuming I'll have to look into populating my Ning user database with my Drupal accounts.

 

* Does your module handle mapping roles from Drupal to Ning?

 

Thanks!

Gilbert