[bbDev] bbPress Auth for MediaWiki - spec started on Codex

[Rob Lanphier]

Hi folks,

In the IRC meeting on Wednesday, I signed up for helping out with
writing a MediaWiki auth plugin for bbPress.  I have installs of
MediaWiki and bbPress on my machine, and I'm starting to poke around and
plan on how to do this.

First things first:  you'll notice I cross-posted to the wiki-tech and
bbdev aliases.  I'd like to direct followups to wiki-tech if that's
alright with everyone.

I've started a "spec" page here:
http://codex.wordpress.org/User:RobLa/bbPress_Auth_for_MediaWiki

It's not really a spec so much as a scratchpad, but it's something.  The
rest of this is copied from the current version of that page.

I'm using the tip revisions of both bbPress and MediaWiki. MediaWiki is
on the verge of becoming 1.5, which will be the target version of this
work. The authentication plugin structure didn't change much since 1.4
(not to be confused with authorization/permissions management, which
changed a great deal), so if it needs to be backported to 1.4.6, I don't
think it'll be a big deal.

I'll be starting with this template for adding external auth: Blitzed
MediaWiki modifications
(http://wiki.blitzed.org/Blitzed_MediaWiki_modifications). Looks like a
really straightforward exercise, and I'll take much the same approach.

Open issues:

      * How should MediaWiki 1.5 user roles be stored? 
              * This iteration will require roles to be assigned in the
                MediaWiki admin interface, using these
                instructions (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:User_rights)
      * Allow for separate dbs for MediaWiki and bbPress? 
              * My first cut will be a single db solution. I'm happy to
                work on a two-db solution if it'll get used that way,
                but don't want to futz with it if not.
      * Are there any differences in userid rules between MediaWiki and
        bbPress? 
              * For now, I'll assume "none that we know of"
      * How is migration/merge going to occur? 
              * This has the potential of some of the same problems as
                the big Wikipedia merge
                (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Single_login_specifications). I hesitate to make this comparison though, because it's not the same size and scale as merging several dozen very active wikis with long histories, and it doesn't need to be nearly as complicated. Still, if there's a "John" registered on bb, and a different "John" registered on MW, there's an issue to resolve. There can be only one (tm).

That's all for now.  I'll poke around with this a bit more, and should
be able to have something running on my machine and code published by
the next IRC meeting.

Rob