Integrating freely available Asp.Net forum with a Asp.net web app on a MySQL DB

Question

We have just finished delivering a (large-ish) Asp.Net 3.5 Web Application project which uses MySQL as the database.

We have used the MySQL Membership Provider along with SubSonic 2.2 to finish the project in.

However, now the client wants a Forum to go along with the website - such that when a user signs up into our site, an ID is also created on the forum.

(It is not necessary for the login session to transfer to the forum - so that a user will have to re-login when he tries to access the forum - but the credentials need to be created forum side also)

Instead of building a forum, we are looking to port an existing solution and just bind the membership creation process. However, most forums (YAF.net, etc) are on the MS-SQL database which is causing an issue.

At best (last option), I could get a SQL Express server installed for YAF. But just wanted to see what other alternatives are there and whether we could somehow use the existing MySQL database to get our stuff done. What would you guys have done if you were in a similar situation?

Any help / pointing-in-a-direction is greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

• Saurabh

PS: The forum can be the simplest forum there can be. More of a discussion board.

Answer 1

You can try nearforums. Its built with asp.net mvc and it uses MSSQL or MySql db (MySql 5 or above, mysql scripts delivered with the latest release). About the authorization provider, Nearforums uses facebook connect or twitter (through OAuth) to sign users in, its not what you need but most of the users should have a fb or twitter account. In the next release (available in the next couple of weeks), it will enable a single sign-on with your site using an close openid with any site (that you configure).

Disclaimer: I'm a developer for the open source project nearforums.