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Taras_96
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 Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 3:45 pm Post subject: Pattern for synchronising account information |
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Hi everyone,
I'm currently working on what is essentially an integration/
synchronisation problem. Currently our web based product stores a
number of user details as part of their account, for example, and e-
mail address or phone number.
However, now we wish to add blogging and forum features, but give the
user the perception that they are still using the same site. Now
typically blogging/forum software will store their own account
details. What we wish to do, in order to provide a seamless
experience, is allow the user to edit their details for example while
using the forum software, and for that detail to be updated/
synchronised in any other relevant databases.
Does anyone know if there is an established technique for doing this,
or if they have any recommendations?
Cheers
Taras |
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H. S. Lahman
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| Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2008 9:53 pm Post subject: Re: Pattern for synchronising account information |
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Responding to Taras_96...
Caveat: I have no experience with blog/forum software development, so I
am useless for details. However, from a megathinker perspective...
| Quote: |
I'm currently working on what is essentially an integration/
synchronisation problem. Currently our web based product stores a
number of user details as part of their account, for example, and e-
mail address or phone number.
However, now we wish to add blogging and forum features, but give the
user the perception that they are still using the same site. Now
typically blogging/forum software will store their own account
details. What we wish to do, in order to provide a seamless
experience, is allow the user to edit their details for example while
using the forum software, and for that detail to be updated/
synchronised in any other relevant databases.
|
First, a couple of assumptions:
- You are using third party software for the blog/forum.
- That software is designed for use as a component of a host web site
(i.e., one does not just hyperlink control to the blog/forum vender's
web site).
- It has a programmatic interface to update things like account
information in addition to its own UI.
- The interface it provides can accommodate seamless hooks back into the
host software (e.g., you can insert a menu item that invokes one of your
software facilities, like an account UI).
- The UI for account information that comes with the blog/forum software
can be disabled (if there is one).
If all these assumptions are true, then it seems to me your basic
problem is providing your own UI for account information to be used
instead of the blog/forum software's account UI. This UI would always be
used for providing/modifying account information. When the user accesses
that UI, the following things happen:
(1) the user's account data is extracted from the UI.
(2) the user's account data is saved to your database.
(3) some subset of that data is saved to the blog/forum software's
database via the programmatic interface.
(4) when done the account UI exits back to the context where it was invoked.
The third step is the one that ensures synchronization. Presumably when
you have a new user for your web site you would also use this UI and its
processing to automatically enroll the user with the blog/forum software.
This seems to me to be basic design rather than a pattern. All of the
interesting stuff is in the mechanics of providing an additional hook to
your account UI in the blog/forum context, disabling the blog/forum
software's UI (if present) so that your update cannot be bypassed, and
exiting back to the blog/forum context if the account UI was invoked
from there. But these seem like a pure implementation issues for the
particular vendor's software.
--
There is nothing wrong with me that could
not be cured by a capful of Drano.
H. S. Lahman
hsl@pathfindermda.com
Pathfinder Solutions
http://www.pathfindermda.com
blog: http://pathfinderpeople.blogs.com/hslahman
"Model-Based Translation: The Next Step in Agile Development". Email
info@pathfindermda.com for your copy.
Pathfinder is hiring:
http://www.pathfindermda.com/about_us/careers_pos3.php.
(888)OOA-PATH |
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Taras_96
Guest
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| Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 10:17 am Post subject: Re: Pattern for synchronising account information |
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On Jul 9, 5:53 pm, "H. S. Lahman" <h...@pathfindermda.com> wrote:
| Quote: |
Responding to Taras_96...
Caveat: I have no experience with blog/forum software development, so I
am useless for details. However, from a megathinker perspective...
I'm currently working on what is essentially an integration/
synchronisation problem. Currently our web based product stores a
number of user details as part of their account, for example, and e-
mail address or phone number.
However, now we wish to add blogging and forum features, but give the
user the perception that they are still using the same site. Now
typically blogging/forum software will store their own account
details. What we wish to do, in order to provide a seamless
experience, is allow the user to edit their details for example while
using the forum software, and for that detail to be updated/
synchronised in any other relevant databases.
First, a couple of assumptions:
- You are using third party software for the blog/forum.
- That software is designed for use as a component of a host web site
(i.e., one does not just hyperlink control to the blog/forum vender's
web site).
- It has a programmatic interface to update things like account
information in addition to its own UI.
- The interface it provides can accommodate seamless hooks back into the
host software (e.g., you can insert a menu item that invokes one of your
software facilities, like an account UI).
- The UI for account information that comes with the blog/forum software
can be disabled (if there is one).
If all these assumptions are true, then it seems to me your basic
problem is providing your own UI for account information to be used
instead of the blog/forum software's account UI. This UI would always be
used for providing/modifying account information. When the user accesses
that UI, the following things happen:
(1) the user's account data is extracted from the UI.
(2) the user's account data is saved to your database.
(3) some subset of that data is saved to the blog/forum software's
database via the programmatic interface.
(4) when done the account UI exits back to the context where it was invoked.
The third step is the one that ensures synchronization. Presumably when
you have a new user for your web site you would also use this UI and its
processing to automatically enroll the user with the blog/forum software.
This seems to me to be basic design rather than a pattern. All of the
interesting stuff is in the mechanics of providing an additional hook to
your account UI in the blog/forum context, disabling the blog/forum
software's UI (if present) so that your update cannot be bypassed, and
exiting back to the blog/forum context if the account UI was invoked
from there. But these seem like a pure implementation issues for the
particular vendor's software.
--
There is nothing wrong with me that could
not be cured by a capful of Drano.
H. S. Lahman
h...@pathfindermda.com
Pathfinder Solutionshttp://www.pathfindermda.com
blog:http://pathfinderpeople.blogs.com/hslahman
"Model-Based Translation: The Next Step in Agile Development". Email
i...@pathfindermda.com for your copy.
Pathfinder is hiring:http://www.pathfindermda.com/about_us/careers_pos3.php.
(888)OOA-PATH
|
Thanks Mr Lahman, that was an extremely detailed response  |
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