The Task is:

I want to login to WordPress at the same time as I login to my own custom built admin section (i.e. using the same login form). I want it to then display a page saying something along the lines of “Which CMS did you want to view? WordPress or Custom” (with links obviously – this will just be a redirect after login, so shouldn’t be hard to implement). I don’t mind so much about logging out, but might look into it if logging in becomes a success.

I looked for a solution to this problem about a year ago whenever it was I re-designed this portfolio site, but never found an answer. Then recently, at work I had to hook up a login script of VBulletin to a custom admin area (no simple task as I soon found out) which got me thinking about this again, and how to get round it.

I plan to start looking through WordPress’ code to see how they deal with the login whenever I get the time (either this week or next week), but thought I may as well post it on here to see if anyone who reads this blog knows of any solution.

The only thing I really need to find is the login function (or what I assume would be a function), so I can then include the correct files and call the function. I might go on to then look at how WordPress authenticates if the user is logged in or not, and possibly try to use that as my own authentication (as no doubt it’d be more secure that way – it would also mean I didn’t have to set my own session variables that are used to authenticate my own login).

A few problems I face:

1. My site and my WordPress use different databases – they may need to be combined.
2. Depending how WP is set up I may need to include a fair bit of unnecessary code.
3. If WordPress updates then it might screw with where certain files are located and require me re-do the login script slightly (but that can be dealt with when it happens).

But other than that I don’t think it should be that hard to do (but we’ll see).

Anyone done this (or similar) before that could point me in the right direction?

Here’s a question I’ve been asked a few times in the past month or two (mainly in interviews), but its actually got me thinking about where I want to be/what I want to be doing in 5 years or so.

I’m the kind of person who likes to plan ahead, but not that far ahead. Right now 5 years seems like an eternity away, but I know it isn’t.

Originally

The original (pretty open ended) plan after coming out of school was:

• Finish uni
• Get a job in a web design/development company
• Work there for a good number of years gaining a good amount of experience
• Possibly start my own web development company with a few others after that

But now? I’m not so sure about that last one, and have a few other things I’d like to do somewhere down the line in my career. I’m not so sure I would be good at owning my own business, even if I were good at the practical side of things, there’s a lot more to owning a business than that.

A few things I would like to do

Now, the plan is pretty similar up until working in a web design company for a good number of years. I still want to work in a web design company (and I do right now), but I’m not sure if that’s where I want my career to end. Obviously I wouldn’t want to stay a junior developer for the rest of my life, I’d like to become a senior developer at some point, if not a lead developer somewhere.

Web Conferences

One thing I really want to start doing is going to a number of web conferences, meeting like-minded people in the industry, making contacts, and of course learning more about current and new technologies related to web design.

(Co) Write a Book

Another thing I would be interested in doing is either writing or co-writing a book about some kind of technology in web design. Even being able to contribute a section or two to a book (again) would be great, but I think co-writing one with someone would be my ideal situation (if I were ever to do it).

Write my own custom CMS

This one will likely happen at some point in the future, but whether it will be any good or not is the real question. I need to learn a lot about current CMS’ to even start this one, but it shouldn’t be that much of a mammoth task.

I just want to be able to have one that I know inside out and can easily apply to websites I create. It’s not like I want to make the next WordPress or anything like that (although that would be nice…realistically its probably not going to happen).

Web Standards Project

I’m all for my web standards, and I would at some point like to work alongside people promoting web standards. Maybe Opera, maybe somewhere else, who knows?

Overall

Overall I’m sure that I want to be a part of the web design and development industry, but I’m not certain where within that I want to be. Hopefully over the next few years I will be able to figure that out and start getting closer to doing some of the things I have mentioned above!