Connecting to forum database from ZenCart

Hi,

This question is whether or not it is feasible to connect to the forum (phpBB3) database from Zen Cart. What I want to do (to get people to start using the forum) is to display the latest topics on the index page of my cart.

If no one has a solution, I will try using an iframe to achieve the same result. For some reason I am a little hesitant to use iframes, I don't know why, probably because of the deprecation of frames I mentally link that up with iframes - probably an unreasonable thought!

Rainthebat, if you use SMF, you would be able to do that using 2 lines of code. I dont understand why people love phpbb too much.

Thank you yellow, I will certainly give it a look over. I did do a brief look at SMF in the past and it seemed like all the good featured were there. One does get used to a certain type of software, and feels that they have invested time in learning that software, then it gets a bit harder to let go of even when you here good reports of other software.

So, if I use SMF, I can do something like connect to the database while still in Zen Cart, or is it 2 lines of code that will help display most recent posts on front page some other way.

I am willing to switch, it is more about getting people to start using the forum for me than it is about what software I use - Whatever it takes! It certainly can't hurt for me to do an install and test it out.

My attachment to phpBB probably started from reading various postings in forums where it was more heavily promoted than the others.

Yes, with SMF you can:

Remote login to SMF from Zencart
Remote creating SMF accounts from ZC

Pull new topics, threads, users info from SMF

All is available using a few lines of codes, read more about SMF API and SSI for in depth info.

Thank you so much, I just installed, and boy do I feel good so far!

My question is: Can you point me to any links on this forum that are key topics, or should I just search for SMF (which I will do anyway). What I'm getting at here is, are there posts here that condense the topic, or do I read more about SMF API and SSI for in depth info, no matter what?

API is for remote login and creating account.
SSI is for pulling new topics etc

Search the forums and you will see many in-dept tutorials. It's very easy to use.