integrating two member-based apps

[TechBoyJK]

I have a website that I'm trying to add an application too. This new application is built around its own membership structure. I want to maintain my current membership structure and the app work with it.

I am seeing two options. First option is to compare and contrast both structures and add to my existing one or slightly modify it to be more similar to the structure of the new app. Once I take that as far as I can, I then start going through the source of the new app and changing how it interacts with the membership structure to accomodate the new data source..

Second, keep both memberships and have redundant data. The new app would still feed on the session from my current setup, but any time the app needed member data it would look to its own source. As people updated records, both tables would have to be modified simultaneously, and I would have to hope that the sources remained consistent. I would probably have to create some checks that would verify/check for inconsistencies, and pick one db to be the authoritative source.

thoughts?

 

[troytime]

I've faced the exact situation several times.

The deciding factor for me is the time/money vs life cycle and size of the site.

In my experiences, it was a online store that also had a forum community (or user gallery system)
It made the most sense (resource wise), to duplicate the user data.
I modified the account creation system of the store to also insert the appropriate data into the other user tables, then i redirected the other user creation pages to the stores signup page.

Getting the sitewide logins were the most difficult challenge of the scenerio, but all in all, i probably only spent an hour or two making ALL modifications.

 

[TechBoyJK]

i think im going to dupe the data. this leaves the new app closer to its original state, which will be easier for the designers to support. When someone signs up, im just going to make a double entry into both systems and figure out the shared login setup. I know it can be done and have a pretty good idea of how to implement it, I just need to decide if thats what I want to do.

thanks for your insight. i need it.