What are some common pitfalls to avoid when integrating PHP-based forums with external websites?

One common pitfall to avoid when integrating PHP-based forums with external websites is not properly sanitizing user input, which can leave your site vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. To solve this, always use prepared statements or parameterized queries when interacting with your database to prevent malicious code from being executed.

// Example of using prepared statements to sanitize user input
$stmt = $pdo->prepare('SELECT * FROM users WHERE username = :username');
$stmt->bindParam(':username', $username);
$stmt->execute();