WordPress and PHPList

I am installing PHPList and WordPress. They’re brand new, clean installations, so I can do whatever I need to with the code (although I am importing existing members to PHPList).

I need to integrate the two programs somehow. I need to work it so that the only people that can comment in WordPress have signed up as members in PHPList.

I “think” the easiest way to do this is to have WordPress read the member information as usernames and passwords from the PHPList database. I can add hidden fields in PHPList that will contain the permissions information (Subscribers) to that database, so the right information will be there.

But – there’s two catches, which is where I need the help.

1) I need to either restrict PHPList to only allow unique usernames (which I find pretty much impossible), or I need to have WordPress allow people to use their email addresses (already distinct by default) for the login field. Passwords would be chosen. Does anyone know how I can make this work? I would prefer code examples, as I’m fairly new to PHP.

2) I would like the ‘user’name to be the displayed name in the comment area… so if johndoe@example.com commented, it would show up as johndoe (I want to protect the user’s emails from being public).

Can anyone help me with this? I find it hard to believe that noone has ever tried this before…

Please and Thank You for any and all help.