Auto login user from cookie in frontend

[Monky]

Hello forum,
what I'd like to achieve is the following:
When a user visits my WB page, the template should check for WBs login cookie and - if it exists - automatically log in the user.

This functionality is already included in WB in the admin backend. When I visit my homepage on the URL .../admin/ I automatically access the admin backend without entering my username/password (of course the "smart login" and "remember me" options are enabled and the user has to have a valid cookie).

Since I don't want to mess with the (security relevant) login code I ask here first Has anyone accomplished this behaviour for WB?

Since auto login already works in the SESSION one idea of me was to "copy" the cookie settings (if present) into the SESSION. Might this work?

Regards,
Sebastian

[Ruud]

You're right, you should not mess with the login code.

But copying the checks from the login class and make your own functionality in your template should not be that difficult.
(look for: is_remembered() )