[Xerte] Changes for Non-LDAP Login

[Julian Tenney]

OK, thanks. We don't want a solution that requires adding users manually
to the database. I'd prefer some sort of import feature, that takes a
text file / xml file and creates users from that, and / or an admin
feature to add new users.

What I suggest we do is define the functionality we want and write some
high level pseudo code to define it. This will be for release with
version 1.5, so that gives us a few months to put everything in place
and test it.

-----Original Message-----
From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Chris
Peachment
Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2009 2:13 AM
To: Xerte discussion list
Subject: RE: [Xerte] Changes for Non-LDAP Login

On Tue, 2009-06-02 at 22:22 +0100, Julian Tenney wrote:

> Where are you getting your list of users from?

Records inserted in the logindetails table using MySqlAdmin.


>  Do you also have a 'create account / sign in' set of pages?

No. The number of people using this application in this case is
just a handful, so the above method is sufficient.


>  I think if we could get all that working, so that:
>  
> - anyone can create an account and sign up [see 'create account', and
> login prompt links on the front page]

This is a desirable feature for situations with a great number
of users.


> - anyone with an account can sign in (so you can restrict access to
> known users) [just see login prompts]

This is what happens in my case now.


> - easily switch to LDAP [just see login prompts]

The changes use a test of:

	if(strlen($xerte_toolkits_site->ldap_host) == 0) {
	...
	}

to control use of this feature. So if there is an entry in
sitedetails.ldap_host then LDAP is used. This was done to
avoid adding additional attribute(s) to the sitedetails table.


> - easily plug in your own authentication (by setting a parameter
> 'login_script' or similar [user sees login prompts, some script you
> pass username and password to it and it returns 'true' or 'false']

I coded it as a separate function in login_library.php however
the existing use of multiple check_login type functions means
that it must also set the user credentials as fields in the
$xerte_toolkits_site array (firstname and surname), as well as
the true/false return value.

There are a couple of minor reordering of lines of code to
ensure the database is open at the correct time, and changes
of 'include xxx.php' to 'require_once xxx.php'


>  
> If all this is covered in one file, based on a setting for the
> authentication you want, it ought be possible in those four switches
> to do all the options?
>  
> Does this sound like a sensible solution? This would be a really good
> problem to get sorted. I could do with a list of you that are
> interested, and what you think you could contribute - this is a
> problem that needs quite a few points of view accomodating. Then we
> can work on it without swamping the list, and use the google code site
> to sort this out. We can use the google code tools and discuss things
> there, and use the .svn.
>  
> J
> 
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
> From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk on behalf of Chris
> Peachment
> Sent: Tue 02/06/2009 20:34
> To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> Subject: [Xerte] Changes for Non-LDAP Login
> 
> 
> I have made a small number of changes to a copy of the xerte
> online toolkits version 1.0.2 that is running on my Linux server.
> 
> These changes permit user login without requiring an LDAP server.
> They include:
> 
> 1. addition of a password attribute to the logindetails table.
> 2. alterations to the files:
>         xerte/index.php
>         xerte/website_code/php/login_library.php
> 
> 3. manual insertion of user records into logindetails since
> there is no user interface as part of the toolkit.
> 
> These changes are rudimentary and have been tested far enough
> to demonstrate creation / export of content. It is likely that
> other changes will be required to cope with login events from
> other access points (e.g. play).
> 
> My question is: how do you want me to publish/present these
> changes for your review and possible addition to the standard
> distribution?
> 
> Regards, Chris Peachment
> 
> 
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