Externalizing login within Expression Engine
Posted: 17 July 2004 06:41 PM   [ Ignore ]  
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A number of people have asked for this ... I think because they are trying to use Expression Engines as a Content Management System.  Many of the requests are of the nature ... “how do I externalize login and make sure my end users never ever see the control panel.”

We’ve implemented a series of hacks that will allow you to do this This is not a “module”... but impacts multiple modules.  If you are interested, we’ve posted the hacks in the colophon section of our website ...

http://www.firewhite.com/site/colophon/index

Note that we don’t use Expression Engines to support weblogging at all and have therefore not testing the system with trackbacks and comments.  That said, we have been using these hacks and modifications for about a month now and everything works as advertised with the possible exception of the modlog module which has yet to be stress tested. 

Using this system we have about 100 members organized into 20 groups.  Each member can login to the system and view content designed for them and only for them.  Members in one group are not able to view content designed for another group and - in fact - are not even aware that the other group exists. 

Access control is controlled by the regular mechanisms you’d expect within EE:

{if logged_in} at the top of the template and {/if} at the bottom of the template. 

We’ve set the templates up to display a login box in the event the member is not logged in. 

Finally, access to templates is controlled by setting template preferences.  In this way, specific groups can access the content that is designated for them while other groups are barred from accessing that content. 

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Posted: 17 July 2004 09:09 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 1 ]  
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brilliant!

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Posted: 18 July 2004 03:40 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 2 ]  
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brilliant!

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Posted: 18 July 2004 07:11 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 3 ]  
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Sweet! Thanks for sharing.
Here’s the link.

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Posted: 05 August 2004 01:19 AM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 4 ]  
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Nice work. This is what I’ve been looking for. Good job on the tutorial too. I haven’t implemented it yet, but I’m considering it.

I wonder how you handle member activation and notification? Let’s say you tell Bclient that their extranet is live. They inform their employees to register. You get a flood of new registrations.

How do you know that those registrations are coming from Bclient? Do you have any automated way of flagging new registrations with their source (ie, this person is registering to be a member of Bclient, but I can see this person is registering to be a member of Cclient)? I know I’m dreaming now, but it would be so nice if you figured out a way to set a new registrant’s default member group based on which ‘weblog’ they’re registering to?!

And then what about notifying them once their account is activated - do you have an automated way to handle that?

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Posted: 21 August 2004 03:51 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 5 ]  
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Adam, the supposition here is that the system administrator handles all registrations by hand - versus in an automated fashion by allowing the end user to self register.  This is how it is done inside most corporations for security reasons.

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Posted: 21 August 2004 07:22 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 6 ]  
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msdirect...
I’m just about ready to delve into this…any anomalies/ramifications, etc. with the 1.1 version now?

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Posted: 21 August 2004 07:29 PM   [ Ignore ]   [ # 7 ]  
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msdirect,

Is there any chance you could turn this into a plugin or module?

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