Starting A5 web app with a known user

[BarcodeUK]

Hi Guys

Could you please point me in the right direction as to how to create a login which will start with the user name and only prompt for the passcode i.e. the url contains the user ID , something like
...\myA5start.a5w?username

I would be happy enough if the app just started with the user know without a password. The users will be using tablets to login so will have already signed in.

[DaveF]

Re: Starting A5 web app with a known user

Richard,

Do you plan to generate a list of these URL's so the user can press a hyperlink and log in as a given user? Or do you just want to remember the user's last user id and automatically populate the user id field on the log in page so they just have to enter the password?

[BarcodeUK]

Re: Starting A5 web app with a known user

Do you plan to generate a list of these URL's so the user can press a hyperlink and log in as a given user? Or do you just want to remember the user's last user id and automatically populate the user id field on the log in page so they just have to enter the password?

The latter I think if I understand your reply correctly. I would like to construct the URL, imagine their staffID was 662140 the A5 server would be sent something like the url which got me to this page.

http://msgboard.alphasoftware.com/al...reply&p=662140

Thus I would like to use the 622140 to look up the users settings. I did think about a list of URL's but then they would have to be maintained and as a new user joined the company even more effort would be required. Whereas storing their staff ID and password is already in a SQL table for other reasons.

[DaveF]

Re: Starting A5 web app with a known user

You can save the last staff id that a user entered using local storage or a cookie. The next time the user logs in, you would update the staff id textbox control with the staff id. This solution would be device specific. Are there other settings that you want to update in your log in page besides the staff id? I use the local storage technique for remembering the user id which requires a little Javascript. Let me know if this is what you are looking for and I can reply with an example.

[BarcodeUK]

Re: Starting A5 web app with a known user

Hi Dave

Thank you, there are lots of settings I adjust on the mobile when the user logs in. They often swap devices as they just pick a one from the charging station.

Typically the customer wants it just as now, the users can pick any mobile and need to still be able too when A5 is deployed. I did think of using some kind of ini file on the device but then the users swapped and effectively ruled that option out.

I've seen and used lots of applications which use URL's in the way I want to including A5 when it starts the localhost so it must be possible to do this in my project.

[DaveF]

Re: Starting A5 web app with a known user

Richard,

I guess I'm not understanding the type of landing page you have in mind that would contain the link with the URL you are describing. I think the URL you have in mind might look something like this?

http://www.mydomain.com/login.a5w?staffid=622140

What would the landing page look like that contains the link above? Would the URL above link to a login page with a user id set to "622140" and a password or just a password?

[BarcodeUK]

Re: Starting A5 web app with a known user

Exactly that, Dave, sorry it way way I described it.

[BarcodeUK]

Re: Starting A5 web app with a known user

Oh I did think perhaps passing the password also but that wouldn't have been so secure, better to control that once they have landed with A5.

[Steve Wood]

Re: Starting A5 web app with a known user

Based on your first post, just enable the Remember Me option in the login dialog properties. that will remember the username but not the password. Also, most browsers will allow the user to save their username and/or password upon first login.

If you want the login to know the user even though they have never logged in before then at least send a hash value in the URL as a parameter (instead of their real userid), lookup their username based on the hash value. You can't populate the official Alpha login dialog username from a URL parameter, but you can create your own login dialog from scratch, and populate that username field from the URL then require the password, then use the function a5ws_login_user() to log them in.


, and then use the function a5ws_login_user() to log them in. Even that is totally not secure. You should either make them login, use Active Directory to authenticate, or don't require login at all.

[BarcodeUK]

Re: Starting A5 web app with a known user

Thank you Steve, I don't mind if I send their userid or hash value, either will do exactly what I want to achieve, the bit I don't get is how to setup a project so that it will respond in the way I want i.e. land and look up a record from the URL. Like you say I can then code to make them complete the second bit of the login. I had a chat with the customer and they are not so bothered about the password bit, they just want to be sure who is doing what, they have a lot of temporary staff.

[Steve Wood]

Re: Starting A5 web app with a known user

A lot of ways to do what you want. If the client does not care about the login process, just omit it. Hit an A5W page with your URL, include the username or a hash value, use xbasic to validate the parameter, use a5ws_login_user() to log them in, totally skipping the login dialog; or complete only the username from your parameter, make them enter the password. Again, you need to make your own login dialog, Alpha's wont take a parameter to fill in the usename. You can include any required parameters in the URL to filter a grid or anything else. If an A5W page is hit with parameters in the URL, each of those parameters becomes a 'page variable'. You can create an 'Argument' in the grid, and a filter that uses the argument as a filter parameter

[BarcodeUK]

Re: Starting A5 web app with a known user

Ah a page variable, now I've got it thank you very much.

[JerryBrightbill]

Re: Starting A5 web app with a known user

Most security systems require 2 authentication values, typically a user name (user id) and a password. However, the Alpha Anywhere web security can be configured for single value, which is a unique user name (user id). The function "a5ws_login_user" requires values for both userid and password, but if you are using just the userid for authentication, just pass in some dummy value for the password, such as "password". As long as the user name is unique and valid, the function will successfully log in the user is that is the only criteria.

Passing a value in the URL for login is not very secure, and is not recommended unless it is a single use login, or other data is required to complete the authentication such as a password.

[Steve Wood]

Re: Starting A5 web app with a known user

Jerry, didn't know security had a password-free option, even though now I see it as the second checkbox in Security Config! In my Active Directory integration I insure each user has a password, even though all users have the same 'unknown' password (in the AD/LDAP integration, they never see the login dialog, never enter credentials at the Alpha Five level.)

Richards, when I referred to "hash value" I was referring back to my AD/LDAP integration. There I get a hash value from their LDAP server and I compare it to my user list, which also has a field for the hash equivalent of the username. So in that case, they never actually log in to Alpha Five at all, they authenticate through their LDAP server.

[BarcodeUK]

Re: Starting A5 web app with a known user

OK thanks for pointing that out but in this case the customer isn't worried about that sort of security, more the staff walking off with the goods. It's an internal network so I think it should be OK.

1) They need to know the ESSID, etc. for the network
2) Having hacked that, know that A5 iand the app is there
3) Actually be interested in the picking data to make the hack worth while.

That said who knows what systems GCHQ etc. want to hack...

Thank you all for the help and advice, I will certainly want to make use of it in the future.

Merry Christmas.