Login & External Authentication

Table of contents

• Login & External Authentication
  • Overview of Login Methods
  • Authentication With Shared Hosting
  • Just Tiki
  • OpenId and Tiki
  • Web Server (HTTP)
  • Tiki and Pear
    • LDAP via Pear
    • IMAP via Pear
    • POP3 via Pear
    • Vpopmail via Pear
  • Tiki and Pam
  • CAS
  • Shibboleth

Overview of Login Methods

Tiki allows you to use several different login Authentication? methods. For standalaone sites (not connected to a central authentication server), you can use "Just Tiki" or "Web Server". For sites that are part of a larger environment Tiki offers Apache (basic HTTP auth), LDAP based Pear::Auth, CAS, and Shibboleth authentication.

The installation environment plays a role in determining the authentication method to be used. On a fully accessible server, an administrator has a choice of any/all of the authentication methods listed on this page.

Authentication With Shared Hosting

In a shared hosting environment (FTP access only) the authentication options become severely limited. While it is possible to setup an OpenID server with FTP access (Community-ID is one such project) it is not well documented. As of 4/09, setting up OpenLDAP, Shibboleth, or CAS are effectively impossible with FTP access only and may be impossible (depending on access rights) with a shell access account.

Just Tiki

The Just Tiki authentication method uses the usernames and passwords stored in the tiki database for authentication. This is best used for sites that are not part of a larger intranet.

OpenId and Tiki

OpenID authentication has been introduced in Tikiwiki 2.0. OpenID is an open and decentralized identity system, designed "not to crumble if one company turns evil or goes out of business".
Selecting OpenID in Tiki 3.0 will ad an OpenID login module below the regular login module.
More information on OpenID

Web Server (HTTP)

A common way of protecting webpages is through Basic HTTP authentication. The web server sends a "401 Authentication Required" header when a protected page is requested. The browser would then prompt the user for a username and password. Access is allowed if the username password pair are valid; else, the web server sends a HTTP 401 error, meaning "access denied." HTTP authentication is usually used by creating a .htaccess file. (Only in Apache?)

Tikiwiki is able to detect when a visitor to the site is currently logged in using Basic HTTP Authentication. If the username of the user matches a username within Tikiwiki's database, Tikiwiki will automatically log the user in and, of course, grant all the assigned permissions.

Using Web Server authentication can be convenient for a shared hosting installation of TikiWiki. User management becomes more of a challenge if multiple Tiki's are to be installed. One option for centralized user control of Web Server authentication is Locked Area Lite. However, in Tiki 3.0 group information and users will still need to be added to each and every sub-Tiki inside the authorized domain.

Tiki and Pear

TikiWiki uses the Pear:Auth library which permits many types of external authentication.

In Tiki 3.0, Pear:Auth is primarily set up to work with LDAP. Previous versions of Tiki permitted IMAP/POP authentication.
http://pear.php.net/package/Auth

LDAP via Pear

LDAP authentication

IMAP via Pear

IMAP Authentication

POP3 via Pear

POP3 Authentication

Vpopmail via Pear

Vpopmail Authentication

Tiki and Pam

PAM authentication

CAS

CAS Authentication

Shibboleth

Shibboleth Authentication

• LDAP authentication
• PAM authentication
• Shibboleth Authentication
• OpenId
• CAS Authentication

• Login Authentication Methods

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