07 October 2009, 10:12

I have Mahoodle running OK, and have removed ldap authentication pending v1.2 release (http://mahara.org/interaction/forum/topic.php?id=1088), and have also now removed internal authentication so that users can only attempt to login via Moodle.

Now,  if I send someone a direct link to a page within Mahara,they are prompted for a password (which always fails) and an error message pops up for them to login via Moodle (text of which is set in the xmlrpc config), but I'm sure that it used to go straight to the Moodle login, then back to the correct mahara page.

Question is, have I mucked it up by removing ldap, or has it always done this - and if so, why? when xmlrpc is the only auth method available surely it's better to go straight to moodle for login.

 TIA 

07 October 2009, 18:22

Hi - the problem here is that you're sending a direct link to the Mahara. When the user clicks on it, they get taken to the Mahara - which simply sees a logged out user trying to access the system. As you pointed out, when you don't have LDAP or some other method as a parent, the login will always fail.

The best fix is for us to release 1.2 so you can upgrade . Failing that, the next best fix is for you to send a specially crafted "jump link" instead of the direct Mahara link. Jumplinks look like this:

http://moodle/auth/mnet/jump.php?hostid=[id-of-mahara]&wantsurl=/path/to/maharafile

This link sends the user to the Moodle first, where they will be asked to log in if they need to. Then, it will bounce them to the Mahara via XMLRPC. They'll already be logged in at the Moodle, so they'll be able to get to the page they want.

To find the [id-of-mahara] in the link above, have a look at the network servers block in your Moodle, it will have the correct ID in it. You're basically making a link like those in the network servers block 

By the way, Mahara forum e-mails don't send jumplinks, so you can have problems with those. There is a bug filed about this, that we will endeavour to fix before 1.2 or just after. 

08 October 2009, 12:32

Thanks again Nigel :)

I don't think the jump links would be viable as users would forget/not know/not understand. But it's a start.

roll on 1.2!