25 May 2013, 7:51

Hi there. I have read the documentation but I am still a bit unsure: We want to change from a Mahoodle set up to users being able to log directly into the Mahara site (it doesn't matter why) The Moodle is not available anymore. I thought that if I went into the Mahoodle institution where years ago I set up the Mahoodle authentication and removed it with an X and set it to internal instead it should work? But I couldn't get my test user to log in directly. So then I removed them from the Mahoodle institution altogether and just put them in the  main Mahara (default). Some other users log in that way normally anyway. But I am finding the password doesn't work. Have I missed something major out? I read about downloading their details as a csv and then reuploading but none of the details (ie username, password) would need to be changed. Do I still need to do this? And what do I enter for the new authentication? Thanks and sorry for all the questions: I have never done this before

25 May 2013, 9:28

Hello Mary,

If I understand your question correctly, you want tot change the auth system from SSO to internal.

The first thing I would try is to enable in the config.php file the "usersuniquebyusername" option (see http://manual.mahara.org/en/1.7/administration/experimental.html?highlight=config#usersuniquebyusername-variable).

Then I would setup an new institution with another authentication method. My user would have then the choice to login from an SSO server or with the other authentication method.

The second idea I would have is to edit the mysql database and change the value of authinstance for each user.

Hope my relfexion will help

Cheers,

-dajan

28 May 2013, 19:29

Hi Dominique. Thanks for this - unfortunately we don't have access to the Mahara database as it is hosted externally. However, I shall see what response I get

29 May 2013, 3:24

Hi Mary and Dominique,

I am keenly interested in this also - except in my case I want to convert local to SSO. I played with this over a year ago with little luck, even when changing directly in database if I remember correctly. I never knew about the "usersuniquebyusername" so thank you Dominique for posting and getting that included in the official manual.

09 June 2013, 17:00

Hi Dirk,

Please check the link that I posted for Mary. It describes your scenario directly :-) . We implemented that in Mahara 1.5. Since you want to add a remote username, you can't just switch the auth method, but need to add the external username. Thus, you can do that all in one step from the Add user by CSV screen.

Cheers

Kristina

09 June 2013, 16:57

Hello Mary,

You have two options:

1. Change the authentication method and leave your users in your institution.
2. Remove your users from your institution.

For 1: When you change the authentication method from MNet to internal, you will need to give your users a password (best via CSV file) because they have never really had an internal password and thus wouldn't know it. Take a look at http://manual.mahara.org/en/1.7/administration/users.html#change-the-authentication-method-and-remote-username-in-bulk Only in your case you want to leave the remote username empty. Leave the field in there, but don't put a value in as you are changing from an external to an internal auth method.

For 2: When you remove your users from your institution, they should receive an email to their primary email address with their internal Mahara credentials. Did any of your students get that? If not, a developer would need to check if that feature was only developed for SAML SSO and not any external auth method.

Cheers

Kristina