prompt for TS login from CGI script

Heres what I am trying to do:

I have a CGI script which is invoked by the user directly through a link - http://hostname/iw-bin/myscript.cgi (possibly bookmarked). The script does some processing and eventually redirects to somewhere in the workarea (http://localhost/iw-mount.....)

If the user is logged in, there is no problem. If the user is not logged in, TS will prompt for login whenever the script tries to redirect somewhere in the workarea.

What I am trying to do is (in the CGI script) check if the user is logged in. If not, then prompt for login and then continue its merry way. Now, I can check if the user is logged in by verifying the IWAUTH cookie. I can probably open up the login page in a frame or pop-up. The question is how do I make the CGI script read IWAUTH information and then continue after successful login ?

Basically I want to make sure that a user is already logged in before my CGI does its real job.

Any ideas ?

TS 6.1; W2k

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Comments

gzevin

I used to read all the cookies using CGI.pm module. As a matter of fact, you could use CGI::Cookie.

iwovGraduate

Thanks Greg.
I can find out if a user is logged in or not by checking IWAUTH cookie.
The question is (in case a user is not logged in) how do I make the user login and then continue with the script ?

For the sake of simplicity consider the following.

User invokes http://hostname/iw-bin/A.cgi
A.cgi will call/post to B.cgi
B.cgi does the actual work - display some file from a workarea in one or more frame(s) or a pop-up(s).
A.cgi needs to make sure that a user is logged in before calling B.cgi.

In A.cgi I can put something like

my $authcookie = GetIWAUTHCookie();

if( $authcookie ne ""  ){
 #... continue to B.cgi
}else{
 # .. open login screen in a pop-up or frame ? Then ?
}
# .......
sub GetIWAUTHCookie{
 # Returns session string if defined. Nothing otherwise. 
}

However, that won't be enough. A.cgi needs to "wait" for the AUTH cookie to be set and then call B.cgi

Thoughts ?

manugarg

Even I am facing the same issue. Have you got answer to this problem?

Thanks,
Manu

TeamSite Administrator,
GE Healthcare

iwovGraduate

Heres what I did:

User invokes http://teamsiteserver/iw-bin/scriptA.cgi
scriptA.cgi - creates a temp file in a workarea - zz_tmp.html, and redirects to this file.
zz_tmp.html - redirect to scriptB.cgi
scriptB.cgi - actually does the work that needs to do.

In case of a valid session, user is redirected to scriptB.cgi.
In case of a expired session, user is prompted for login prior to redirect by zz_tmp.html.

I gave up on the idea of IWAUTH altogether. It does not give me information about a valid session - which is what I need to know.

Not very elegant, but makes the user experience better: user does not have to deal with pop-ups or making an extra click.

Anybody got better ideas ?

jonwood

This is a really important topic and deserves further investigation. Currently, the last solution reached in this thread is not entirely secure. It does verify the the person running the script is a TeamSite user before running the script. Sadly, it does not verify which user is logged in. (see my p.s. below for the best known method)

My question: Is there a way to securely know the username of the person running the script? (and I can't check iw_user cookie b/c that is not secure, right?)

This is very important because if you want to write a custom menu item (assuming a perl cgi script), you'll need those two steps.
1) verify user is a logged in TeamSite user
2) verify the Interwoven username & role of the logged in TeamSite user
Only then do I want the user to be able to use the custom menu item.

Any ideas how to get this control? If using CSSDK is my only option for this, please let me know. Any input from Interwoven would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Jon

p.s. This link better explains the process of validating the user with TeamSite
<a href="http://devnet.interwoven.com/forums/cgi-bin/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=PRODUCTS_TEAMSITE&Number=35662&page=&view=&sb=&o=&part=all&vc=1">Verify user for cgi custom menu item</a>

Edited by jonwood on 09/01/05 12:50 PM (server time).