[Moin-user] automatic redirect to login page

[Ted Stern]

On 01 Sep 2011 04:02:52 -0700, Thomas Waldmann wrote:
>
> On Wed, 2011-08-24 at 14:21 -0700, Ted Stern wrote:
>> I'm running moin 1.9.3 and have a farm of wikis that are controlled
>> via access control.  Generally, a UserName has to be listed under
>> TrustedGroup to have access.
>> 
>> We frequently send URLs to interior pages in our wikis that require
>> the user to login first.
>> 
>> Is there a way I can have the login page automatically pop up if the
>> user has not logged into a particular wiki already?
>
> We already had long thinking and discussions about such "features" (and
> related ones, like suggesting to log in to view the page), but the
> result was not to do that.
>
> The simple, but very fundamentaly problem is that, as long as the
> user is not logged in, you do not know who he is. Thus, you can't
> predict if logging in would give him the permissions you just denied
> him.

Nevertheless, logging in is a prerequisite to knowing who the user is.

The current situation is that an unknown user has no access to
protected pages.

The information about permissions and protection is on the Main Page
of the wiki.

The user doesn't see the main page, or even get a link.  All they get
is an access denied message.

> So, hinting "log in to access this" or even redirecting to the login
> form is not the right thing to do (in general - it might be
> different in special acl configurations).

The current situation is completely opaque to the user.  I think the
"wrong" thing would be better than that.

> OTOH, it is maybe not that big issue. If a user solves that once,
> he/she will know what to do in future.

I maintain the farm for close to a dozen wikis.  Most of my users are
engineers (i.e., not sophisticated about wiki software) and don't
remember what they did from one time to the next.  So they call me
repeatedly.

In my mind, if a software task has to be repeated, it should be
automated.  The current situation is not automated.

Ted
-- 
 Frango ut patefaciam -- I break so that I may reveal