Note: You are currently viewing documentation for Moodle 2.0. Up-to-date documentation for the latest stable version is available here: Authentication.

Talk:Authentication: Difference between revisions

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I just added Guest Login Button (You can hide or show the guest login button on the login page) it's not clear if this just hides the button, or if hiding the button means that guest access is effectively useless.
Hmm.. not sure if I did the right thing or not really. In the TOC there is a page Authentication common settings so I made that page and then removed from this Authentication intro page those common settings. I am just wondering if they should be together or not? This page here is an intro to all the authentication plugins but it also  relates to the Manage authentication screen in admin which is where authentication common settings are - so should all the stuff (updated) be here instead of my new page or not? Also - I copied and pasted some info about "data mapping" which I presume relates to different authentication plugins and would be on their settings pages - should that not actually go onto each settings page instead of here? Again not sure.


:Hopefully the extra sentence I just added makes things clear now ;-) --[[User:Helen Foster|Helen Foster]] 12:18, 26 June 2008 (CDT)
:How about we treat [[Authentication]] in a similar way to [[Enrolments]] i.e. have a short intro page listing the different authentication methods plus links to 'Manage authentication' (containing Authentication common settings info and info on multi-authentication) and [[Authentication FAQ]]. Re. Profile fields data mapping and locking, I agree it would be best copying and pasting to the authentication plugins for which it applies to. --[[User:Helen Foster|Helen Foster]] 03:42, 4 October 2011 (WST)
 
=Draft=
The primary authentication page is an introduction to this subject.  Authentication is a menu item that only has sub menus in the administration block.  Thusly, this page should be an introduction to this concept, outline each of the sub menus, have lots of links, not a lot of how to, a few examples of concepts, many references in See also (including FAQ link)and perhaps be the heading for link on a template called Authentication.
 
Here are Chris's working notes that will form an introduction to Authentication. Typically, this will be no more than 3 sentences , with a second short paragraph that provides some context for breaking Authentication into sub menus, hopefully with a very simple example. 
 
Definition: From authenticate and the greek "authentikos, 'principal, genuine'." or
*Authentication is the process of determining whether someone or something is actually who or what it asserts itself to be, the process confirms that the identification of the individual or data is accurate.
**Authorization is the process of determining what types of activities are permitted by a user. Usually, authorization is in the context of authentication: once you have authenticated a user, they may be authorized different types of access or activity.
**Roles are part of the authorization process  that permits a user to perform certain activities.  Permissions are specific task authorizations that a user may or may not be allowed to perform (inclucing viewing and changing).
**Enrolment in a course is acheived by assigning a role to a user in the course context. 
 
'''Authentication, roles & permissions and enrolment'''. The authentication starts when a user enters a Moodle site. Most users think of the login screen as the first step in authentication of a user. After authentication, Moodle will give an initial set of authorizations to a user by assigning them an initial role.  A user entering into a new or different context (for example a course) will assume certain permissions based upon their role which was given to them by some authorization process.  A user who loses their authentication loses all authority and any previous roles. 
 
==Overview of authentication==
 
A standard Moodle has 15 types of authentication methods and additional contributed code plugins are available.
 
==[[Manage authentication]]==
The [[Manage authentication]] menu  is where the site administrator can edit settings of different authentication methods. Installed authenticn plugins will appear on this screen, with a hide/view and edit links.  
 
There are also some common settings for the authentication process.  For example settings that determine the default self email registration authentication method, an alternative login URL, alternative instructions at login, filters for accepted email domains and an optional URL for those who forget their password.
 
==[[Email-based self-registration]]==
 
==[[Manual accounts]]==
 
== [[Moodle Network]] ==
 
== [[No login]] ==
This is a negative authentication which prevents a user from logging in under their name or any user from placing this email address in their profile.  There are no general settings. It is activated only on a specific user's page under advanced settings by the site administrator.
 
 
== See Also ==
*[[Authentication FAQ]]
*Multi authentication in [[Upgrading to Moodle 1.8]]
*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=42 User authentication] forum
*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=95559 Do users need e-mail addresses?] forum discussion
*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=97938 Admin approving self registrations?] forum discussion
 
=Old Authentication page info is here=
Location: ''Administration > Users > Authentication > Manage authentication'' (or ''Administration > Users > Authentication '' prior to Moodle 1.9)
 
 
==Authentication methods==
 
One of the first things you need to consider when setting up your Moodle site is user authentication i.e. enabling people to login to your Moodle site.
 
Authentication methods (also known as authentication plugins) include:
 
*[[Manual accounts]]
*[[No login]]
*[[Email-based self-registration]]
*[[CAS server (SSO)]]
*[[External database authentication|External database]]
*[[FirstClass authentication|FirstClass server]]
*[[IMAP authentication|IMAP server]]
*[[LDAP authentication|LDAP server]]
*[[Moodle Network|Moodle Network authentication]]
*[[NNTP authentication|NNTP server]]
*[[No authentication]]
*[[PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules)]]
*[[POP3 server]]
*[[RADIUS authentication|RADIUS server]]
*[[Shibboleth]]
*[[NTLM authentication|NTLM/Integrated Authentication (3rd party plugin)]]
 
==Setting the authentication method==
[[Image:authentication plugins.png|thumb|Choosing an authentication plugin in Moodle 1.8 (only shows top of Authentication page)]]
To set the authentication method:
 
#Access ''Administration > Users > Authentication > Manage authentication''.
#On the Manage authentication page, click on the closed eye icon to enable your chosen authentication plugin. In Moodle 1.8 onwards, you can choose to use more than one authentication method (see Multi-authentication below). Use the up/down arrow icons to arrange the plugins in order, with the plugin handling the most logins at the top of the page.
#If you have chosen [[Email-based self-registration]] and wish potential users to be able to create their own accounts, select "Email-based self-registration" from the self registration drop-down menu in the common settings section. Potential users will then be presented with a "Create new account" button on the login page.
#If you have courses with guest access, set the Guest login button to show.
#Click the "Save changes" button.
#Click on Settings opposite the authentication plugin(s) you have chosen.
#Configure the required settings and click the "Save changes" button.
 
==Multi-authentication==
{{Moodle 1.8}}From Moodle 1.8 onwards, multi-authentication is supported. Each authentication plugin may be used to find a username/password match. Once found, a user is logged in and alternative plugins are not used. Therefore the plugin which handles the most logins should be moved to the top of the page in order that less load is put on authentication servers.
 
==Common settings==
 
===Self registration===
 
If you wish users to be able to create their own user accounts, i.e. self-register, then select Email-based self-registration from the drop-down menu.
 
Warning: Enabling self registration results in the possibility of spammers creating accounts in order to use forum posts, blog entries etc. for spam. This risk can be minimized by limiting self registration to particular email domains with the allowed email domains setting (see below). Alternatively, self registration may be enabled for a short period of time to allow users to create accounts, and then later disabled.
 
Note: The [[Email-based self-registration]] authentication plugin must be enabled to allow users who previously self-registered to login. Selecting Email-based self-registration as the self registration method allows potential users to self register.
 
===Guest login button===
 
You can hide or show the guest login button on the login page. Hiding the guest login button disables [[Guest role|guest access]] to the Moodle site, however logged-in users can still enter any courses which allow guest access without being required to enrol.
 
===Alternate login URL===
 
This should be used with care, since a mistake in the URL or on the actual login page can lock you out of your site. If you do mess it up, you can remove the entry from your database (table mdl_config) using, e.g., phpmyadmin for mysql.
 
===Forgotten password URL===
 
{{Moodle 1.9}}If your lost password handling is performed entirely outside of Moodle (for example, only by a help desk), you can set the url of that service here. Anybody pressing a "lost password" link in Moodle will be redirected to this URL. Note that this will disable '''all''' of Moodle's lost password recovery options regardless of authentication method(s) in use.
 
===Allowed and denied email domains===
 
Authentication may be restricted to particular email domains when using [[Email-based self-registration]] so that, for example, only students with a university email can login.
 
(Note: Prior to Moodle 1.9, the allowed and denied email domains settings can be found in ''Administration > Server > [[Email settings|Email]]''.)
 
===ReCAPTCHA===
 
[[Image:New account form with captcha element.png|thumb|New account form with CAPTCHA element]]
A CAPTCHA is a program that can tell whether its user is a human or a computer. CAPTCHAs are used by many websites to prevent abuse from bots, or automated programs usually written to generate spam. No computer program can read distorted text as well as humans can, so bots cannot navigate sites protected by CAPTCHAs.
 
{{Moodle 1.9}}From Moodle 1.9.1 onwards, spam protection may be added to the [[Email-based self-registration]] new account form with a CAPTCHA element - a challenge-response test used to determine whether the user is human.
 
ReCAPTCHA keys can be obtained from http://recaptcha.net by [https://admin.recaptcha.net/accounts/signup/?next= signing up for an account] (free) then entering a domain. The public and private keys provided can then be copied and pasted into the ''recaptchapublickey'' and ''recaptchaprivatekey'' fields in the manage authentication common settings, and the changes saved.
 
In addition to setting reCAPTCHA keys, email-based self-registration should be set as the self registration authentication plugin in the manage authentication common settings and the reCAPTCHA element should be enabled in the [[Email-based self-registration]] settings.
 
==Locking profile fields==
To prevent users from altering some fields (e.g. students changing profile information to inappropriate or misleading information), the site administrator can lock profile fields.
 
[[Image:Authent-data-map-fname.jpg|Data Mapping Options]]
*These fields are optional. You can choose to pre-fill some Moodle user fields with information from the LDAP fields that you specify here.  If you leave these fields blank, then nothing will be transferred from LDAP and Moodle defaults will be used instead.  In either case, the user will be able to edit all of these fields after they log in.
*'''Update local''': If enabled, the field will be updated (from external auth) every time the user logs in or there is a user synchronization. Fields set to update locally should be locked.
*'''Lock value''': If enabled, will prevent Moodle users and admins from editing the field directly. Use this option if you are maintaining this data in the external auth system.
*'''Update external''': If enabled, the external auth will be updated when the user record is updated. Fields should be unlocked to allow edits.  Note: Updating external LDAP data requires that you set '''binddn''' and '''bindpw''' to a bind-user with editing privileges to all the user records. It currently does not preserve multi-valued attributes, and will remove extra values on update.
 
If you are using a mixture of authentication types (such as IMAP and manual), then the fields you lock in the authentication options will only apply to the type of authentication indicated by the drop down box at the top of the screen.  Remember to test the field locking by logging in with the proper type of account!  If you test with a manual account but have set the field locking to apply to IMAP accounts, you will not be able to tell if it worked!
 
==See also==
 
*[[Authentication FAQ]]
*Multi authentication in [[Upgrading to Moodle 1.8]]
*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=42 User authentication] forum
*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=95559 Do users need e-mail addresses?] forum discussion
*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=97938 Admin approving self registrations?] forum discussion

Latest revision as of 19:42, 3 October 2011

Hmm.. not sure if I did the right thing or not really. In the TOC there is a page Authentication common settings so I made that page and then removed from this Authentication intro page those common settings. I am just wondering if they should be together or not? This page here is an intro to all the authentication plugins but it also relates to the Manage authentication screen in admin which is where authentication common settings are - so should all the stuff (updated) be here instead of my new page or not? Also - I copied and pasted some info about "data mapping" which I presume relates to different authentication plugins and would be on their settings pages - should that not actually go onto each settings page instead of here? Again not sure.

How about we treat Authentication in a similar way to Enrolments i.e. have a short intro page listing the different authentication methods plus links to 'Manage authentication' (containing Authentication common settings info and info on multi-authentication) and Authentication FAQ. Re. Profile fields data mapping and locking, I agree it would be best copying and pasting to the authentication plugins for which it applies to. --Helen Foster 03:42, 4 October 2011 (WST)