TWiki site access control and user activity tracking

Overview

TWiki site access control and user activity tracking options

1. Forget about authentication to make your site completely public - anyone can browse and edit freely, in classic Wiki mode. All visitors are assigned the TWikiGuest default identity, so you can't track individual user activity.
   
2. Use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer; HTTPS) to authenticate and secure the whole server.
   
3. Use Basic Authentication (.htaccess) to control access by protecting key scripts: attach, edit=, installpasswd, preview, rename, save, upload using the .htaccess file. The TWikiInstallationGuide has step-by-step instructions.

1. Forget about authentication to make your site completely public - anyone can browse and edit freely, in classic Wiki mode. All visitors are assigned the TWikiGuest default identity, so you can't track individual user activity.
   
2. Use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer; HTTPS) to authenticate and secure the whole server.
   
3. Use Basic Authentication (.htaccess) to control access by protecting key scripts: attach, edit=, installpasswd, preview, rename, save, upload using the .htaccess file. The TWikiInstallationGuide has step-by-step instructions.

• NOTE: This approach can fail if the IP address changes due to dynamically assigned IP addresses or proxy servers.

• This approach can fail if the IP address changes due to dynamically assigned IP addresses or proxy servers.

This section applies only if your TWiki is installed on a server that is both authenticated and on an intranet.

This section applies only if your TWiki site is installed on a server that is both authenticated and on an intranet.

TWiki internally manages two usernames: Login Username and TWiki Username.

TWiki internally manages two usernames: Login username and TWiki username.

• Login Username: When you login to the intranet, you use your existing login username, ex: pthoeny. This name is normally passed to TWiki by the REMOTE_USER environment variable, and used internally. Login Usernames are maintained by your system administrator.

• Login username: When you login to the intranet, you use your existing login username, ex: pthoeny. This name is normally passed to TWiki by the REMOTE_USER environment variable, and used by internally by TWiki. Login usernames are maintained by your system administrator.

• TWiki Username: Your name in WikiNotation, ex: PeterThoeny, is recorded when you register using TWikiRegistration; doing so also generates a personal home page in the Main web.

• TWiki username: Your name in WikiNotation, ex: PeterThoeny, is recorded when you register using TWikiRegistration; doing so also generates a personal home page in the Main web.

TWiki can automatically map an Intranet (Login) Username to a TWiki Username, provided that the username pair exists in the TWikiUsers topic. This is also handled automatically when you register.

TWiki can automatically map an intranet username to a TWiki username, provided that the username pair exists in the TWikiUsers topic. This is also handled automatically when you register.

• In the original TWiki distribution, in twiki/data, there are two registration form topics, TWikiRegistration and TWikiRegistrationPub. The original form includes an intranet Login Username field. For Basic Authentication, the original form is replaced by the Pub version. If you started using TWiki on Basic Authentication and want to change, you have to switch back forms for future use, and manually correct the existing entries, by editing TWikiUsers?, adding the Login Username for each member - PeterThoeny - pthoeny - 01 Jan 1999 - and also in the .htpasswd file, where you can either replace the WikiNames or duplicate the entries and have both, so both usernames will work. verification and clearer rewrite to follow in a bit. also link to original installation mention.

-- MikeMannix - 19 May 2002

-- MikeMannix - 29 Aug 2001