Re: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] User Authentication via WMS/WFS?

[Angus Dickey]

I have heard of people using standard http authentication for WMS/WFS services. The problem with this is that not all clients support this, as was mentioned in the previous post.   What I ended up doing was creating a CGI wrapper for mapserver that would intercept username and password parameters from the get or post request, authenticate against a database, and then pass control to mapserver using the appropriate mapfile. The URL would become something like this:   http://ogc.domain.com/mapserver/ms?user=username&pass=password&   While this approach works it has a few problems:   -User/pass embedded in URL -You would have to include the username and pass in the OnlineResource URL in the mapfile for most clients to work -Could potentially slow down requests as it has to hit a database everytime a request is made if the user and pass are included in the URL The benefits are: -Can control what mapfile gets loaded based on username -Can also include extra processing or logging prior to calling mapserver   Anyway just a thought, there may be better ways to accomplish your goal.   ~Angus   From: Ed McNierney [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: July 17, 2006 3:30 PM To: MAPSERVER-USERS@LISTS.UMN.EDU Subject: Re: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] User Authentication via WMS/WFS?   Curtis & Paul -   In practice, authentication is more of a user interface concern.  You can't force an application (ESRI's ArcMap, for example) to provide UI to enter a username and password if that application doesn't provide that UI (and it doesn't).  This limits the HTTP authentication options available to WMS providers, and it requires a relatively unpalatable URL (with username and password embedded in it) to support even Basic authentication.   But Curtis, it's hard to tell what your question is when it's only one sentence.  If you can be more specific about what you're trying to do you'll get more specific help and fewer random observations tangentially related to your topic <g>.       - Ed Ed McNierney President and Chief Mapmaker TopoZone.com / Maps a la carte, Inc. 73 Princeton Street, Suite 305 North Chelmsford, MA  01863 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (978) 251-4242   From: UMN MapServer Users List [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Paul Ramsey Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2006 11:28 AM To: MAPSERVER-USERS@LISTS.UMN.EDU Subject: Re: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] User Authentication via WMS/WFS? Curtis,   Authentication is more of an HTTP concern, not a WMS concern. Do this at the web server level via Apache or IIS configuration.   P   On 15-Jul-06, at 11:11 PM, Curtis W. Ruck wrote: Is there a way to force user authentication through WMS/WFS in mapserver?