Login & External Authentication

Overview of Login Methods

Tiki allows you to use several different login authentication methods. For standalone sites (not connected to a central authentication server), you can use "Just Tiki" or "Web Server". For sites that are part of a larger environment Tiki offers Apache (basic HTTP auth), LDAP (Active Directory), CAS, and Shibboleth authentication.

The installation environment plays a role in determining the authentication method to be used. On a fully accessible server, an administrator has a choice of any/all of the authentication methods listed on this page.

Authentication With Shared Hosting

In a shared hosting environment (FTP access only) the authentication options become severely limited. While it is possible to setup an OpenID server with FTP access (Community-ID is one such project) it is not well documented. As of 4/09, setting up OpenLDAP, Shibboleth, or CAS are effectively impossible with FTP access only and may be impossible (depending on access rights) with a shell access account.

Just Tiki

The Just Tiki authentication method uses the usernames and passwords stored in the Tiki database for authentication. This is best used for sites that are not part of a larger intranet.

Web Server (HTTP)

A common way of protecting webpages is through Basic HTTP authentication. The web server sends a "401 Authentication Required" header when a protected page is requested. The browser would then prompt the user for a username and password. Access is allowed if the username password pair are valid; else, the web server sends a HTTP 401 error, meaning "access denied." HTTP authentication is usually used by creating a .htaccess file. (Only in Apache?)

Tiki is able to detect when a visitor to the site is currently logged in using Basic HTTP Authentication. If the username of the user matches a username within Tiki's database, Tiki will automatically log the user in and, of course, grant all the assigned permissions.

Using Web Server authentication can be convenient for a shared hosting installation of Tiki. User management becomes more of a challenge if multiple Tiki's are to be installed. However, in Tiki 3.0 group information and users will still need to be added to each and every sub-Tiki inside the authorized domain.