Re: Authentication

["Dana M. Diederich" <dana@realms.org>]

Once one gets mod_perl installed in a web server, for instance, a lot of
opportunities open up.  One of the coolest things about mod_perl is that 
stuff written in perl can literally be integrated into the web server.

From the perldoc on Apache::AuthenDBI:
__________CUT HERE__________

       Apache::DBILogin - authenticates via a DBI connection

SYNOPSIS
       See the access.conf file and the documentation for
       Apache::AuthenDBI

        #in .htaccess
        AuthName MyAuth
        AuthType Basic
        PerlHandler Apache::Registry::handler
        PerlAuthenHandler Apache::DBILogin::handler
        AddHandler perl-script pl

        PerlSetVar Auth_DBI_data_source dbi:Oracle:SQLNetAlias
        #PerlSetVar Auth_DBI_authz_command "SET ROLE DBA"

        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks ExecCGI
        AllowOverride All

        allow from all
        require valid-user
        satisfy all

DESCRIPTION
       Apache::DBILogin allows authentication against a multi-
       user database. It is intended to facilitate web-based
       transactions against a database server as a particular
       database user. If you wish authenticate against a passwd
       table instead, please see Edmund Mergl's Apache::AuthenDBI
       module.

       Auth_DBI_authz_command is an optional valid database
       command, executed via the DBI do method. In the above
       example I take advantage of Oracle roles, a set of
       priviledges which can be assigned to groups of users.

__________CUT HERE__________

This means, simply put, that any database with a DBD driver available
can be used to authenticate against.

This is but one facit of the true power of mod_perl: with it, the full power
of a fast interpreted language lives in your web engine.  Check out:
ftp://www.perl.com/pub/perl/CPAN/modules/by-module/Apache/

for a large list of cool stuff you can do with mod_perl.  It is truly
astonishing. It has really been worth my while, at work, to read through
the hundreds of perl modules on CPAN.  The time I've saved by knowing what
modules are available is substantial, especially on time critical projects.

Cheers.
-Dana
-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,
Dana M. Diederich        Phone: 1.501.855.7175
SMTP: dana@realms.org    HTTP:  http://realms.org/   ICQ: 16433785
Snail Mail: 19 Leicester Drive, Bella Vista, Ar 72714, USA
`Berkeley invented LSD and Unix, and I don't think that's a coincidence.'
> 
> > Negative mucacho.  Neither Perl nor PHP support HTTP auth.  HTTP auth
> > occurs *BEFORE* the CGI gets executed.  Only modules support http auth.
> 
> Well... PHP *is* a module...
> If we can overcome the issues of doing http auth from MySQL then I'm OK
> with it.  I don't want to run yet another DB and introduce that and it's
> overhead...
> 
> I don't think http auth would change our model too much (article
> commenting, etc.)  
> 
> > > Also, I still haven't figured out how to check passwords with MySQL.  I
> > > haven't looked much since the last time I asked.  But if someone has
> > > some code, that would be great.
> 
> What do you mean by check passwords?  If you were verifying a users
> password you would do something like this:
> 
> select Password from Users where Handle = '<? echo handle ?>';
> 
> and then compare password(what user enters) to the Password returnerd by
> the query (without passing it thru the password() function.
> 
> Jason
>