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I've got a wiki where editing requires [[plugins/httpauth]] (with cgiauthurl working nicely). I now want to let the general public edit Discussion subpages, so I enabled [[plugins/anonok]] and set anonok_pagespec to '*/Discussion', but HTTP auth is still being required for those.

(Actually, what I'll really want to do is probably [[plugins/lockedit]] and a whitelist of OpenIDs in locked_pages...)

--[[schmonz]]

The only way I can see to support this combination is for httpauth with cgiauthurl to work more like other actual login types. Which would mean that on editing a page that needs authentication, ikiwiki would redirect them to the Signin page, which would then have a link they could follow to bounce through the cgiauthurl and actually sign in. This would be significantly different than the regular httpauth process, in which the user signs in in passing. --[[Joey]]

My primary userbase has grown accustomed to the seamlessness of httpauth with SPNEGO, so I'd rather not reintroduce a seam into their web-editing experience in order to let relatively few outsiders edit relatively few pages. When is the decision made about whether the current page can be edited by the current user (if any)? What if there were a way to require particular auth plugins for particular PageSpecs? --[[schmonz]]

The decision about whether a user can edit a page is made by plugins such as signinedit and lockedit, that also use canedit hooks to redirect the user to a signin page if necessary.

A tweak on my earlier suggestion would be to have httpauth notice when the Signin page is being built and immediatly redirect to the cgiauthurl before the page can be shown to the user. This would, though, not play well with other authentication methods like openid, since the user would never see the Signin form. --[[Joey]]

Would I be able to do what I want with a local plugin that abuses canedit (and auth) to reach in and call the appropriate plugin's auth method -- e.g., if the page matches */Discussion, call openid:auth(), else httpauth:auth()? --[[schmonz]]

That seems it would be annoying for httpauth users (who were not currently authed), as they would then see the openid signin form when going to edit a Discussion page. --[[Joey]]

I finally see the problem, I think. When you initially suggested "a link they could follow to bounce through the cgiauthurl", presumably this could be the Edit link for non-Discussion pages, so that the typical case of an httpauth user editing an editable-only-by-httpauth page doesn't visibly change. And then the Edit link for Discussion subpages could do as you suggest, adding one click for the httpauth user, who won't often need to edit those subpages. --[[schmonz]]

On reflection, I've stopped being bothered by the redirect-to-signin-page approach. (It only needs to happen once per browser session, anyway.) Can we try that? --[[schmonz]]