Connecting KOHA patron information to website login
Has anyone connected a website login to their patron database? We would like to allow users to log in to the website using their library card number as their user name and their password on the account as their password. I am putting together a joomla site: http://www.salpublib.org/connect/ I would like to see if there is a way to connect the login with the patron database which then would also allow users to utilize our databases, etc. Thanks. Melanie Hedgespeth Tech Center Manager Salina Public Library 785.825.4624 Ext. 233 melanie@salpublib.org <mailto:melanie@salpublib.org> <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Salina-KS/Salina-Public-Library/917121931 39?ref=s> P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.
Koha and Joomal both speak LDAP.....I think that would be your best choice. This would require setting up an LDAP server, and getting all of your patron data entered..... or maybe you could utilize an existing LDAP, AD, or eDir server? Melanie Hedgespeth wrote:
Has anyone connected a website login to their patron database?
We would like to allow users to log in to the website using their library card number as their user name and their password on the account as their password.
I am putting together a joomla site: http://www.salpublib.org/connect/ I would like to see if there is a way to connect the login with the patron database which then would also allow users to utilize our databases, etc.
Thanks.
/Melanie Hedgespeth/
Tech Center Manager
Salina Public Library
785.825.4624 Ext. 233
melanie@salpublib.org <mailto:melanie@salpublib.org>
facebook_email <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Salina-KS/Salina-Public-Library/91712193139?ref=s>
P Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail.
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Hey Melanie,
We would like to allow users to log in to the website using their library card number as their user name and their password on the account as their password.
Hmm, not sure whether this is possible or not. You may have to do things the other way around: creating your users in Joomla and then find a way to let koha access this, but I'm really not sure. YOu may also want to have a look to LDAP. My not even two cents, Sébastien.
One potentially-horrible idea: develop Koha to function as an LDAP server, if need be. I know at my institution, our patron base is such that no existing LDAP captures them all, so we would have to set one up. I'm not sure if a Koha-based LDAP would be any easier for anyone (developer or user), but I thought I'd throw the idea out there. Cheers, Ian Walls Systems Integration Librarian NYU Health Sciences Libraries 550 First Ave., New York, NY 10016 (212) 263-8687 -----Original Message----- From: koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz [mailto:koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Sébastien Hinderer Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2009 1:04 PM To: koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] Connecting KOHA patron information to website login Hi again Melanie, Perhaps OpenID may be of interest for you ? Sébastien. _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha ------------------------------------------------------------ This email message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain information that is proprietary, confidential, and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, or distribution is prohibited. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender by return email and delete the original message. Please note, the recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. The organization accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email. =================================
One potentially-horrible idea: develop Koha to function as an LDAP server, if need be.
That's something my library would definitely take advantage of. I'm not sure how complex it would be--I've been told it would be simple to do, and also told that it would not be simple :) -- Owen -- Web Developer Athens County Public Libraries http://www.myacpl.org
Agreed, I think many institutions would benefit greatly from a directory of some (any) kind. Having a LDAP directory built into Koha would be a great "selling point" as well. maybe just add LDAP services to your existing Koha box, then loop Koha back at it's own LDAP server using the existing LDAP tools....might/should work....??? This should leave the existing structure of Koha in place....and yet give you some sort of LDAP service. Cheezy...but I don't see why it shouldn't work. Once you have Koha and LDAP talking, you can use all sorts of tools to populate/backup/export/distribute your LDAP directory. Owen Leonard wrote:
One potentially-horrible idea: develop Koha to function as an LDAP server, if need be.
That's something my library would definitely take advantage of. I'm not sure how complex it would be--I've been told it would be simple to do, and also told that it would not be simple :)
-- Owen
Ian, the solution to your problem may be to consolidate the other points of authentication, if not actually, than using something like an LDAP proxy: http://symlabs.com/products/ldap-proxy In my estimation, Koha will not be becoming an LDAP server anytime soon (probably never). LDAP is a flexible, extensible protocol with widely varying implementations and expectations in the wild. A robust implementation has to handle all kinds of things that Koha has never dealt with, like SSL encryption, certificate authentication, system expectations about the local certificate(s), LDIF file format, X.500 data, etc. Take your pick of RFCs: 1487, 2252, 1823, 1789, 1777... actually, too many to list. Try here <http://www.bind9.net/rfc-ldap>. Even directly copying from Apache's LDAP code, implementation would still take hundreds of manhours at a minimum, including a great deal of testing. Of course the Apache code was not written in perl anyway. It is safe to say that this would be larger than *any* other Koha project currently commissioned or proposed. And have you looked at our Auth.pm code lately? We have enough trouble keeping that clean without introducing layers of added complexity. Melanie, to answer the original question, existing hardware and software use the SIP2 protocol to authenticate patrons, which Koha implements well. This is the "correct" existing mechanism to use, though I'd assume there is no Joomla module for SIP. That shouldn't be a huge deal, since SIP is fairly easy to hack and you would only need to use one command, and interpret one response. By contrast to the burden of reimplementation an LDAP server, an experienced Joomla coder could probably produce the SIP Auth script in one afternoon. -- Joe Atzberger LibLime - Open Source Library Solutions
participants (6)
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Joe Atzberger -
Melanie Hedgespeth -
Owen Leonard -
Scott Owen -
Sébastien Hinderer -
Walls, Ian