In the medium term I'd like to use a single authentication system for
a series services on
deanbrook.org including mediawiki. My goals are
to integrate a suite of services appropriate for a community-based
portal. This is a volunteer (non-profit) service for our town.
Initially I am setting up WordPress and MediaWiki.
Authentication is especially important to me because I have a policy
that in order to post you not only have to be registered you also
have to be using your real name.
To start I thought it would be easiest for users if at least have
both systems use the same username and password. In this synched
authentication each system maintains their current user tables and
changes are synched between the two however a user would have to
login again when starting one service
What this means is that whenever someone registers (or updates their
password or profile) on one system a call is made to the other
application with the new information so that this system can also
update their table data.
What would be better in the longer term is to have an external user
and authentication module that presented a common UI along with
managing session information, and user access-control/permissions.
In addition I could better handle registrations from kids under 13.
In the US there is a federal law which requires parent permission.
A hybrid approach is also possible where I integrate the two systems
and end up using one schema.
I'm looking for comments, pointers, or implementations.
I'm also looking for a web community focused on design and discussion
of community portals (not as much the nuts and bolts but how they
actually work in a community and what services people use).
Thanks
--
-- Stephen Bannasch, stephen at deanbrook dot org