FEU need username as first.last and blank password

[neis]

Hi All,

I am working on a website that requires a very loose authentication schema. The software is
CMS Version 1.7.1
FrontEndUsers 1.10

I would like to have the user name as "first.last" and a blank password. We can not (we are not allowed) to use the Self Registration and we don't always know the email address of the user. Actually, the website admin will enter the users manually.

I tried to create a user name like "first.last" but it doesn't allow me. Also, it doesn't allow a blank password.

Can this be done?

Potentially I can use the same password for everyone but ... how do I hide the Password field on the Log In page and make it "scrambled" so one can not extract it from the page source?

Thank you.

[jmcgin51]

I don't think FrontEndUsers is going to fit the bill here - it's designed for "real" authentication, not "loose" authentication.  You just need an array of names, managed manually by an administrator, in whatever format you want (first.last, etc.).  Then a simple one-field form into which the user enters his username.  Onsubmit, a UDT checks to see if the username matches any values in the array.  If yes, then you show the "protected" content.  If not, you redirect to a "sorry" page.

But two questions:
1. If all you're looking for is "loose" authentication, why have authentication at all?  Why not use the capabilities of FEU?

2. Why can't you use SelfRegistration?

And a final note: I imagine that FEU looks for special characters in the username and disallows them unless the username is an email address (this can be set in FEU Preferences).  I think it would be a nice feature request to give the admin the option to allow special characters in usernames.  You could submit this in the Forge.  I don't think this feature would take much work to implement.

[neis]

Thank you, for your answer.

1. If all you're looking for is "loose" authentication, why have authentication at all?  Why not use the capabilities of FEU?

We are going to use the E-commerce modules to allow people to place orders. The list of people allowed to place orders is stored elseware and I can not link the website to that place. The website needs to make sure the person placing the order is on that list. Someone will enter the person twice, in that "elseware" place and on the web site. A real human has to verify the validity of the orders afterwards.

2. Why can't you use SelfRegistration?

As mentioned above, not everyone is allowed to place orders. Also, the self registration will create a user name/password and the people from the list are not suposed to have/deal with a second account credentials.

Thank you,
Laurentiu

[jmcgin51]

which set of ecommerce modules are you using?  I'm pretty sure Calguy's suite requires FEU; not sure about Duketown's suite.  You might contact Calguy and ask about the possibility of sponsoring the feature request I mentioned earlier.