Web Site User Management Deborah Lee Soltesz USGS

Problem  USGS TerraWeb has applications under development that will require various levels of user permissions and access  All planned interfaces to web apps will be Java Server/JSP  Centralization of user authentication and management would simplify current and future developments

Project: TerraData  Web-based database access  Anonymous, Guests, Editors, Admin, and Super Admins  Guests, Editors, and Admins need to be grouped into Unix-style groups, but with much more information associated with each group

Project: Maui Cam  High resolution digital camera on robotic arm connected to Linux single board computer stationed in Maui to monitor certain environmental conditions  Levels of user access are based on priority and permissions to request certain actions (e.g. boss gets top priority on positioning camera, public cannot pan down to see bikini beach)

Project: Photo Archive  Database with info and pointers to every digital photo ever collected by group  User needs similar to TerraData – anon, guest, editor, admins, and so forth – who can edit, who can search and what can they access?

User Manager  Need for a centralized web app to handle users:  Who are they?  What teams do they belong to?  What applications do they have access to?  What permissions do they have?  What are their personal preferences?

User Manager: The App  Stand-alone web app that allows users to update profile, admins to manage user permissions, etc.  Invisible app that other apps ‘ connect ’ to to check passwords and pull user info  Allow scalability with security – limit what IPs/names can access the system to request log-in authentication

User Prefs and Such  Single password for entire site  Varying permissions depending on app  Varying style-preferences (font, color, etc.)  Allowing public to create their own anon/guest log-in a nice feature

Administrators  User admins are assigned on app-by- app basis  Super Admin has god-like powers over all

Project Stuff  Useful skills  Java, JDBC, Java Server (Tomcat), JSP  MySQL/SQL (must scale to Oracle, etc, without rewriting code)  HTML 4.0+, CSS, and general web design  Will need to adhere to accessibility and gov ’ t guidelines and laws (e.g. no cookies!)  Demonstration  User management stand-alone interface  Test app that uses user management to log-in user and get info about the user

Project Stuff  Resources  You need access to a system with Apache web server, Tomcat (or other Java Server), and access to a Java programming environment  Supervised installation and testing on TerraWeb is a possibility  Deliverables  Working servlet and JSP code  SQL table building scripts  Installation and maintenance instructions and thorough documentation  Prefer electronic deliverables (HTML, PDF)

Examples  My Whatever  My Netscape, Yahoo, Excite, ad nauseum  These sites allow users to configure color and content settings, and access profile info  Netscape, Yahoo, and others centralized their log- in for all content  Netscape: My Netscape and DevEdge  Yahoo: My Yahoo, WebRing, Groups, , etc.  Allowing users to view and manage their system accounts in a single place is nice aspect  RingSurf & WebRing  Has ring Admins who manage ring members and settings, and can even give Admin privileges to trusted members

Questions?