GenieGate, Version 1.1.0 (PHP 5) manual

Logins

The 2 methods of login.  GenieGate supports 2 methods of authentication. One is HTTP based, the other is session based.

HTTP authentication has the advantage of working with almost any web resource; static pages and cgi scripts. It is the standard approach to web based logins and is part of the core HTTP protocol. However, it has the disadvantage in that many people don't like the look of the sign up box. With standard HTTP based authentication you relinquish a certain amount of control; it is impossible to provide a reliable logout function using this approach.

Session based login has the advantage that it gives you more control of the session and can provide more control over what the login box looks like. However, it has the disadvantage of requiring cookies or passing session ID's. It is not as standard, requires co-operation from every web resource and generally doesn't work with static HTML pages.

[Tip] Tip

Apache supports a wide variety of directives. Some of them can be used with PHP to create session based logins for resources. mod_rewrite is such a module. See http://www.apache.org/ for more details on what apache can provide.

To use session based authentication with GenieGate you need to access it on an API level. This is not quite as difficult as it seems, it is slightly more involved but is generally more suitable.

[Tip] Tip

A much better approach to logging in is to use GenieGate on an API level. You'll get much better control over the process that way.

Table 6.5. Form variables for Login

Form Variable Label

What it does

DO_LOGIN Directive, optional with login.php
LOCATION Optional, redirect after login.
GG_USERID User ID User ID to login as.
GG_PASSWORD Password Users password
[Important] Important

Although creating your own login forms are supported in both the free and paid versions, the free version must contain the advertising links. Please see the license for details. These must appear on each page containing a login or sign-up form.

You may notice that the page shown after login is not particularly appealing or useful. you may supply a LOCATION form variable set to a URL where you would like your visitor to be redirected to after signing on.