Hi,
We are currently using custom / legacy custom authentication with 9.1 SP 8. Authentication works fine even with the legacy method. However, we did encounter some issues when a subscribed product could not authenticate against our legacy authentication method.
Advice was to switch to Authention Provider building block, as we have mix environment that has to handle default, and other SSO mechanisms.
Does anyone know of any resource, apart from the following at:
http://help.blackboard.com/Blackboard_Learn/EN/9.1/Admin/Content/_admin_server_authentication/authentication_about_custom.htm
http://help.blackboard.com/Blackboard_Learn/EN/9.1/Admin/Content/_admin_server_api/api_diff.htm
http://library.blackboard.com/ref/8c09eac0-db9b-4c1f-839a-69ce42234bdf/blackboard/platform/authentication/AuthenticationProvider.html
Having I (re)searched on advice from support but did not see anything on "To learn more about developing Authentication Provider Building Blocks..." apart from the API list. Found the authentication provider JavaDocs in the 3rd URL.
Based on what I can figure out / guess at, will clients creating Custom Authentication Provider have to create and extend the AuthenticationProvider class, implement / extend UsernamePasswordValidator and AuthenticationProviderHandler class/ interface?
http://library.blackboard.com/ref/8c09eac0-db9b-4c1f-839a-69ce42234bdf/blackboard/platform/authentication/package-tree.html
I am still trying to find document that describe how all these links up, since
a) I have yet to get confirmed answer on whether LDAP auth provider is able to authenticate (no re-login needed) if the user has already logged on with their AD account elsewhere and access our Blackboard (might only be restricted to windows / IE - e.g. like sharepoint?).
b) Cannot find more information on correct steps of how to build a custom authentication provider for deployment and use with our 9.1 SP 8.
Looking at the AuthenticationProvider, AuthenticationProviderHandler, UsernamePasswordValidator, ValidationResultsit appears that the framework only supports:
a) direct - where the user ID and password has to be authenticated by the module
b) redirect - another page should display the login page and validate accordingly
Method b) looks applicable except that have questions on how to link back from an otherside source that does not run or have any of the blackbaord libraries loaded in its own application server environment - any ideas?
Alternatively, does anyone have a working sample? Thank you.
Regards,
Lum