File:  [LON-CAPA] / loncom / html / adm / help / tex / Domain_Configuration_Self_Creation.tex
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Thu Mar 30 02:12:21 2017 UTC (7 years, 3 months ago) by raeburn
Branches: MAIN
CVS tags: version_2_12_X, version_2_11_X, version_2_11_5, version_2_11_4_uiuc, version_2_11_4_msu, version_2_11_4, version_2_11_3_uiuc, version_2_11_3_msu, version_2_11_3, version_2_11_2_uiuc, version_2_11_2_msu, version_2_11_2_educog, version_2_11_2, HEAD
- Document how to acquire a user's self-reported institutional status from
  a course request.

    1: \label{Domain_Configuration_Self_Creation}
    2: 
    3: Domain-wide settings are available to set whether users may create their own accounts, and
    4: if so, which types of users may do so, and what types of user information a user self-creating
    5: an account will provide.
    6: 
    7: In the case of an institutional login, or single sign on (SSO), a user must first authenticate
    8: with an insititutional username and password.  If user information is available from an
    9: institutional data source via a query using the username (mediated via a customized routine in 
   10: localenroll.pm), then that is used to populate appropriate data fields in the user's new LON-CAPA 
   11: account.  A domain configuration is available to specify which fields the user may self-report,
   12: if the corresponding institutional data are unavailable.
   13: 
   14: Which types of institutional log-in may self-create accounts can be restricted,
   15: institutional status (e.g., Faculty, Staff etc.). The institutional status types are set in the
   16: ``Default authentication, language, timezone, portal, types'' item in the domain configuration
   17: (this is a change from 2.10 and earlier, which used custom routines in localenroll.pm for that).
   18: 
   19: For Shibboleth SSO users, mapping of Shibboleth environment variable names to user data fields 
   20: can be set, so that the appropriate user information is stored at account creation time.
   21: 
   22: Self-creation of user accounts may also be enabled for non-institutional login.  In this case
   23: the user will provide an e-mail address as a username, and will also set a password.  The user must
   24: have access to e-mail sent to that address, as completion of the account creation process requires 
   25: submission of a link (containing a token), sent to the e-mail address.
   26: 
   27: In order to discourage creation of multiple accounts by a single user when self-creation is
   28: available in a domain for both insitutional log-in and e-mail address as username, a domain
   29: may want to consider implementing format rules which prohibit self-created accounts 
   30: from using certain types of e-mail address as the username.
   31: 
   32: If a user attempts to self-create an account employing a username with an e-mail address
   33: in a format which matches a defined rule, the action does not proceed, and
   34: the user is directed to create an account with the corresponding institutional
   35: log-in. In this case, account creation can only occur once the user has authenticated using that 
   36: log-in.
   37: 
   38: Self-created accounts with an e-mail address as username can be set to be queued for approval 
   39: or created automatically. Institutional status types can be set to be self-reported for e-mail
   40: type usernames -- set in the ``Default authentication/language/timezone/portal/types'' area -- 
   41: and processing (queued or automated) can be set, based on status.  Note: self-reported status
   42: is collected from the query string in the original call to /adm/createaccount, from the type
   43: item (e.g., /adm/createaccount?type=student).  One way to gather this data would be to disable
   44: display of the ``New User?'' link on the log-in page, but instead create a separate portal page
   45: (e.g., replace the default /home/httpd/html/index.html) which would prompt new users to push a
   46: different button, depending on whether they were a student or an instructor, with the corresponding
   47: actions pointing at /adm/createaccount?type=$<$status type$>$, with $<$status type$>$ replaced with
   48: student or instructor.
   49: 
   50: User information (in addition to e-mail address and password) can be set to be required, optional
   51: or not requested.
   52: 
   53: A Captcha mechanism can be used to validate that the user requesting a self-created account is
   54: a person, not a script.  There are two types of CAPTCHA to choose from -- the ``original'' CAPTCHA, 
   55: which uses a self-contained perl module included with the LONCAPA prerequisites, 
   56: or ReCAPTCHA, which uses an external web service -- https://google.com/recaptcha --
   57: and requires you to create an account and generate public and private keys which will be entered
   58: in the LON-CAPA domain configuration form.  If you have more than one server in your domain, 
   59: you should request ``global'' keys on the google.com/recaptcha site, as the same keys will be
   60: used by the Account creation form's ReCAPTCHA on all servers in your domain. If using ReCAPTCHA, you
   61: can indicate whether version 1 or 2 should be used.
   62: 

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