by Would anyone have any suggestions on how to do the following:
Be able to control client browser access to various document files and
directories on an Apache webserver by means of registration cookies, so that
if the browser sends the appropriate cookie, access will be granted, otherwise,
an error page comes up, displaying links to a registration form.
This way, users who have pre-registered with the site would not need to type
in their user ID and Password into a browser dialog box, such as is required if
one uses the straightforward HTTP authentication facilities associated with the
Apache auth modules.
I know of a few sites such as the New York times site (www.nytimes.com) that
appear to be doing this. But these are non-apache sites.
I have an assignment to add cookies-based capability such as this to a server
that contains thousands of older html documents in an archive directory
hierarcy.With my limited current knowledge on the subject, I am concerned it
might be necessary to modify each one to include some new dynamic SSI
technology such as PHP or server side Java servlets to process the cookie
information. As a C programmer, I have considered working with the Apache API
to modify the authentication routines, but am very unsure of my abilities to
succeed with such a revision without seriously breaking something in Apache.
Might anyone have any suggestions as to how this might best be done? Are there
any add-on modules or patches which can provide this capability to the Apache
server that anyone might know of?
Thanks,
David Cohn