Re: Best way to manage users

On 4/1/06 5:43 pm, "Roland Giesler" <roland(at)giesler(dot)za(dot)net> wrote:

> Kevin Crenshaw wrote:
>> Thanks for the replies. I appreciate the advice. However, I
>> think that a better way to pose my question is to ask - what
>> are the pros and cons of using Postgres to handle user
>> authentication for my web app?
>
> Maybe to add to that question: Is there a way to directly authenticate a
> user as a database user when using a web app? In .net, this is handeled by
> a cobination of the OS (active directory - AD), the DB (SQL Server) which
> can authenticate against AD, and the browser. However, how can pg get or
> request the authentication from your webbrowser? Unless there is a pgsql
> function that allows login as a different user from a webapp from the
> webapp, I would think it's not possible to actually do this the way a
> statefull app does it (under windows for example)
>
> Some comments on this would be great, as I have a very similar requirement
> and was also toying with the idea of using the pg users, instead of creating
> my own tables and user authentication infrastructure.

If using PHP you could authenticate when you login to your web app and then
set an 'authenticated' session variable or cookie (Perl also I suppose). You
would have to store username/password information in the session
variable/cookie as well for subsequent page/db requests.

Adam

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