login screen issues

[RichieMac]

Hi all,

Don't know if I'm in the right place so forgive me if I'm not.

What I need to know is if anyone knows of anywhere I can find out about creating login screens and the issues that surround the development of them. In particular I need to know about different levels of security and what techniques can be used when deciding upon what are the basic levels needed for an implementation.

I'm also interested in what are the differences between logging into different platforms (i.e. Win2k, Unix, etc) and if it's possible to design a generic login that would accomodate all platform with little changes needed.

Once again I appologise if this is not the right forum to be asking this and if not could someone please point me in the right direction.

Thanks
Richie

 

[tfg13]

Just wondering what you mean by "login screens". Are you talking about the background image, or are you talking about login scripts?

I'm sure that you can write a generic login script that would accomodate all platforms, but you'll need to become very familiar with Javascript (probably the only one that will traverse all platforms). There are other languages that you can use:

http://www.softpanorama.org/Scripting/index.shtml

 

[Dimandja]

Richie,

To login consists of these basic steps:

1. Obtain an ID/Password.
2. Match it against a database.
3. Allow/Disallow login.

You talk of multiple platforms. If these platforms are linked, then there is some sort of communication between them. That also would mean that you can log people through the same screen. This screen would have to reside in an Internet/Intranet environment, for example.

You cannot design one single screen that will work, without changes, when used directly on any given platform.


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[RichieMac]

THank you for the responses. I probably didn't explain myself very well but you seem to have the idea of what I was asking.

I understand that it is difficult to write anything that can be ported without any changes but I was thinking about keeping the changes very minimal. My main concerns really are with what language would be best suited for my task, what is the best db for my needs and how to connect to it, etc.

Thanks again for the help. I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot from me over the coming weeks.

 

[Dimandja]

If you told us what it is you are trying to do, we could be more helpful.

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[RichieMac]

What I need to do is create a system that manages three levels of log in (User, Manager and Administrator) where each role has certain responsiblities. I also need to store all this information in a suitable format (encrypted passwords etc). Finally the system has to (obviously) have the ability to log off.

The problem is that a target platform is not known so I have to design with this fact in mind. This is where my problem arises has I 1. have no experience of creating this sort of thing and 2. every platform (from my limited research) seems to have different methods for handling this issue.

So what I'm trying to do is take it one step at a time. The password encryption is sorted so now I have to consider what methods of storage should I use and how would I connect to it for the log in process.

Does this make any sense whatsoever to you and do you think you could point me in the right direction.

 

[Dimandja]

That is a huge undertaking, RichieMac.

You need to start small, and gain experience. The example I gave in a previous post is small enough. If you can do that, you are on your way to bigger things.

Login screens are usually tightly linked to the application. At least, the data generated by a login screen is.

For example, at login, your application will determine what permissions to give to the user. This information is then regularly matched to the activities of the user. That way you'll be able to allow or disallow certain actions and events.

If you do not know the target platform/application, then you will not know what the user is up to. If the user leaves your known environment, it is not possible to correctly monitor their activities.

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[RichieMac]

Then I better make a start.

Like I said earlier I'm sure you'll be hearing from me very soon.