OGC Service Access with Basic Authentication

[Norman Vine]

Ed,

There was a recent thread on this over on the WMS list

http://lists.eogeo.org/pipermail/wms-dev/2004-November/000651.html

HTH

Norman

> -----Original Message-----
> From: UMN MapServer Users List [mailto:MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU]On
> Behalf Of Ed McNierney
> Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 3:50 PM
> To: MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU
> Subject: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] OGC Service Access with Basic
> Authentication
>
>
> Folks -
>
> I'd like to set up some restricted-access OGC services using simple HTTP
> Basic Authentication.  I'm a little confused on whether this is simple
> or not <g>.
>
> My confusion comes from the wms_onlineresource metadata specified in the
> MAP file.  I have always thought this was required, but I now see that
> it's actually "Recommended" in the OGC specs.  I can easily restrict
> access to the resource using Basic Authentication through my Web server
> - that's not my question.  Since I'm trying to set this up for general
> end-user access, I don't want to have to create a unique set of MAP
> files, each with a unique username/password in the wms_onlineresource
> field, one set of MAP files for each user.  I'd like to simply manage
> the user authentication to a single set of services/MAP files.
>
> Can I do this?  Can I simply omit the wms_onlineresource field in the
> metadata and trust the client to remember the URL root including
> username/password?  I don't have a lot of experience with different WMS
> clients, so I'm worried that some will work and some won't.  However, if
> the wms_onlineresource field is really not required, maybe I'm worrying
> about nothing.
>
> Any experience or input would be appreciated - thanks!
>
>         - Ed
>
> Ed McNierney
> President and Chief Mapmaker
> TopoZone.com / Maps a la carte, Inc.
> 73 Princeton Street, Suite 305
> North Chelmsford, MA  01863
> ed at topozone.com
> (978) 251-4242
>