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1. Cerebral ideas
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   Question: Is there official documentation on creating an authentication cookie outside of WP?

   Scenario: I am planning on utilizing WP v.3 as a CMS for a company's support documentation website. This support CMS is going to be a piece of a larger network of sub-sites. My client does not want to force the user to log-in more than once, so on initial login to the main site (non-WP), we want to create an authentication cookie that WP will recognizes and allows the user to continue on to the site without having to re-log in.

   With all that being said, I have search low and high for "official" documentation on how to do this with no avail. Although, I have found pieces throughout the Net that seem like some-what viable options (or hacks), but I would rather use an "official" method to accomplish this.

   Can anyone out there point me in the right direction?

   Justin

2. Samuel Wood (Otto)
   Tech Ninja
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   Creating the WP cookies is painful and difficult.

   A better way would be to create a WordPress plugin that recognizes the authentication from your other site's cookie, if you have one.

   This is actually quite easy to do, really. The authenticate filter makes it simple:

   add_filter('authenticate','custom_login_check', 100);
   function custom_login_check($user) {
   // check if user is already logged in and just return if he is
   if ( is_a($user, 'WP_User') ) { return $user; } 
   
   // do whatever you have to do to check for authentication here
   // in the end, you need to determine which WP user is logged in
   // then return a WP_user object.
   
   // example: say you figured out that it was user number 123
   $user = new WP_User(123);
   
   // always return the $user from the function argument
   // even if you didn't change it
   return $user;
   }

   That's all there is to it, really. How you implement the authentication check is up to you.

3. Cerebral ideas
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   Hey Otto, thank you very much for helping me out. You make it seem so easy ;) Would you happen to know if there is a plugin that already does this? I have seen a couple of plugins that deal with authentication, but I am never sure if they handle it in the manner in which I need it.

   If you don't mind, I am going to keep this thread open. This will actually be a teammate of mine's responsibility (I am a front-end developer, so this kind of programming gets over my head), and he might have to ask you a question if you wouldn't mind.

   Thanks again for your wisdom and assistance. Have a good day.

   Justin

4. Samuel Wood (Otto)
   Tech Ninja
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   Sure, my own Simple Facebook Connect and Simple Twitter Connect plugins use this same basic method to let you login using Facebook or Twitter credentials.

5. Cerebral ideas
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   Awesome, thank you Otto! We will look into this very soon. You're a life-saver.

   Justin

6. vikalp.jain@gmail.com
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   Hi Justin,

   I have exactly the same scenario as you described. Were you able to find a solution to this ? If so please let me know. Will really help me.

   Thanks and regards,
   Vikalp Jain

7. Cerebral ideas
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   Hey Vikalp, we have not started production yet on this portion of development. The developers on my team feel it is very doable, but I will report back once it is done. Talk to you soon.

   Justin

8. vikalp.jain@gmail.com
   Member
   Posted 2 years ago #
   

   Thanks for quick response Justin. Look forward to hearing from you soon.

   Thanks and regards,
   Vikalp Jain

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