Changing username for external authentication does not change Mahara username

[Tim Fedak]

1.3.0cr, PostgreSQL

Our institution is using LDAP authentication for the Mahara application. When faculty do not yet have a NetID, I had hoped to register them in with a temp ID, and use the internal authentication. Later, when they recieved a NetID, I would change their username to the new NetID and change authentication type to the LDAP. When I try to do this, the username is saved in the "Username for external authentication", but as Admin, I still see their old (temporary) ID next to their name.

Is this a bug? Or, does the initial ID remain in the Mahara database, regardless of the authentication username associated with the account?

[Richard Mansfield (richard-mansfield)]

I think "Username for external authentication" is only used for xmlrpc logins. If that's the case, that form field should be relabelled.

If you want to change the usernames for use on Mahara's login form, you need to change the local Mahara usernames. These must be unique for the site.

There's no page for the admin to change them, but users can change their own usernames on the settings page (or you can do this as admin with 'login as', or change them in the username column of the usr db table).

[PiersHarding (piersharding)]

Hi -

That value is also used for SAML based authentication, which enables the
association between the mahara account name and the users IdP scoped name.

Cheers,
Piers Harding.

On 9 September 2010 09:36, Richard Mansfield <email address hidden>wrote:

> I think "Username for external authentication" is only used for xmlrpc
> logins. If that's the case, that form field should be relabelled.
>
> If you want to change the usernames for use on Mahara's login form, you
> need to change the local Mahara usernames. These must be unique for the
> site.
>
> There's no page for the admin to change them, but users can change their
> own usernames on the settings page (or you can do this as admin with
> 'login as', or change them in the username column of the usr db table).
>
> --
> Changing username for external authentication does not change Mahara
> username
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/633273
> You received this bug notification because you are a member of Mahara
> Core, which is subscribed to Mahara.
>
> Status in Mahara ePortfolio: New
>
> Bug description:
> 1.3.0cr, PostgreSQL
>
> Our institution is using LDAP authentication for the Mahara application.
> When faculty do not yet have a NetID, I had hoped to register them in with
> a temp ID, and use the internal authentication. Later, when they recieved a
> NetID, I would change their username to the new NetID and change
> authentication type to the LDAP. When I try to do this, the username is
> saved in the "Username for external authentication", but as Admin, I still
> see their old (temporary) ID next to their name.
>
> Is this a bug? Or, does the initial ID remain in the Mahara database,
> regardless of the authentication username associated with the account?
>
>
>
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[Richard Mansfield (richard-mansfield)]

We'll fix the "Username for external authentication" description to make it clear that it only applies for xmlrpc & saml auth.

[Ruslan Kabalin (rkabalin)]

Richard, shall we make this external auth field used for LDAP as well? There was somewhat related request on forum http://mahara.org/interaction/forum/topic.php?id=2567

[Richard Mansfield (richard-mansfield)]

Hi Ruslan,

It doesn't really gain much over just changing the user's regular mahara username to be the same as the LDAP username (anyone who logs in at the mahara login form needs a unique username anyway). So it'd be easier to just give the admin the power to change the mahara username for anyone who's using LDAP auth. I hope LDAP users are already prevented from changing their own usernames.

Having said that, there is another case I'm aware of where it could be worth using that external auth username even for users who log in at the mahara login form. Check out this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/mahara/+bug/548165

[François Marier (fmarier)]

Two things to do here:

1- change the description of the field

2- allow admins to change someone's username without logging in as them