[WEB4LIB] Secure directory

[Mark Pecaut]

Always second-guess your IT department.  They are often wrong.

Sounds like a job for .htaccess.  Follow these instructions:
http://depts.washington.edu/catalyst/how-to/htaccess/access.htm

The whole thing could be scripted with cgi scripts (so they could
set the password via the web instead of having to telnet in).

-Mark

On Tue, Dec 05, 2000 at 08:19:08AM -0800, George Fowler wrote:
>      Hi all,
>      
>      We are starting to implement an electronic reserves in our library.  
>      We are going to use our catalog, Voyager, to access these reserves.  
>      
>      The system we plan to use seemed very simple; we would create a secure 
>      directory on our Apache server, and within this directory we would 
>      create subdirectories that contain the reserve items for a particular 
>      class when they got added.  All links from Voyager for a particular 
>      class would go to a login.htm type page within each subdirectory that 
>      would require them to input a password that they received from their 
>      instructor.  After validating, they would see an "index page" listing 
>      all documents on reserve for that class.
>      
>      I would like to insure that none of the pages in this directory could 
>      be bookmarked, accessed directly by entering the URL, or in anyway 
>      accessed without validating through the login page.
>      
>      Sounds easy.  The problem I'm having with our IT department is that 
>      they are saying we would need commercial software to protect a 
>      directory, and subsequent subdirectories in the manner I want.
>      
>      Please help with anything you feel would be relevant.  If they are 
>      correct, then I would appreciate any information about good vendors.  
>      If they are incorrect, then I would appreciate knowing how we can 
>      protect the directories.
>      
>      Thank you in advance for your help.
>      
>      George Fowler
>      Electronic Services Manager
>      Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University