Manage Users

Register users on your Foswiki site; change/reset/install passwords; remove user accounts

Authentication and Access Control

• UserAuthentication describes your options for user authentication
• AccessControl describes how to define groups and how to restrict access to content

Register User

You don't have to have user home pages in Foswiki for Authentication to work - see UserAuthentication for details.

• UserRegistration is used when you want new users to individually register with Foswiki by filling out a form
• BulkRegistration is used by administrators to register multiple users at the same time

Change, Reset and Install Passwords

Note that the below features are only relevant when you use an internal password manager where Foswiki can set and reset passwords.

• ChangePassword is for users who can remember their password and want to change it
• ResetPassword is for users who cannot remember their password; a system generated password is e-mailed to them
• BulkResetPassword is for administrators who want to reset many passwords at once
• ChangeEmailAddress changes the hidden email address stored in the password file

Changing User Account Names

To change the user's WikiName:

• Rename the user's Foswiki homepage in the Main web, such as from JaneSmith to JaneMiller.
  • Fix backlinks in the Main web only
  • Make sure the group topics are updated (if any.)
• Edit the Main.WikiUsers topic and move the user's entry so that the list is in proper alphabetical order.
• Recreate the old topic with a pointer to the new topic, so that links in other webs work properly. Example content:
  

  %M% Jane Smith is now known as JaneMiller

If external authentication is used and you want to change the login username:

• The login username needs to be changed in the authentication server (e.g. Active Directory)
• In Foswiki's Main.WikiUsers topic, fix the mapping from username to WikiName:
     * JaneSmith - jsmith - 13 Sep 2006
  to:
     * JaneMiller - jmiller - 13 Sep 2006

Removing User Accounts

The following API can be used by administrators to delete a user's account.

• The user is removed from the user database.
• The user's topic is moved to the trash web
• The user is removed from any groups

Enter user to be removed

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Remove user topic?

(Check to remove topic) Prefix for deleted topic: (Follow topic naming rules)

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Note: Consider leaving the user topic file in place so their past signatures and revision author entries don't end up looking like AnUncreatedTopic. If you want to make it clear the user is no longer around, replace the topic content with a note to that effect. The existence of the UserName topic should also prevent that username from being re-used, sealing the potential security hole regarding inherited permissions..

Configuring User Registration

The registration process is configured at configure Security and Authentication tab, Registration sub-tab.

• Registration is enabled with {Register}{EnableNewUserRegistration} (This is the default)

Verification of the new registration email address

Registration can be configured to require a verification via the registered email address: {Register}{NeedVerification}

• An email is sent to the email address entered by the new user with a confirmation code.
• The user must enter the confirmation code into a dialog on the wiki to confirm the registration.
• The pending registration lifetime defaults to 6 hours. If the user does not confirm within that time, the pending registration will be removed.

Administrative approval of new registrations

Registration can be configured to require approval. {Register}{NeedApproval}

• If confirmation is enabled, the email address is verified per the steps in the prior paragraph
• An email is then set to the list of Approvers - {Register}{Approvers}
• The approver can then Approve or Deny the registration by following a link in the email.

Registration Email Requirements

By default, Foswiki does not require unique email addresses. Multiple users can register using the same email address. Enable the setting {Register}{UniqueEmail} to prevent use of the same email by multiple users.

By default, any email domain can be used for registration. Set the expert setting {Register}{EmailFilter} to restrict the domains usable for registration. See the configure help for more details.

See the configure help at configure Security and Authentication tab, Registration sub-tab, for more details.

Expiration of pending registrations and approvals

By default, expiration of pending registrations and approvals is done "on the fly" during the registration process. For best performance, you can set {Register}{ExpireAfter} to a negative number, which will mean that Foswiki won't try to clean up expired registrations durning registration. Instead you should use a cron job to clean up expired sessions. The standard maintenance cron script tools/tick_foswiki.pl includes this function.

Note that if you are using registration approval by 3rd party reviewers, this timer should most likely be significantly increased. 24 hours = 86400, 3 days = 259200.

Pending registration requests are stored in the {WorkingDir}/registration_approvals directory.

Customizing the User Registration pages

If you modify any of the topic related to User Registration, you should put the modified versions into the Main web. This will make it easier to upgrade to new versions of Foswiki.

Creating a custom User Registration page

Three topics make up the user registration page:

• System.UserRegistration: A "shim" landing page which will display the Main web version if it exists, otherwise it displays System.DefaultUserRegistration You should never have to change this page!
• System.DefaultUserRegistration: The actual registration page. This is what you copy to Main.UserRegistration for customization.
• System.UserRegistrationParts: The components that make up the page. More advanced modifications might also have to copy this topic to the Main.

The actual customization steps are documented in comments internal to System.DefaultUserRegistration. The general steps are:

1. Copy System.DefaultUserRegistration to Main.UserRegistration. (Use the "More topic actions" option on System.DefaultUserRegistration)
2. Edit Main.UserRegistration that you just created and follow the instructions on that page.

Using these two steps, you can:

• Enable/disable entry of existing UserForm fields in registration.
• Enable automatic group membership during registration.

Note that while it may be interesing to enable fields like OrganizationURL, Comments, etc. they are often used by registration SPAM-Bots to generate topics with links.

Creating a custom NewUserTemplate and UserForm

If you want to modify the contents of the user page that is created during user registration.

1. Copy System.NewUserTemplate to Main.NewUserTemplate
2. Modify the page as desired.

The Registration process will automatically find and use the Main version of the template if it exists.

If you want to customize the contents of the UserForm, for example, to remove or add field:

1. Copy System.NewUserTemplate to Main.UserTemplate
2. Copy System.UserForm to Main.UserForm
3. Make your desired changes.
4. Edit System.NewUserTemplate, delete the UserForm, and add your new Main form.

See System.UserForm#CustomForm for more details.

Creating multiple categories of users

By combining all the above concepts, it's possible to have multiple categories of users, for example "Customers", "Vendors", "Employees", each with a custom Template topic, a custom User form and a custom Registration form.

Multiple categories of users can be supported by:

• Creating an alternate version of the DefaultUserRegistration page
• Creating an alternate version of the NewUserTemplate and UserForm
• And configuring the new registration page to use the new user template.

Customizing registration Emails.

Foswiki's Registration can send 6 emails whose output is governed by templates:

User registration confirmation	templates/registerconfirm.tmpl
User registration failed notification	templates/registerfailedremoved.tmpl
User registration denied notification	templates/registerdenied.tmpl
Approver registration pending notification	templates/registerapprove.tmpl
User notification of sucessful registraiton	templates/registernotify.tmpl
Administrator notification of successful registration	templates/registernotifyadmin.tmpl

As these are SkinTemplates, they can be customized and selected using the SKIN path setting. Because there are default .tmpl files in the templates dir, this cannot use Template topics.

These template files have a specific format that matches the raw format of emails sent via SMTP, so be careful and test your changes. It is easiest to start by copying the default templates that you wish to change.: (You don't need to copy every template).

cd templates
cp registernotify.tmpl registernotify.myskin.tmpl
cp registerconfirm.tmpl registerconfirm.myskin.tmpl
cp registernotifyadmin.tmpl registernotifyadmin.myskin.tmpl

then add myskin to the beginning of the SKIN setting in SitePreferences.

From this point on, your myskin templates will be used for the registration emails.

To make it possible for users to modify the email contents, you could use a parameterized %INCLUDE% statement in your customized version, eg:

From: %WIKIWEBMASTERNAME% <%WIKIWEBMASTER%>
To: %FIRSTLASTNAME% <%EMAILADDRESS%>
Subject: %MAKETEXT{
   "[_1] - Registration for [_2] ([_3])"
   args="%WIKITOOLNAME%, %WIKINAME%, %EMAILADDRESS%"
}%
Auto-Submitted: auto-generated
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=%CHARSET%
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

%INCLUDE{
    "%USERSWEB%.RegisterNotifyEmail"
    WIKINAME="%WIKINAME%"
    FIRSTLASTNAME="%FIRSTLASTNAME%"
    EMAILADDRESS="%EMAILADDRESS%"
    TEMPLATETOPIC="%TEMPLATETOPIC%"
}%

and then create a topic Main.RegisterNotifyEmail:

Welcome to %WIKITOOLNAME%.

%MAKETEXT{"Your personal [_1] topic is located at [_2]. You can customize it as you like:" args="%WIKITOOLNAME%, %SCRIPTURL{"view"}%/%USERSWEB%/%WIKINAME%"}%

   * %MAKETEXT{"Some people turn it into a personal portal with favorite links, what they work on, what help they'd like, etc."}%
   * %MAKETEXT{"Some add schedule information and vacation notice."}%

Regards
%WIKIWEBMASTERNAME%
Your Wiki Admin


%MAKETEXT{"Note:"}%
   2 %MAKETEXT{"You can change your password at via [_1]" args="%SCRIPTURL{"view"}%/%SYSTEMWEB%/ChangePassword"}%
   3 %MAKETEXT{"If you haven't set a password yet or you want to reset it, go to: [_1]" args="%SCRIPTURL{"view"}%/%SYSTEMWEB%/ResetPassword"}%

%MAKETEXT{"Submitted content:"}%
%FORMDATA%

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Related Topics: AdminDocumentationCategory