Multiple Guest Accounts / Behind-the-scenes Login

Question

How would we go about logging a visitor in as a specific user behind-the-scenes (without them even seeing the Login Screen)? This question is driven from a requirement where we need to display a replica of the subportal branding at the guest view level. (Needs to go on the wish list for sure: Redirecting to a subportal and/or subportal guest accounts.) For example, if I created a [subportalname] Guest user for a subportal and wanted to automatically log a visitor in as that user, how would I trigger that process? Login PEI doesn't help me - none of those events seem to fire until the user is presented with the Login screen and manually clicks Log In - Looking at the Interpreter class right now, where we see the Guest login functionality (DoGuestLogin, etc.). How might we pass around a username and password and trigger an automatic login attempt with that data? We're basically looking for a work-around for multiple guest accounts - 1 per subportal - so that branding can appear right up front before a user actually logs in. We will have a parameter somewhere to branch out which subportal guest user to log the visitor in as. We've gone down a couple of different routes with no luck.
Again, due to a tight timeframe, we need details - like, "Create a custom activity space replacing the Interpreter class, edit [blah] function and use [blah] function to pass in your hardcoded username and password. Rebuild [blah] and deploy [blah] dlls to [blah] directories."
Regards,
Sarah WheelerCox Enterprises, Inc.

Answer 1

It turns out this is pretty complicated due to the internals of how user sessions get initialized. I've managed to get a test working where it logs you in as a guest in a different sub-portal. I can give you some rough information now.
You will need a Login PEI, and a custom Space and IloginControl/IHTTPControl. Obviously, you will need to edit the Login PEI xml file and the CustomActivitySpaces.xml file to get your customizations deployed.
The OnAfterLogin() method of the ILoginActions PEI should look something like this:
publicRedirect OnAfterLogin(Object _oUserSession, ApplicationData arg1)
IPTSession ptSession = (IPTSession) _oUserSession;
if(ptSession.GetSessionInfo().GetCurrentUserID() == PT_INTRINSICS.PT_USER_GUEST)
if(PTDebug.IsInfoTracingEnabled(Component.Portal_Browsing))
PTDebug.Trace(Component.Portal_UI_Infrastructure, TraceType.Info,
"Guest user login redirecting to guestloginspace to go to non-standard guest user.");
Redirect guestRedirect = newRedirect();
guestRedirect.SetLinkCreateNewSpace(GuestLoginSpace.STR_MVC_CLASS_NAME, null);
guestRedirect.SetControl(GuestLoginSpace.STR_MVC_CLASS_NAME);
returnguestRedirect;
returnnull;
and the LoginControl that I mentioned earlier is a bit more complicated than I implied. It also needs to be an IHTTPControl for login purposes. The custom space is very simple, so I will skip it. Here's the full class code for the custom guest login control:
publicclassGuestLoginControl implementsILoginControl, IHTTPControl
publicstaticfinalString STR_MVC_CLASS_NAME = "GuestLogin";
privateAActivitySpace m_asOwner;
privateIPTSession m_UserSession;
/**theseneedtobenulledoutafterexecution.*/
privateIWebData m_WebData = null;
privateIXPRequest m_xpRequest = null;
*@seecom.plumtree.uiinfrastructure.activityspace.ILoginControl#DoGetSession()
publicbooleanDoGetSession()
returntrue;
*@seecom.plumtree.uiinfrastructure.activityspace.ILoginControl#GetSession()
publicObject GetSession()
// We need to set this manually before the Interpreter does because
// DoTasksAfterLogout depends on it.
// m_asOwner.SetUserSession(subportalGuestUser);
LoginResult rReturn = null;
try
rReturn = LoginHelper.INSTANCE.AttemptLogin(m_UserSession, m_asOwner,
m_xpRequest, m_WebData);
catch(Exception e)
if(PTDebug.IsErrorTracingEnabled(Component.Portal_UI_Infrastructure))
PTDebug.Trace(Component.Portal_UI_Infrastructure, TraceType.Error,
"AttemptLogin() failed.", e);
if(!rReturn.m_bSuccess)
if(PTDebug.IsErrorTracingEnabled(Component.Portal_UI_Infrastructure))
PTDebug.Trace(Component.Portal_UI_Infrastructure, TraceType.Error,
"GuestSubportalLoginControl AttemptLogin() failed: "+
rReturn.m_strError);
if(null!= rReturn.m_Redirect)
if(PTDebug.IsErrorTracingEnabled(Component.Portal_UI_Infrastructure))
PTDebug.Trace(Component.Portal_UI_Infrastructure, TraceType.Error,
"GuestSubportalLoginControl AttemptLogin() return redirect ignored.");
m_xpRequest = null;
m_WebData = null;
returnm_UserSession;
*@seecom.plumtree.uiinfrastructure.activityspace.IControl#CheckActionSecurityAndExecute(XPHashtable)
publicRedirect CheckActionSecurityAndExecute(XPHashtable arg0)
if(PTDebug.IsInfoTracingEnabled(Component.Portal_UI_Infrastructure))
PTDebug.Trace(Component.Portal_UI_Infrastructure, TraceType.Info,
"GuestSubportalLoginControl Execute() creating redirect to login space for dljr.");
m_UserSession = PortalObjectsFactory.CreateSession();
m_UserSession.Connect("non-standard guest", "", null);
ILink rReturn = LoginHelper.INSTANCE.GetDefaultPageRedirect(newRedirect(), m_UserSession, m_asOwner);
if(PTDebug.IsInfoTracingEnabled(Component.Portal_UI_Infrastructure))
PTDebug.Trace(Component.Portal_UI_Infrastructure, TraceType.Info,
"GuestSubportalLoginControl Execute() finished.");
return(Redirect) rReturn;
*@seeIHTTPControl
*@paramr
*@parampageData
publicvoidSetHTTPItems(IXPRequest r, IWebData pageData)
m_xpRequest = r;
m_WebData = pageData;
*@seecom.plumtree.uiinfrastructure.activityspace.IControl#Init(IModel,AActivitySpace)
publicvoidInit(IModel arg0, AActivitySpace _asOwner)
m_asOwner = _asOwner;
*@seecom.plumtree.uiinfrastructure.activityspace.ILoginControl#SetRedirectForUseAfterLogin(Redirect)
publicvoidSetRedirectForUseAfterLogin(Redirect arg0)
*@seecom.plumtree.uiinfrastructure.activityspace.IMVCObject#GetName()
publicString GetName()
returnSTR_MVC_CLASS_NAME;
*@seecom.plumtree.uiinfrastructure.activityspace.IManagedObject#Create()
publicObject Create()
returnnewGuestLoginControl();