Options for validating a user logon

Question

We have a third party application for which a database user account was created for each user. Is it possible for APEX to validate the logon by using the existing database accounts or do you have to create an APEX account for each user? Also, can logons be validated by using a custom table that has users and encrypted passwords stored in it? Are you forced to create an APEX user in order to use APEX?

Answer 1

Well, we'd already figured out authentication via a different schema for a different project, so we were able to use what we already had.
The issue is that fnd_web_sec.validate_login() doesn't work if it's not called from the APPS schema. This can be worked around by creating a "wrapper" function; here's ours:
create or replace package body apps.hypr_web_sec as
  function authenticate( i_username in varchar2, i_password in varchar2 ) return boolean is
  begin
    return( apps.fnd_web_sec.validate_login(i_username,i_password) = 'Y');
  exception
    when others then return false;
  end authenticate;
end apps.hypr_web_sec;We've got some other useful functions in there, but that's the key to authenticating outside of the APPS schema.
-David