Single log in for multiple apex application in same workspace

Question

hi forum.
We created 5 applications based on same schema and all in one workspace now. Actually, initially they were created on different machines. now, we have to authenticate users from AD and depending on user type, have to allow or deny some modules. i have created one pager application which have 5 buttons and can control rendering of buttons according to user logged in but...the problem is, inside the applications, i have restrictions on some reports for some users...now one way was to do that is to create a log in for every application separately and thus every application would exactly know who is logged in. but that would be impractical as we need single-sign-on kind of functionality.
please let me know how to have a single log in page work for all application inside the apex workspace so that every application would know name of the user currently logged in.
for the 5 applications, i actually use No_Authentication authentication scheme. and i use following function initially for my one pager application to render the buttons to user or deny
create or replace function getUserName return varchar2
is
   userName varchar2(20);
   c owa_cookie.cookie;
begin
    c := owa_cookie.get('LOGIN_USERNAME_COOKIE');
    userName := c.vals(1);
    return trim(userName);
end;but i cannot user this function obviously in my 5 actual applications.
help is requested please.
bundle of thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You can create one application that does the login authentication according to your authentication scheme. When authenticated, this login app sets a cookie. That's all the login app does (and maybe show a list of available apps to choose from).
The other apps have an even simpler authentication scheme. The only thing they have to do is check the cookie and redirect to the login page (Session Not Valid URL) if there is no valid cookie.