I was curious today and decided to try out the LiveID and OpenID integration with my site.  In general, it was suprisingly easy.  I enabled them both in my Host Settings, then activated them for the portal in Site Settings.  Setting them both up to use the service was also easy.

What was really frustrating was that I could not associate my shiny new OpenID identity with the appropriate user I had created within DNN.  The reason?

Apparently you can only associate id's that are not Admins or Host accounts.  So I had to create a normal user account, and then if I wanted an admin give it the access afterwards.  For it to be a Host account I had to manually set the account in the database (set IsSuperUser=1 in the Users table for the appropriate user).

A minor inconvenience, but the error messaging could have been a lot more helpful.

This is a very simple windows service that will make a HTTP request of a specified url at defined intervals.  The reason I wrote it was to keep my client sites in server memory so they performed better. 

Currently the error handling is basic and there aren't any email notifications, but if there is uptake on the module these are things I would consider for the next release.

Any feedback or ideas would be appreciated.

It's taken a while, but an update has been released for the AuthIntegrator module.  The most significant changes are that "localhost" is not a valid url and the redirection back to external applications for DNN 4.5+ sites has been improved.

If anyone has any ideas on where to take the module from here I'd be intereted in hearing from you.  I have toyed with creating a version of the IFrame module that retrieve secured content, but am not sure I want to fork the current module and have to support it.

I was happy to report last time that subdomains were supported in this next release, but I am also happy to announce that .NET 1.1 external applications will also be supported.  This means DNN 4.4+ portals will be able to integrate with .NET 1.1 applications.

New features:

• sudomains supported
• support for external 1.1 applications
• compatible with DNN versions 4.3.5+
• added debug mode which writes to the event log to help troubleshoot potential issues

I have started development on the latest revision of the module.  So far I have added the functionality to include support for subdomains.  I am hoping to also allow integration with 1.1 applications.

I have not received any feedback wishing it worked with earlier versions of DNN - so I may or may not do this.  People should always strive to run the latest DNN version to keep up to date with critical patches and updates.  v4.4+ also has a very noticeable performance boost and just plain works better.  My guess is that most people are already running 4.4+ or are planning to shortly.  The effort to support earlier DNN versions may not be worth it.

It's been a bit of a slog, and I realized how much that I truly hate writing documentation.  But its done!

Check it out: AuthIntegrator - The Easy Way to Integrate DNN and ASP.NET Applications

The module is done and works great.  I am finalizing documentation and expect to have it for sale on my site within a week.  Check back for a Products menu option - that is where it will be. The way it works is that you place the module on a page and configure the application URL and a Shared Secret (used like a password, I recommend a strong password such as grc.com/passwords.htm provides).  You then set the page security to be visible only to the roles that have permissions in your external application.  In the external application, you configure it for Forms Authentication and set the loginUrl to be the path to the page containing the AuthIntegrator module.  When a user visits the DNN page containing the module (from link or navigation), after successfully logging in they are directed to the configured URL.  Even better - if they try to directly access a page in the external application, they will be directed to the DNN login page, after which they will be sent to the page they requested.  This...

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For anyone who has been watching to see if I have an update, the wait is over.  I have re-designed my implementation and now plan to offer the product as a module.  No core changes will be made at all. 

I'd like to thank those who have expressed interest and for all the feedback I received.  It made me re-evaluate what I was doing and I think the result will be a better product.   I still have a bit of work to finish it, but I am hoping to have this ready within the next few weeks as time permits.

If you already have an established .NET application you wish to integrate with DotNetNuke, the idea of rewriting your application into modules that run inside of DNN is not a pleasant one. It would be ideal if certain users via portal roles could be given seamless access to the application. The good news is that this can be done regardless of the version of .NET your application uses.

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Not being able to log in after a site upgrade can be a traumatic experience. Rest easy - it usually is simple to fix.

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