Email Authentication Hyperlink problem

Email Authentication Hyperlink problem

by Heather Jackson -
Number of replies: 9

Hope someone can solve this for me ...

We have our system set to use the email confirmation for enrollment. The confirmation link that is sent out in our email shows the correct link, but the underlying hyperlink has a spelling error (confim vs confirm).  When the user clicks on the link to confirm, they are sent to an error page. However, if they cut and paste the shown link to a new browser they can access the course.

Does anyone know where we would go into the code to fix the hyperlink spelling error?

Correct link as shown on confirmation page:

 http://cotrmoodle.cotr.bc.ca/login/confirm.php?p=ZgORiGdONA1C4zt&s=john

Hyperlink with spelling error:

http://cotrmoodle.cotr.bc.ca/login/confim.php?p=ZgORiGdONA1C4zt&s=john

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Heather Jackson

Re: Email Authentication Hyperlink problem

by Bryan Williams -
Has this just started to happen?
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Bryan Williams

Re: Email Authentication Hyperlink problem

by Heather Jackson -

We just started using email authentication on our site, which is running version 1.4.2(?).  Enrollments were done manually up til now.  Do you think an upgrade to version 1.4.3 would fix this? 

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Heather Jackson

Re: Email Authentication Hyperlink problem

by Bryan Williams -
Yes, if you can upgrade to the latest 1.4.3+ build the problem may correct itself. I doubt that switching from manual to email authentication is the problem.
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Bryan Williams

Still having email authentication problems

by Heather Jackson -

Ok, so we've upgraded to the latest version, and we're still having the same email authentication problems. The user confirmation hyperlink seems to be randomly stripping out a letter from the URL (see below)

http://cotrmoodle.cotr.bc.ca/login/confirm.php?p=g5tlNaHpMqijNMU&s=hljackson

http://cotrmoodle.cotr.bc.ca/ogin/confirm.php?p=g5tlNaHpMqijNMU&s=hljackson

http://cotrmoodle.cotr.bc.ca/login/confirm.php?p=Svjy0oVtMrgUwaA&s=heather

http://cotrmoodle.cotr.bc.ca/loin/confirm.php?p=Svjy0oVtMrgUwaA&s=heather

http://cotrmoodle.cotr.bc.ca/login/confirm.php?p=H6AlxbL9Q4fe9dI&s=jonb

http://cotrmoodle.cotr.bc.ca/login/cnfirm.php?p=H6AlxbL9Q4fe9dI&s=jonb

The first line is what shows on the email. The second line is the actual confirmation hyperlink.

Our current system that Moodle is running from is:

  • Windows 2003 server within a VMS virtual environment (don't blame me... it was an IT decision)
  • Microsoft Exchange version 5.5
  • Apache 1.3.x
  • EasyPHP 1-7 (standard Moodle/Apache PHP installation)

Any thoughts, ideas, or inspiration would be greatly appreciated.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Heather Jackson

Re: Still having email authentication problems

by Bryan Williams -
I'm going to guess that there is either some weirdness going on in MS Exchange, or with the EasyPHP compilation.  Is this a production machine used to send mail for other parts of your organization? If yes and there are no problems with mail, then look at reinstalling EasyPHP. 
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Bryan Williams

Re: Still having email authentication problems

by Heather Jackson -

Thanks for your help, Bryan.  I think you may be right, that there is some weirdness with MS Exchange.  Can't believe it's a Moodle issue, since no one else seems to be having this problem, so we'll have to do some more research at our end.

Thanks again.

Average of ratings: -
In reply to Heather Jackson

Re: Still having email authentication problems

by John Keyworth -

Hi, i know this thread is a couple of years old but I am having a smiliar problem. When users are registering from an email address outside of our domain such as hotmail etc everything works great, however if they try to register with an address within our domain (i.e. user@clarkson.wa.edu.au) then they get an error when clicking on the activation link. I have noticed that the link that arrives to the clarkson domain has a few spelling mistakes or letters replaced with "=" signs, however when i paste the link into a browser the mistakes disappear but i still get the error. I am pretty sure it is not Moodle that is stuffing up, so i am aiming blame towards the Exchange server.

Has anyone else had this problem and how did you fix it?

Many thanks

John

Average of ratings: -
In reply to John Keyworth

Re: Still having email authentication problems

by Kevin Roberts -
Hi John.

Did you ever get a satisfactory reply to this issue? I am encountering the exact same thing in an Exchange server environment. Confirmation emails sent outside the domain seem fine, but confirmations sent within the domain arrive with message text correct, but the actual anchor tag incorrect (equal sign in place of one of the characters).

Kevin
Average of ratings: -
In reply to Kevin Roberts

Re: Still having email authentication problems

by Cliff Cassell -

Hello All.

After spending months on and off of this problem, searching the whole net for help on this and finding no real answer to it, I have finally cracked it.

I did the same things that everyone probably did, reinstalled all the components to make Moodle run, upgrade and downgrade everything, did restores and created test environments, move the server in and out of the DMZ, the list just goes on and I am a little bit disappointed that so many people have had this problem but no one has posted the solution.

Solution: Moodle needs to authenticate with the exchange server using a user name and password set in the site variables page in Moodle. It may sound obvious but our exchange was set to relay emails from that server and in fact this was working. Emails did get delivered. However Microsoft have embedded a security feature into Exchange that edits hyperlinks which relay anonymously as one of its anti-spam / malicious use protection of the email server.

I would suggest creating a domain user account. Make sure the password is set to never expire & add a description note to the account stating “Do Not Delete / Do Not Change Password”.

I hope this helps someone out there.

 

Average of ratings: Useful (1)