Duplicate accounts at MNET

Duplicate accounts at MNET

by E-Learning Deggendorf -
Number of replies: 9

Dear community,

we are working on realizing MNET between the faculty Moodle instances at our university.

I understand that users get two different accounts if they on one day log in to Moodle A and them roam to Moodle B and on the other day, they log directly into Moodle B.

As we have activated LDAP in Moodle A and Moodle B, we would want our users to have one account only in each Moodle instance.

We would want to try to add a "feature" into MNET in Moodle 1.9.x that does the following:

1. User clicks on a roaming (jump.php) link at Moodle A to roam to Moodle B.
2. Moodle B checks if the incoming username (with mnet_host_id from Moodle A) is present locally (mnet_host_id from Moodle B).
3. If present, log in to the corresponding Moodle B account. If not present, create a local (!) Moodle B account and go on with SSO.

(Probably, that would make the mnet_host_id to not be needed anymore for our scenario, I guess ...)

Could somebody please point me in a direction? Are there any problems with that? Which file would be best for putting that functionality in?

Thanks in advance!

+manuel-

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In reply to E-Learning Deggendorf

Re: Duplicate accounts at MNET

by E-Learning Deggendorf -

I tried to dive into the moodle code these days and got to the following possible files:

/auth/mnet/auth.php
Is it possible that the confirm_mnet_session(..) has to be "enhanced" for our goal? There could be integrated a kind of checking if the user with the same name from Moodle A is also existent in Moodle B.

/mnet/lib.php
The function mnet_update_sso_access_control(..) seems also an interesting place to get started. Is this a false thought?

Is anybody with me?

Greetings,

+manuel-

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In reply to E-Learning Deggendorf

Re: Duplicate accounts at MNET

by Nate Baxley -

We'd like to do something similar, although we'd want the transition to be between a 1.9 and 2.x server.  Maybe we can work together on some code.

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In reply to Nate Baxley

Re: Duplicate accounts at MNET

by E-Learning Deggendorf -

Hi Nate, you got a PM. smile

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In reply to E-Learning Deggendorf

Re: Duplicate accounts at MNET

by Susan Mangan -

Hi there.. I am working on trying to network 2 1.9 versions right now and have run accross the multiple account issue as well.  Have you been able to find a way for this not to happen?

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In reply to Susan Mangan

Re: Duplicate accounts at MNET

by E-Learning Deggendorf -

Hi Susan,

we decided to postpone the task. The current MNet module does not do what we need (talking especially about duplicate accounts).

We temporarily thought about having one central Moodle instance where our students could login. From there they could "roam" to the other moodles. In the other moodles no login would be possible.

That way, the duplicate account issue would have been solved. But it is no solution for us as we don't want / are politically not able to define a Moodle instance as the "main one".

But perhaps for others this could be the deal.

რეიტინგების საშუალო: -
In reply to E-Learning Deggendorf

Re: Duplicate accounts at MNET

by Susan Mangan -

Thanks for letting me know.  However.. I do have a question for you if you don't mind?  (We are running 1.9.12)

You say the duplicate account issue would have been solved if you designated only one moodle instance as the "main one"where users could log in and then "roam" to the other instance.  How does this solve the duplicate account issue? 

Once the users log in and authenticate to the main instance (we use ldap) an account is created there.  (first account created)  They then roam to the other instance and do not have to re log in but a duplicate account is then created on this instance - the main account is not associated to the courses, the duplicate is (second account created).

Is this not how it works?  I really hope I am missing something as if there were no duplicated accounts created on instance B, our problem would be solved mixed

რეიტინგების საშუალო: -
In reply to Susan Mangan

Re: Duplicate accounts at MNET

by John Andrewartha -

A picture is worth 1024 words.

Networking

Hope that helps.

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In reply to John Andrewartha

Re: Duplicate accounts at MNET

by Susan Mangan -

Thanks for this - great info to have.  What I failed to realize when I first started this project was that the original user accounts from my one instance, and all corresponding course data (active courses, uploaded assignments, quiz results, etc.) are not "transferred" or "merged" through to the 2nd instance when mnet is implemented and that the actual account created on the new, 2nd instance, by virtue of "roaming", was the account that was supposed to be linked to the course and not the old one.  This is where I thought I was getting duplicate accounts.  Clear as MUD!!  smile  Obvioulsy not a system to implement when there are active course enrolments in progress.

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In reply to E-Learning Deggendorf

Re: Duplicate accounts at MNET

by David Mudrák -
Core developers სურათი Documentation writers სურათი Moodle HQ სურათი Particularly helpful Moodlers სურათი Peer reviewers სურათი Plugin developers სურათი Plugins guardians სურათი Testers სურათი Translators სურათი

We temporarily thought about having one central Moodle instance where our students could login. From there they could "roam" to the other moodles. In the other moodles no login would be possible.

That is actually how SSO via MNet has always been supposed to work.

რეიტინგების საშუალო: -