Use of Liferay Database – User Creation

[Jano Hrbaty, geändert vor 14 Jahren.]

I am new to Liferay and was wondering whether there is someone who can help with the following issue.

I have created my own authentication framework which provides user authentication against the ‘external’ user DB. My understanding is that Liferay requires that all authenticated users must exist in Database (if the portal’s security container is used). If the user doesn’t exist, it will create a new one.

Now, the user DB used for authentication by ‘my’ authentication framework, can not be used by portal. That means, new portal dedicated DB has to be created (only for ‘user’ management). Howevre, this this would eventualy lead data duplication and overhead when it comes to O&M, which I would like to avoid.

At the moment, I am not planning to use any ‘personalisation’ features. Can someone help me to understand how is the User data/Profile being used by portal. And whether this could be disabled (e.g. using only a Generic User)?

Many Thanks for your help …

Jano

[Victor Zorin, geändert vor 14 Jahren.]

Jano, what you have described is a normal setup when using Liferay for Business, that is quite different from the majority of known implementations which are educational/community/social activities-related.

Subject to your requirements, you are able to limit liferay-based storage of user data only to portal-use-related sets, such as:
screenname,
roles,
membership

The rest shall reside in external legacy system(s).
We usually disable access to all account-related portlets, and instead provide portlets which deliver search/render/edit access to relevant business systems.

[Jano Hrbaty, geändert vor 14 Jahren.]

Hi Victor,

Thanks for your response. I was thinking more of using the concept of 'generic user’. The external authentication/security framework I was referring to, already passes details on user roles and user identity, can’t this be just re-used by portal container’s security? Does every type of SSO require user creation?

Once again, thanks a lot for your help.

Jano

[Victor Zorin, geändert vor 14 Jahren.]

already passes details on user roles and user identity, can’t this be just re-used by portal container’s security...

I am afraid that portlet container security is not a very standard 'thing', so a lot would depend on your definition of a 'generic user'.
Liferay relies heavily on own definition of roles and permissions and groups.

Mapping of your requirements to implementation format within Liferay framework would require some and possibly serious analysis with someone who has good liferay expertise.
Also, from my experience, on top of this mapping job, it is very important to carefully architect maintenance and version migration plans, whether you use SE or EE releases.

[Jano Hrbaty, geändert vor 14 Jahren.]

Thanks Victor.