Vufind Authentication SSO

This extension enables typo3 to use vufind for frontend user authentication. After logging in into the catalog this extension reads the session-cookie and retrieves all necessary information from the vufind-database to identify an authorized user, assuming the requirements are met.

Requirements

• vufind >= v2
• typo3 >= 8.0.0
• zendframework/zendstdlib >= 3.1
• vufind-database is mysql
• vufind-session is stored into database
• typo3-installation has access to vufind-database
• a shared cookie-domain

Preparing Typo3

In order for this extension to work we need the zendframework/zend-stdlib classes available. therefore we require an autoloader, that loads this classes for us at

<PATH_site>/Packages/Libraries/autoload.php

Most simply way to provide this is by installing the packages with composer e.g.

COMPOSER_VENDOR_DIR="Packages/Libraries" composer require zendframework/zend-stdlib

Be aware that you have to manually adjust the vendor-dir within the composer.json in order to keep the folder for further installations. if you have a composer-enabled typo3-installation you probably might be fine with the defaults.

Preparing VuFind

At first be aware that your Typo3 host has an access to the VuFind database. Therefor we prefer an own user with restricted rules to the VuFind tables session and user.

Database as Session Storage

VuFind has a simple option to store the session-data into its own database. therefore one has to set the option type on 'Database' in section Session at config.ini and keep the session unencrypted.

[Session]
type = Database
secure = false

Cookie Domain

In order to enable Typo3 to read the vufind-cookie we have to set the cookie-domain to the shared domain value. This is done by the option domain in the Cookies section:

[Cookies]
domain = ".example.edu"

Configuring the extension

It is necessary to configure tx-vufind-auth at the extension manager.

Storage

• pid = 1: this is the typo3-pag-id where the frontend users and groups are stored

Database

• host = localhost: the host where vufinds database-server is running
• port = 3306: the port where vufinds database-server is running
• name = vufind: the vufind database name
• user = vufind: the user to connect with to the vufind database
• pass: the vufind database-user's password

Session

• cookiename = PHPSESSID: the name of the vufind session cookie
• lifetime = 3600: the session lifetime (see vufind config.ini, section Session, option lifetime)

Command line tools

Cleanup users

There is a cleanup-command on typo3's commandline interface to remove outdated user data from fe_users table.

Be aware that the concept of saving users at fe_users for VuFind only depends on needs of other extensions at Typo3. Therefore calculate well between requirements of applications and data economy due to risk holding trusted personal data.

Parameters:

--days int (Default: 60) Amount of days to keep the record of a user since last login.

Instruction for setting up at backend

Go to Scheduler->Add Task

• At Class choose Extbase-CommandController-Task
• At Frequency specify how often and in which period scheduler task should be run. (Seconds or cronjob settings required.)
• At select box of CommandController Command choose VuFindAuth Cleanup: cleanupFrontendUser
• On next step save the task! This is important to display the form element for additional arguments of command line tool.
• Scroll down and specify the amount of days to keep the record since last login of user. Default are 60 days.
• Save the task again!

For developing issue it is also possible to run the task on a terminal.