[Pro] a little funny situation (not a problem)...

Hi,
I am in a funny little situation and could use some advise from you guys who are truly the greatest!.

… on part of my website, my students are required to enter a password. They have so many passwords, etc and they often forget so in order to have 100% of my students be able to get through it without a problem, I have always set it up where the authentication screen (which appears on PC and macs (NOT ipads and iphones), gives a little clue.

For example: when the screen comes up to enter the password it says…

AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED
the server hoffkids.com
the server says red jellybeans are cool

the red jellybeans are cool is not the password but a clever way for them to get the password. I could change the phrase at any moment and they can figure out what to do because my students know the “trick” ex. count the number of words, etc. In this case password would be 4

My password is done through the server site (through my host company, not some easy break through method).

SO… this morning I just realized that this message does NOT come up this way on IPADS… it does not show the server thing with the jellybean message…

So I am stuck. suggestions???

1 idea I had was for each page that was password protected (right now 3 of 40 pages) I could have a POP UP screen appear first (I think there is an action for this) and the hint could be there? Not sure if this would come up before the password screen anyway.

Thanks for reading and being part of this creative solution.

Open for any suggestions.

cheers,

Barry


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What’s the code that makes the code appear? Also, can you provide a link so we can see it?

(Where on Long Island? That’s where I grew up and still have family.)


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Hey Joe,

I am in Northport, teach in Port Washington, grew up in Baldwin, wife from East Meadow.

Not sure what you mean about the code that makes the code appear., but here is how to see it .

  1. Click http://www.hoffkids.com
  2. click ARTICLES icon

let me know what you think.

Thanks!

Barry


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Hmmm, that’s tricky. I don’t remember enough about that kind of authorization dialog at the moment to know a) how that message is put in there and thus 2) why the iPad doesn’t show it (maybe Apple figured not enough sites use it to bother).

Hopefully someone else has a suggestion.

I grew up in Centerport. Places like Northport and Huntington in general were my stomping grounds.


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Hey,

The Ipad does produce a login message but simply states
Username __________
Password __________

just not the sentence about server etc…

Wow, Centerport, our neighbor. We are buying a new house and considered there, but decided to stay in Norhtport. Just had Cow Harbor Day… recall that?

How funny.

Barry


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Also if I use the pop up action message before the password prompt will that pop up on Ipads and iphones?

thanks,

barry


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I tried the POP UP window action but the server password prompt comes up BEFORE the little pop up window appears.

hmmm


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plus just tried this in Firefox and blocked pop up window.

need to find another way…


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No, you’re going about this in a clever way (using the “realm name” as the hint) but iOS appears to consider that to be irrelevant detail and doesn’t show it.

The way that basic authentication works is that it starts to load the page requested (inside your secure folder) and before it shows any of that content, it demands the credentials. At that moment, your browser will be showing whatever page it was showing earlier – maybe a different site – and it won’t change to any other page until you either successfully enter the details (where it will show the original requested page) or it will show the 401 error page.

Now if your host allows you to customize that page, you may be able to put your hint there instead. It won’t be perfect, but it will get the message to more of your class members.

Walter

On Sep 24, 2012, at 9:07 AM, Barry Hoffman wrote:

Also if I use the pop up action message before the password prompt will that pop up on Ipads and iphones?

thanks,

barry


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So Walt, right now your #1 suggestion is to see if the host company has the ability to allow me to edit the ??? (authentication message or 401 error page?)

Got what you are saying just not the part about which page to contact my host about (host is ipage) and ask them about.

Thanks!

barry


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Or you could use a totally different method for the logins. That would require some research as far as how much security matters, what’s in your ability, etc.

I don’t think I ever went to Cow Harbor Day for some reason.

I always thought there should be a Southport somewhere on LI, too (there is one upstate).


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Many hosts allow you to create custom error pages for Apache, often just by making a file called nnn.html and putting it in your site root directory. (The Ns are the error number.) This allows you to have a pretty 404 page, maybe with a site map on it, rather than the ugly blank page with huge Times Roman type saying “File not found”.

They may be set up to let you create many such error pages, in which case you would put your hint there on the error page. It’s not perfect, but as you have seen, iOS doesn’t show the realm name in the authentication request dialog (probably to save space).

You’re not going to find a perfect solution that will treat all devices the same unless you go down the rabbit hole of custom authentication through an HTML form. (This will involve programming, and server-side code, and possibly a database.)

Walter

On Sep 24, 2012, at 9:30 AM, Barry Hoffman wrote:

So Walt, right now your #1 suggestion is to see if the host company has the ability to allow me to edit the ??? (authentication message or 401 error page?)

Got what you are saying just not the part about which page to contact my host about (host is ipage) and ask them about.

Thanks!

barry


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Ok…

Walt… will explore and I also can try to put the hint on my site right before they click the page that gives them the message but then I have to change in 3+ places each time I change message.

interesting. thanks for your ideas.

Barry


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